The Wrong Man

This is the My Hometown Blogathon, the first WSW theme week doubling as a blogathon. The goal is discussing movies set in one's hometown, or at the very least, the general area of one's birth. All this week I'll write about movies set in my home borough of Queens. Check back on July 23 for a list of participating bloggers in this blogathon.

The Wrong Man
seen online via YouTube
7.21.11

I discovered that Alfred Hitchcock had made a film set in Queens while preparing this blogathon and I was pretty excited about it. The Wrong Man wasn't what I expected, however. Perhaps it's because it was based on a true story, but Hitchcock took a different approach with this. It doesn't have the feel of any of his usual suspense thrillers; in fact there's a certain mundane feel to the storytelling. Henry Fonda is a club musician who is mistaken for a robber on the loose. The attempt to clear his name takes a mental toll on his wife. The simple fact that it's Henry Fonda in this situation makes this story compelling to watch, because who could believe that any character played by him would be guilty of robbery? (Yes, I have seen Once Upon a Time in the West; that movie has no bearing here!)


Fonda's character lives in Jackson Heights. I've written plenty about that neighborhood before, though certainly not as it was in the early 1950s. I know Hitchcock used lots of location shots in that area and elsewhere in New York, though the only part I can honestly say I recognized was the 7 train in the background. So other than that, I don't have too much more to say. It's a good movie; a definite change from the usual Hitchcock fare.


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Previously in the My Hometown Blogathon:
The Terminal
Frequency
Coming to America