Themes: Miscarriage of Justice, Flight of the Innocent
Main Cast: Nova Pilbeam, Derrick de Marney, Percy Marmont, Edward Rigby, Mary Clare
Release Year: 1937
Country: UK
Run Time: 80 minutes
Plot
As early as 1937's Young and Innocent, Alfred Hitchcock was beginning to repeat himself, but audiences didn't mind so long as they were thoroughly entertaining-which they were, without fail. Derrick De Marney finds himself in a 39 Steps situation when he is wrongly accused of murder. While a fugitive from the law, De Marney is helped by heroine Nova Pilbeam, who three years earlier had played the adolescent kidnap victim in Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much. The obligatory "fish out of water" scene, in which the principals are briefly slowed down by a banal everyday event, occurs during a child's birthday party. The actual villain, whose identity is never in doubt (Hitchcock made thrillers, not mysteries) is played by George Curzon, who suffers from a twitching eye. Curzon's revelation during an elaborate nightclub sequence is a Hitchcockian tour de force, the sort of virtuoso sequence taken for granted in these days of flexible cameras and computer enhancement, but which in 1937 took a great deal of time, patience and talent to pull off. Released in the US as The Girl Was Young, Young and Innocent was based on a novel by Josephine Tey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Young and Innocent plays like a warm-up for Hitchcock's later masterpieces. With some echoes of his earlier classic The 39 Steps, it follows the journey of a man wrongly accused of murder on the run with a woman who thinks he is guilty. The themes Hitchcock addresses here would return again and again in his future films, and would often be pulled off with more sophistication and style, but Young and Innocent remains entertaining and thrilling in its own right. Nova Pilbeam and Derrick de Marney lack the charm and chemistry of later Hitchcock stars, but they still give it an enthusiastic effort. Edward Rigby is good as Old Will, a bum who helps the young leads, and Mary Clare and Basil Radford give very different performances from their roles a year later in The Lady Vanishes. There are some truly Hitchcockian moments, such as the entire opening sequence (from the confrontation between a man and a woman to the discovery of her body on the beach), and the birthday party for Erica's niece. Equally impressive is a later scene when Tisdall, Erica, and Old Will flee to an old mine, and their car falls into the collapsing ground. The wrong man on the run was one of Hitchcock's favorite plots, as it allowed him to delve into some of his familiar themes; Young and Innocent falls short of the complexity of those later films, but is still a strong effort. ~ Bob Mastrangelo, All Movie Guide
Christine Clay (Pamela Carme), an actress who owes her career to her husband, is severely criticized by him for playing around with other men. He makes particular reference to Robert Tisdall, a young man staying with (or at least near) them at their country retreat somewhere on the English coast. One night, Christine smacks her husband in the face. He keeps calm except for his eyes, which twitch uncontrollably, then proceeds to strangle her with the belt from a trenchcoat he has stolen. For some reason, he is not suspected by the police.
Robert Tisdall (Derrick De Marney) happens to be walking along the seaside cliffs when Christine's body washes ashore. A belt is found next to the body. He runs to get help or call the police and is seen doing so by two young female swimmers. He is arrested and becomes the main suspect. His motive seems to be a large sum left to him in her will. Saddled with a hopelessly inadequate barrister, Tisdall doubts if his innocence will ever be established. He makes his escape in the crowded courthouse corridor.
Tisdall gets a lift from Erica Burgoyne (Nova Pilbeam), daughter of the local police Chief Constable, in her dilapidated Morris car. They are spotted together, so the police suspect she is his accomplice. Tisdall tries to prove his innocence by tracking down the stolen coat.
During their flight, they briefly stop at the home of Erica's aunt, where her seven year old daughter Felicity is having a birthday party (playing, among other games, Blind Man's Buff). Finally, in a lodging house frequented by tramps, Tisdall finds the man he has been searching for: Old Will (Edward Rigby), a sociable china-mender who is wearing Tisdall's coat. He agrees to help them find the man who gave him the coat, and thus clear Tisdall. Unfortunately, the twitching eyes are all that Old Will can remember about the man.
In a pocket of the coat, they find a box of matches from the Grand Hotel, a place Tisdall has never been to. They go there in hopes of finding the murderer. In a memorably long, continuous sequence, the camera moves forward through the hotel ballroom to finally focus on the drummer in a dance band performing in blackface. Recognizing Old Will in the audience, and seeing policemen nearby (unaware that they are there to arrest Tisdall), the man performs poorly due to fear and is berated by the musical conductor. Then he has a nervous breakdown, exacerbated by a drug he has been taking to try to control the twitching, and passes out. Immediately after being revived, he confesses his crime and laughs. In the end, Robert Tisdall and Erica Burgoyne are united, with Erica's father smiling benevolently.
Changes from the novel
There were significant changes made in adapting the book for the film. The team of screenwriters took the main suspect of the novel, Robert Tisdall, and his unexpected, initially reluctant supporter, Erica Burgoyne, and left out all the other characters, including Tey's Inspector Alan Grant and even the original murderer (who is not the same character as in the film). In other words, the episode focusing on Tisdall as a fugitive from justice was elaborated and blown up into a full-length film, whereas the subplots and distractions of Tey's novel—which make it a whodunit—were omitted.
Hitchcock's cameo
Alfred Hitchcock cameo is a signature occurrence in most of Hitchcock's films. He can be seen outside the courthouse, holding a camera, at about 15 minutes into the film.
