IN 1956, THE WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS DIRECTOR FOCUSED HIS LENS ON AN ISSUE THAT CUTS TO THE HEART OF OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM: THE RISK OF WRONGFUL CONVICTION.
“VERDICT: Come for the Hitchcock, stay for the history. Fascinating.”
— Library Journal
“This well-researched and well-crafted book … tells the story of Manny Balestrero, a Jackson Heights musician who was wrongly arrested for robberies in 1953, and the making of The Wrong Man, Hitchcock’s 1956 gripping retelling of Balestrero’s ordeal.”
—Daniel Bubbeo, LI Arts, Theater and Books Editor, Newsday
“The Wrong Man is a profoundly important film, and Nothing to Fear is a profoundly vital text.”
— Christopher Schobert, The Film Stage
"Arresting and important… Lawyer Jason Isralowitz debuts with a painstaking account of the Balestrero case and the Hitchcock movie based on it, set within the revealing context of New York’s history of wrongful convictions.”
— New York Journal of Books
“Revealing and insightful . . . finds nifty details about the making of the movie.”
— Randy Dotinga, Noir City magazine
“A fascinating history, not only for fans of Hitchcock but for anyone interested in how our justice system works (and sometimes doesn't).”
— Dawn Raffel, author of The Strange Case of Dr. Couney, named by NPR as one of 2018’s Great Reads and winner of a 2019 Christopher Award
“Jason Isralowitz combines true crime, legal history, and film — three topics I find endlessly interesting — and he is the right person for the job .”
— Scott Adlerberg, author of five novels and host of the annual “Reel Talks” film commentary series in Bryant Park in Manhattan
“Alfred Hitchcock books are a genre unto themselves. This one takes a refreshing new slant by using the legendary filmmaker’s harrowing 1956 drama The Wrong Man to look at the broader context of historical social justice movements around wrongful prosecution.”
— Culture and Film Critic Nathalie Atkinson, Zoomer Magazine
“Thanks to Jason Isralowitz for finally writing a book about Hitchcock’s most under-appreciated movie. Isralowitz brilliantly contextualizes the movie and the true-life story of Manny Balestrero, preceded by an eye-opening prologue detailing the justice system’s long history of indicting ‘the wrong man’ (and, in a few cases, ‘the wrong woman’). A must for both cinephiles and true crime buffs.”
— Bruce Goldstein, Repertory Artistic Director, Film Forum, New York
“Perfectly blends the making of the classic Alfred Hitchcock movie and the real life story upon which it is based. A terrific read.”
— Jason D. Antos, Executive Director of the Queens Historical Society and Queens historian
Alfred Hitchcock is not often associated with a social justice movement. But in 1956, the world’s most famous director 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. 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.” Given the hundreds of exonerations of the wrongfully convicted in recent years, The Wrong Man remains as timely as ever.
A genre-busting 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 causes of wrongful convictions.
COMING IN JANUARY 2023, ON THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FALSE ARREST THAT INSPIRED ONE OF HITCHCOCK’S MOST HAUNTING FILMS.