Synopsis
"VERDICT: Come for the Hitchcock, stay for the history. Fascinating." Library Journal.
In 1956, Alfred Hitchcock focused his lens on an issue that cuts to the heart of our criminal justice system: the risk of wrongful conviction. The result was The Wrong Man, a wrenching and largely overlooked drama based on the real-life arrest of Queens musician Christopher "Manny" Balestrero for two robberies he did not commit.
With documentary-like authenticity, Hitchcock and his team meticulously re-created Manny's journey through the corridors of justice and the devastating effect of the arrest on his wife, Rose. In so doing, the director cast a damning light on New York's history of mistaken identity cases. The Balestreros fell victim to the same rush to judgment and suggestive eyewitness identification procedures that had doomed innocent defendants in earlier cases. Their ordeal is part of a larger story of the state's failure to reckon with its role in other wrongful prosecutions in the first half of the twentieth century.
Attorney Jason Isralowitz tells this story in a revelatory book that situates both the Balestrero case and its cinematic counterpart in their historical context. Drawing from archival records, Isralowitz delivers a gripping account of Manny's trial and new insights into an errant prosecution. He then examines how Hitchcock fused striking visual motifs with social realism to create a timeless work of art, with memorable performances by Henry Fonda and Vera Miles. The film bears witness to issues that animate the contemporary innocence movement, including the unreliability of eyewitness testimony, the need for police lineup reforms, and the dangers of investigative "tunnel vision."
A genre-bending work of true crime and film history, Nothing to Fear: Alfred Hitchcock and the Wrong Men is a must-read not only for fans of Hitchcock, but also for anyone interested in the history and causes of wrongful convictions.
About the Author
Attorney Jason Isralowitz was born in Booth Memorial Hospital in Queens, not far from the former home of Manny Balestrero and the streets where Alfred Hitchcock filmed parts of The Wrong Man. He has loved movies ever since seeing Jaws and The Omen on the big screen at the impressionable age of seven. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in journalism from Boston University in 1990, Isralowitz attended University of Pennsylvania Law School. He has practiced law in Manhattan for 30 years and is currently a partner at one of the nation’s premier firms. Jason is the author of “Lonely Hearts and Murderers: The Fourth Amendment Through Hitchcock’s Lens,” an article on Rear Window published in the Legal Studies Forum in 2000. Jason and his wife, Jennifer, reside in Summit, New Jersey, and have two children, Rachel and Danny.
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