ElMaruecan82 "Young and Innocent" is a fine departure taken by Alfred Hitchcock after a streak of four movies centering on espionage. I must say I had my share of moles, unnamed hostile countries, Scotland Yard investigation, secret agents and all that's about killing, kidnapping and sabotage... and I was glad to watch a Hitchcock film that for once would deal with ordinary people... caught in 'extraordinary' situations. Of course with Hitchcock, watching a film is one thing, but it takes a second viewing to fully appreciate what's there to be appreciated.The film starts with a marital argument, actually a post-divorce one, the husband (George Curzon) is devoured by anger and jealousy and accuses her wife, a well-known actress, of flirting and cheating ever since she became a star, neglecting the man who gave her a leg up. Once again, the camerawork indicates that we're dealing with a master: at the first viewing, I was only listening to the dialogue and boy, I could tell the two were angry, those slaps the husband (sorry, ex-husband) got at the end looked like she meant business. But I was so busy listening that I didn't pay attention to his getting close to the camera just so we could see him nervously twitching his eyes. Later, when he gets outside in the terrace, you see him twitching his eye again, I didn't catch it either. This detail doesn't change much of the experience. When the corpse of the actress is found ashore by Robert (Derrick De Marney), we know, since this is a Hitchcock film, that he's going to take the blame instead of the ex-husband. But it's only when the nervous tic is mentioned that we realize we were dealing with the typical villain with a strong handicap, we also had to see him as a nervous chain-smoker, otherwise, the hint about his behavior would have been too contrived and the clue that lead to him (the matchbox in the pocket) too improbable. Basically, in one opening scene, Hitchcock reveals all we've got to know about the villain, but we see him so early that we're likely to forget about his face, and even that detail does pay off at the end.What we don't forget about him though is that unlike the title "Young and Innocent", he's clearly old and guilty. So when the ill-fated young man runs to bring help, he's spotted by two girls who discover the corpse and scream of terror (love how their scream is 'covered' by the seagulls), we realize that Hitchcock hadn't abandoned all his darlings. His last films featured bad men mistaken for good persons, here we have a honest boy everything accuses, the cause of death is revealed to be strangulation with a trench coat's belt, Robert remembers having his stolen many days ago. A simple belt becomes an accusing piece of evidence just like the brooch in "Frenzy", actually, there's something delightful in Hitchcock's fetishism with small objects of items of clothing that can become dangerous weapons, stockings, rope, ties and belts. The talent of Hitchcock consists of materializing 'screenplay devices' so that viewers can better focus on them, the innocence depends on a belt, the identification of the villain on twitches or a matchbox. There's always a small object or a detail that drives the story. Many examples in this film, after being grilled by the police, Robert faints and then the daughter of the Police Commissioner Erica (Nova Pilbeam) applies her rescuing talents. This is less for the sake of a love at first sight, later the same helping instinct that will make her find to the villain. An incompetent lawyer won't be of any help but not if the hero can take his glasses and slip through the net. Money is important too, in a trivial dinner with her brothers, the geeky one mentions that without money, the fugitive won't go far because of hunger, it's simple but true. At that moment, we recall that he gave all he got to his lawyer and to a pumping attendant, lawyer and we can basically read the same thinking process in Erica's eyes.There's an economy of details but never ineffective because Hitchcock manages to wrap everything and tell a solid story in eighty minutes. The quest to the trench coat has stops by a birthday party where all the nervous excitement depends on their attempts to avoid the treacherous questions of a nosy aunt (Mary Clare) and yet she'll get suspicious enough to get Erica's father (played by sympathetic actor Percy Marmont) on their trail. The second step is the finding of Old Will, a gentle hobo (Edward Rigbu) who's got the trench coat without the belt, all he's got is two clues about the bad guy. Which all leads to an unforgettable climax where the hero is surprisingly absent but that's typical Hitchcock, the plot matters more than the protagonists, especially when the antagonists are more interesting.The film is known for its long crane shot where the camera pans progressively through a hotel ballroom to focus on a drummer. We don't recognize him immediately but we see his twitches. At that point, there's something delightfully thrilling in the way the situation seems hopeless, the Police came to arrest Erica and there's no way Old Will can recognize the man, he's too far away and he's in blackface. But once again, with no words, Hitchcock proves that he can transcend the material of a poor story and puts is in the villain's perspective, someone who committed murder and sees cops coming and circling the place can't feel at ease, no contrivance right here, it makes sense.So many screenwriters are struggling to find the most plausible way to make the big reveal, Hitchcock is just trusting his directing and storytelling methods, it's precisely because the beginning says everything that the ending wraps up the film perfectly. It's not Hitchcock's most known work but it does work!

zkonedog After recently watching such classic Hitchcock films as "The 39 Steps" and "The Lady Vanishes", I had high hopes for this effort as well. Unfortunately, the end product (while nicely polished) lack one key ingredient that would have automatically ratcheted it up a notch: tension.For a basic plot summary, "Young and Innocent" sees a young man named Robert Tisdall (Derrick De Marney) wrongfully accused for the murder of a woman found on a beach. While eluding the police through the England countryside on a mission to exonerate himself, Robert enlists the help of a young woman (Erica Burgoyne) who also believes in his cause.From a cinematic point of view, this 1937 effort is very polished and slick. If you were sitting in a theater at that time watching this movie unfold, you would more than likely have been entertained. However, its key fault is that it lacks any sort of dramatic tension whatsoever.For starters, there is never any doubt about Robert's innocence. Just adding some ambiguity to his character would have added a lot to the overall plot line. Plus, it doesn't help that the "chase" for Robert portrays the typically farcical cop who can't do anything right. Never for a second do you believe that he will be caught.Thus, while "Young and Innocent" isn't outrightly terrible, it is not one of Hitch's better endeavors. Only in the final climactic scene do we get a glimpse of the master director at work. Other than that, boredom seeps in through the cracks.

BA_Harrison Nova Pilbeam plays plucky chief constable's daughter Erica Burgoyne, who becomes involved in a murder case when she helps prime suspect Robert Tisdall (Derrick De Marney) to prove his innocence. In the search for Tisdall's missing raincoat, a piece of evidence that might clear his name and point the finger of blame at the real killer, the pair risk life and limb while narrowly avoiding the law.Chock full of terribly, terribly plummy British actors, loaded with terribly, terribly overwrought melodrama, and with just a little evidence of the terribly, terribly stylish direction Hitch would become known for, Young and Innocent is a quaint little mystery from a much simpler time. As such, some of Hitch's film-making techniques are a little crude compared with his later movies, and the story creaks at times (a children's party scene is interminably dull), but for fans of the master of suspense, the film provides enough fun and intrigue to make it worth a watch.Especially enjoyable moments include a terribly, terribly exciting scene in which Erica almost comes a cropper in an old mine, and a well executed finale in which the beastly killer is identified, Hitch using a particularly impressive crane shot to close in on his face (which, incidentally, is blacked up as part of a minstrel show. How times have changed!).

jc-osms This early Hitchcock feature resembles his earlier hit "The 39 Steps" it could have been called "The 40 Steps". Again we have an innocent young man charged with murder who goes on the run in tow with a pretty young female who at first dislikes and disbelieves him but who before too long has fallen for him and helped clear his name.The best thing in front of the camera is the 18 year old, strikingly named Nova Pilbeam, (wonderful name for a debutante!) who is pretty, sunny and charming in equal measure. The equally wonderfully named Derrick De Marney, who plays the man on the run, Robert Tusdall, on the other hand, I found to be a bit more gormless with an odd smirk on his face which never quite goes away. Together they mesh reasonably well if you can excuse their frightfully posh clipped English accents of the time. There are some nice Hitchcockian touches that as a fan I enjoyed, like the way he starts the film right in the middle of a bitter argument between the soon-to-be-murdered film actress and her jealous, twitchy, in more ways than one, husband, the way Tisdall distracts the courtroom staff to make his escape, a ruse similarly played out in more than one subsequent Hitch feature, most notably "North By Northwest's" auction scene, the saved-by-her-fingertips rescue of Pilbeam after the car crashes down an old mine shaft, featuring a subjective face-shot we'd see again in "Saboteur" and of course "North By North-west" plus most famously the great tracking shot near the end which literally eyeballs the guilty man.Lots of the rest of it, to be honest is a little stiff and creaky, like the scenes with Pilbeam and her family round the breakfast table and of dull, plodding policemen on their tails. There are some awful model shots too, one in particular of Tisdall running away from the camera had me giggling out loud and the fact that the show-band is playing in black-face certainly jars with modern sensibilities.But otherwise, you can see Hitchcock forming his style here, although it would take an Atlantic crossing a few years later for the Master to deliver a mostly superb run of films throughout the 40's and 50's on which his reputation largely rests.