Prime Suspect

A small girl is missing, and an honest working man had bought a box of candy from her before she vanished. Someone had seen him with her, and from her description a phantom picture is made up and spread, and he is recognised as the man who was last seen with the girl. So he becomes the prime suspect. The interesting thing is how all the vultures of the news game immediately get their claws into him, which results in a public execution of him on television. It does not matter that he is later found innocent, as the body of the lost girl was found 90 miles away from where he was at the time, he is still branded and everyone disdains him and avoids him, especially his neighbours, a damage like this takes time to repair, if it can be repaired ever. Mike Farrell as the wrong man makes a great performance, he fights back, and he has his wife by his side, unlike Hitchcock's "Wrong Man" 1956, who lost his wife in the ordeal. It's an important and well made film, stressing its documentary value and character, because this could happen to anyone. Above all, it directs attention to the ruthlessness of the press.