Movies

A case of mistaken identity ruined this man’s life — and inspired Hitchcock

There was a bittersweet Hollywood ending for the family of Manny Balestrero, a Jackson Heights, Queens, man whose wrongful arrest for robbery is harrowingly recounted in Alfred Hitchcock’s only fact-based film.

Henry Fonda plays Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero, a double-bass player at the Stork Club, in “The Wrong Man’’ (1956), which has just been released on Blu-ray by Warner Archive.

In January 1953, Balestrero went to borrow money from his wife’s life insurance plan. He was taken into custody after two employees at the insurance office identified him as the man who robbed the office of a total of $271 during two robberies the previous year.

As painstakingly recounted in the film — shot on many actual locations — Balestrero was awaiting his second trial (the first had ended abruptly after a juror made a remark presuming his guilt in open court) when the actual culprit was apprehended during an attempted deli robbery.

Balestrero was wrongly accused of crimes committed by lookalike Charles James Daniell (pictured).

Cops noticed that suspect Charles James Daniell, an unemployed plastics worker, bore an uncanny resemblance to Balestrero. Under questioning, Daniell admitted committing more than 40 robberies, and claimed he planned to come forward if Balestrero were convicted at his second trial.

What made the case especially poignant — and attracted national attention — is what happened to Balestrero’s wife, Rose (played in “The Wrong Man” by Vera Miles).

Blaming herself for Manny’s arrest — the money he was trying to borrow was for dental work she needed — she suffered a nervous breakdown. The mother of two young sons, she remained institutionalized until September 1955, Balestrero told The Post in an interview while “The Wrong Man” was in production.

“My life did not start over again when I was cleared,” said Balestrero, who moved his family to Florida after his wife’s release. “I figured if we’re going to really get a fresh start, everything’s got to be different. We left our friends, our relatives, our home, our furniture — everything.”

Manny Balestrero playing at the Stork Club.Getty Images

Balestrero sued the city and insurance company for $500,000 for false arrest and settled out of court for $7,000. He sold the film rights to his story for $22,000 but told The Post that not much was left after repaying loans for the cost of Rose’s institutionalization. Manny, who went back to work as a musician and loved the Hitchcock movie, died in a nursing home in 1998. But Rose, who died 14 years earlier, never fully recovered (contrary to a written coda at the end of “The Wrong Man”).

“She suffered a great bit,’’ their son Gregory, a retired industrial engineer and author, said in 2014 when the intersection of 73rd Street and 41st Avenue — near the old family home in Jackson Heights — was renamed “Manny ‘The Wrong Man’ Balestrero Way.’’

“It’s kind of a way to make up for the pain and suffering they went through,’’ said Gregory, who was 5 at the time of his father’s arrest and attended the street-naming ceremony with his brother, Robert, who had been 12 and teased by his classmates at school.

Manny Balestrero discussed the devastating impact of his wrongful arrest in a 1953 Life magazine article. “Be careful of accusing anyone,’’ he said. “Before you accuse anyone, you should think, because you can destroy a family, physically and mentally, like mine could have been destroyed.’’