Young And Innocent [1938]

Amazon.co.uk Review

Among Alfred Hitchcock's pre-Hollywood movies, 1938's Young and Innocent is a most unfairly overlooked classic. It's full of themes and stylistic touches that became permanent fixtures in his career. Based on Josephine Tey's novel A Shilling for Candles, the film title refers to the characters' outlook. However Hitchcock characteristically chips away at that innocence with flourishes of macabre humour, such as scenes of a dead rat at the lunch table and a hopeless conference with a defence lawyer, while suspense is heightened in a game of blindman's buff at a children 's party. The story concerns a typically Hitchcockian innocent man (Derrick de Marney) on the run, with a trivial object to find (a raincoat) that will prove his innocence. He's helped by a fiery young girl (Nova Pilbeam) who's unfortunately the daughter of the chief constable, but has some handy first aid skills. There's also an oppressive mother figure in the shape of an overbearing aunt (Mary Clare). Aside from these thematic traits, what remains impressive for viewers new or old is Hitchcock's technical set-pieces: a car sinks into a mineshaft, a railway station is recreated in miniature, and the twitchy-eyed murderer is finally located via an extended aerial tracking shot across a ballroom (pre-empting many similar shots, eg: Notorious). This sequence took two days to accomplish, and demonstrates the director was more than ready to move to the older and less innocent American industry . --Paul Tonks

Customer Reviews:

The Wrong Man (again) ..........2006-07-06

"Young and Innocent" is fairly typical Hitchcock fayre; a man is wrongly accused of murder and as he flees from the law ,he befriends an attractive blonde who joins in his quest to clear his name. Sound familiar ? Yes, there are many Hitchcock films with a similar plot. However "Young and Innocent" has some unique set pieces to it's credit ; the child's birthday party, the hayloft scene and the excellent finale in the hotel ballroom to name a few . These help to elevate this enjoyable black and white (minstrel) film above the mundane.

Great film shame about the print.......2004-05-11

Young and Innocent is one of Alfred Hitchcock's less well known 30's films but is richly enjoyable and contains some very intresting period details. Although the plot is fairly standard Hitch - innocent man on the run is helped by beautiful girl who initialy suspects he did it but then begins to fall for him - the English location shooting, the classy, witty performances and a scene stealing dog all add to the immense charm of this film. The only problem is this video copy which seems to have been transfered through a London smog. The print avaliable on the US all regions Laserlight DVD is much sharper though the image seems to have been cropped somewhat, however it is superior to this video and worth getting if you have a DVD player. Even with the lack of a truly satisfactory print this film is well worth seeing and is almost, though not quite, as good as his other 30's classics 'The 39 Steps' and 'The Lady Vanishes'.

A Charming Thriller.......2003-11-12

This is one of the lesser known delights of the Hitchcock canon. The film is a light concoction containing some deft Hitchcock touches. It revisits the theme of 'The 39 Steps', though less suspenseful and not so sexy and without,of course, the great Robert Donat. A woman's body is washed onto a beach along with the weapon used to strangle her - a raincoat belt (30 years later a similar body, this time naked, would be found in the Thames strangled with a necktie; Hitchcock surely recalling this film when he made 'Frenzy'). Our hero is accused and spends the rest of the film on the run and searching for the missing raincoat. The famous long shot slowly closing in on the villains eyes is still astonishing, but there is much more in this film. The screams of the women who discover the body are unheard, transformed into the screeches of seagulls for example ( a trick used in 'The 39 Steps' with a train instead of the gulls) in this and in many other small examples we see Hitchcock's imaginative storytelling.
Between the brilliant '39 Steps' and the light masterpiece 'The Lady Vanishes' it is easy to see how this film might be passed over. But that would be a mistake - this is a film any Hitchcock admirer can enjoy.

Usual theme of innocent man chased by police.......2001-02-27

The theme of the innocent good guy chased for a murder he hasn't committed is a typical Hitchcock situation ("The 39 steps", "North by northwest", just to mention a couple). This movie handles it with skill and a certain lightweight tone which isn't despisable: ok, maybe modern viewers may find it dated, but it's still an entertaining product. One of the final sequences is awesome even today: an incredible shot which slowly zooms in from a view of a ballroom to a close-up detail of the eyes of a drummer. A technically skilled and impressive shot!!!!!! Hitch rules!

A Hitchcock with a gentle difference........2000-11-22

In the middle of all his thrillers, Hitchcock produced "Young & Innocent", which by comparison looks like a pastoral.

In a career which slowly and inevitably focused in on a particular style, this film shows another side of Hitchcock, a side previously seen in silents "The Farmer's Wife" and "The Manxman". These films are like little backwaters and reveal what Hitchcock had up his sleeve beside the thrills and spills.

De Marney discovers the body of a woman on a beach, and is spotted running away from the scene. It is assumed he did the killing, although he is innocent. Police chief's daughter Nova Pilbeam helps him in his fugitive life, and a now-familiar Hitchcock pattern emerges: the innocent man on the run. This plot pattern was used earlier in the 39 Steps and is used once again in Saboteur and, definitively, in North by Northwest.

A nice film, not as urgent as the thrillers around it, which may account for its low profile in the Hitchcock cannon. Look out for the famous dolly across the dancefloor to reveal the position of the real killer -- it sends shivers down the spine every time.

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