The Wrong man is a movie that, even if it’s not one of his best, is really interesting in Hitchcock massive filmography for a few reason.

First and foremost, for the first time in like 35 Hitchcock pictures, I see a director who seems to really care about his caracter. He is directly involve into the story, and not totally cold and detach. It probably have something to do with the fact that it is inspire by a true story and we can surely imagine that this story touched him very much.

There is also another interesting point it’s that, for one of the first time, the main caracter is not the typical weel-being man, with money, class and everything, but he’s just a musician, with not too much money, who’s trying to live his life the best he can but is playing music in a club that otherwise, he would never have been permitted to enter. This is pretty well different from the typical, say, doctor, of the Hitchcock movies like The Man Who knew too much. The Henry Fonda caracter is also a typical man, insecure, and always worried about what’s happening to him, instead of always seeming in control of the situation

FInally, this is probably the lest misogynist of his movies. The female caracter his a caracter entirely and not only depending upon her husband. The woman all have great and various personality, and are not the usual hitchcokian over-emotionnal. This is combined to the fact that the caracter played by Henry Fonda is a real family man, caring about his kid, washing the dishes with his wife, and his trying from the beginning to the end to assure her happiness.

All this always return to the great directing by Hitchcock, who manage to show us that his intentions were clear about his caracters and his story. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that it is a true story and if so, Hitchcock should have made a couple more.