Matinee: The Wrong Man (35mm)

(Alfred Hitchcock, US 1956, 105 min., 35mm)

Hitchcock based this gripping, often overlooked thriller on the true story of an unassuming bass player (played by a remarkably austere Henry Fonda) whose life becomes a nightmare after he’s misidentified as a hold-up man. As the evidence against him mounts, his world begins to crumble — as does the sanity of his wife (a stunning Vera Miles). Shot largely on location where many of the real-life events unfolded, this taut, unsentimental film noir forgoes many of the flourishes one expects from ’50s Hitch, but it’s not without moments of brilliant pacing and nearly unbearable suspense.