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Nothing to Fear
Alfred Hitchcock And The Wrong Men
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Book Presentation:
"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.
Press Reviews:
"VERDICT: Come for the Hitchcock, stay for the history. Fascinating."—Library Journal.
"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.
"The Wrong Man is a profoundly important film, and Nothing to Fear is a profoundly vital text."—Christopher Schobert, The Film Stage.
"This well-researched and well-crafted book . . . tells the story of Manny Balestrero, a Jackson Heights musician who was wrongly arrested for two robberies in 1953, and the making of The Wrong Man, Hitchcock's gripping retelling of Balestrero's ordeal."—Daniel Bubbeo, LI Arts, Theater and Books Editor, Newsday.
"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.
"Revealing and insightful . . . Isralowitz finds nifty details about the making of the movie."—Randy Dotinga, Noir City, the magazine of the Film Noir Foundation
"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."—Nathalie Atkinson, culture and film critic, Zoomer magazine.
"A fascinating history, not only for fans of Hitchcock but for anyone interested in how our justice system works (and sometimes doesn't). The story of 'the wrong man' continues to resonate well into the twenty-first century, and will make you question your assumptions about innocence and guilt."—Dawn Raffel, author of The Strange Case of Dr. Couney, named by NPR as a 2018 Great Read 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. . . He appreciates film grammar and how Hitchcock, as visual a filmmaker who ever lived, uses the camera and shot selection and editing and his compositions within the frame, and everything else within his non-verbal arsenal, to convey meaning and emotion. He also happens to write well, with a straightforward and concise style."—Scott Adlerberg, author of five novels and host of the annual "Reel Talks" film commentary series in Bryant Park in Manhattan.
"A full account of the Manny Balestrero story and the making of the film. Well written and researched, the book is a welcome addition to the growing Hitchcock library."—Dan Auiler, author of Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic.
"Perfectly blends the making of the classic Alfred Hitchcock movie and the real life story upon which it is based. A terrific read for all those interested in the history of motion pictures and the history of Queens, NY, the home location of The Wrong Man."—Jason D. Antos, Executive Director of the Queens Historical Society and Queens historian.
See the publisher website: Fayetteville Mafia Press
See The Wrong Man (1956) on IMDB ...
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