In almost an eerie coincidence I have been through exactly what this man (Fonda) went through. In my case I happened to get onto a railway carriage and sit opposite the victim of a crime a few weeks earlier.

For over a year, I like Fonda, watched with no control as people questioned, was it me? For me it was like watching a story of my own experience, the line ups, the very polite police, which they were, Hitchcock got that right, he did not try to make them monsters like many other directors would. The scared victims I saw at the line up. Going to court, the friendly lawyer, who at the same time made me feel I was doing all the legwork. I would also tell him things I felt important which he would brush off, similar to how Fonda was treated.

I am sure others who have had this happen to them will understand how scared you feel and as an honest person, I never have fully recovered from my experience.

Hats off to Hitch, he really did his homework on this one, nothing was out of place, all this really does happen and still happens, just because one person mistakes your face for a criminal's.

Henry Fonda (Manny Balestrero), Vera Miles (Rose), Anthony Quayle (Frank O'Connor), Harold J. Stone (Lt Bowers), Esther Minciotti (Manny's mother), Charles Cooper (Matthews), Nehemiah Persoff (Conforti), Laurinda Barrett, Norma Connolly, Doreen Lang.

Director/producer: ALFRED HITCHCOCK. Photography: Robert Burks. Screenplay: Maxwell Anderson, Angus MacPhail. Film editor: George Tomasini. Art directors: Paul Sylbert, William L. Kuehl. Music: Bernard Herrmann. Associate producer: Herbert Coleman.

Copyright 1956. Released: 22 December 1956 (New York, Paramount); 26 January 1957 (USA); 10 March (U.K.); 20 June (Aust.). The full 108- minute film (including Hitch's cameo as a Stork Club patron) was shown only in Australia. Warner's DVD contains only the 105-minute version.

COMMENT: Despite the negative views of contemporary critics, there's nothing wrong with this Wrong Man. True, it's not typical Hitchcock. As he himself explains right at the beginning, every word is factual, but other-wise it carries just as much suspense, just as many surprising twists and turns as any fabricated thriller. Fonda is ideally cast. It could be argued that the other players act in his shadow, but that's the way it is. True, Anthony Quayle, Harold J. Stone and Vera Miles give strong portrayals. And technically, the movie is fascinatingly accomplished.

As the detectives tell wrongly accused bass player Manny Balestero (Henry Fonda) (picked up for holding up an insurance office at gunpoint) that if he's innocent he has nothing to fear, you realize that once placed in the criminal justice system, he has everything to fear, especially the prospect of losing his wife and family who adore him. Unlike Marnie (Tippie Hedrin) or Marian Crane (Janet Leigh's part in Psycho), who actually did take the money, Fonda is so completely innocent that that aspect is what provides this film with its most compelling force. How could such a decent guy be thrown into such an impersonal and seemingly coldhearted system, as he's arrested, fingerprinted, jailed, transported in a paddy wagon with other felons to his arraignment, and a lot more, all done during a bleak looking New York winter in vintage 1950s black and white, set to a Bernard Hermann score that fits perfectly the mood. Not your typical Hitchcock film, but an excellent role for Henry Fonda.