Young and Innocent (1938)

not as good as all the hype

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Actress Christine Clay and her husband are arguing in their cliff top house. The next morning, her friend Robert Tisdall finds her dead body on the beach and runs off to get help. Two girls see him running and accuse him of being the murderer. He faints during police interrogation and the chief constable's daughter Erica Burgoyne helps revive him. His lawyer is incompetent and he escapes from court. As the police go on a manhunt, he finds Erica with her broken down car.Derrick De Marney does a puppy dog face while Nova Pilbeam does a spunky young woman. There isn't any actual mystery since it starts with the suspect husband. It's questionable why she would not turn him in right away even if she believes his innocence. It depends too much on the love at first sight idea. It's too quick. It would be better if there is more to her reasoning. The couple has a little bit of fun chemistry. It works as an early rom-com action thriller. The miniatures look like children's toys and the black-face is awkward for modern audiences. This may not be a classic but is a useful watch for Hitchcock fans. It is well-made for the most part with his brand of sly humor.

Maybe not with the same quota of laughs as The Lady Vanishes or the same level of daring-do as 39 Steps, Young and Innocent (called The Girl Was Young somewhere, I guess) was another of Alfred Hitchcock's films about a murder, a chase, and plenty of intrigue and double crossings and such. It's also hard to find a good print, unfortunately, as it's fallen into the public domain and has yet to get the Criterion treatment. Luckily this story of a policeman's wife and a writer on the run - the latter is accused of committing the crime of a murder (a woman who is found on a beach right near the waves, an evocative image as any).Two things really stand out here, years after seeing the film: first are the performances from Nova Pilbeam and Derek DeMarney. They're not any kind of marquee names from the period like Robert Donat or Vivien Leigh, but they get into these characters the best they can and make themselves a charismatic couple with chemistry and good timing. The other thing is a particular reveal during a ballroom dance sequence. It's sometimes very hard to ever get particular shots that Hitchcock pulls off out of your mind, and there's one in this film for sure: as people dance and the band plays on, Hitch and his DP fly over the audience - not so high ala the shot in The Birds or something, but high enough that we can view over the people dancing - and we suddenly see that there is a character in the line of sight: a band member (the drummer, I believe) who is the actual culprit! If one wasn't sure who it exactly was at this place, the clues being what they are, now we know.How Hitchcock uses his camera to create a visual grammar for that moment - in words for the audience to really go "Oh!" in a moment - is a testament to his cunning and clever abilities as a storyteller. That's a moment of pure cinema that stands out in this very good (if not totally great) effort.

Apart from being a decent crime thriller, "Young and innocent" functions as a character study of its protagonists as Hitchcock shows viewers their presence of mind and ability to understand each other's sentiments. They are perfectly aware of risks they are taking as they are running from police. It is the risk which brings them closer to each other. Their innocence also speaks a lot about their backgrounds as the girl puts her father's reputation in danger as she decides to help a man who has been unjustly accused of killing a famous actress. Mystery and suspense become a key component of this film's scenario as viewers are immediately led to witness what happens after a crime has been committed. This film has been listed under great director Alfred Hitchcock's filmography as "The girl was young" but it is better known to some of his inveterate fans as "Young and innocent". This title makes perfect sense as a guilty person is punished only once for evil deeds. This is not the same in the case of an innocent person who is punished more than once as the threat of having been framed unjustly looms large over his/her head.

Sandwiched between "The 39 Steps" and "The Lady Vanishes", "Young and Innocent" is an oft neglected thriller by Alfred Hitchcock. Released in 1937, the film stars Derrick De Marney as Robert Tisdall, a struggling screenwriter who is wrongly accused of a crime. On the run from the police, Tisdall sets off to both prove his innocence and locate the film's true culprit.It's a familiar Hitchcockian plot, but "Young and Innocent" nevertheless contains a number of excellent moments. These include an elaborate, now famous crane shot, and an audacious cutaway to a flock of birds, angrily screaming as a corpse tumbles into view.Bizarrely, Hitchcock paints Tisdall as a man who, though innocent of murder, nevertheless feigns innocence in order to win the heart of a naive teenager (directors Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol would flat-out label Tisdall a "weasel" and "male gigolo"!). In this way the film's title has a double meaning: Tisdall, innocent of crime, but unscrupulous enough to prey upon the genuinely young and innocent. 7.5/10 – Worth one viewing.