"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!

Producer: Edward Black. A Gaumont British Production, made at Pinewood Studios, England. Copyright 30 January 1938 by Gaumont British Picture Corp. of America. New York opening at the Criterion: 10 February 1938. U.S. release: 17 February 1938. U.K. release (through General Film Distributors): December 1937. Australian release (through G-B-D): December 1937. Running times: 84 minutes (U.K. and Australia); 70 minutes (USA). U.S. release title: The GIRL WAS YOUNG. COMMENT: A dazzling inventive and seductively entertaining thriller, outstandingly exciting in its direction from the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. Of course it is in the action scenes that Hitch really comes into his own: the nimbly edited escape from the court- house in which de Marney amusingly finds himself a spectator at his own trial; the fight at Tom's Hat and the flight from the old mill; the amazingly effective juxtaposition of real people with skilfully crafted models and miniatures in the escape from the doss-house episode; the hair-raising plunge through the mine shaft; all capped by that enormous crane shot through the Grand Hotel, from the foyer through the crowded ball-room to a shattering close-up of the killer's twitching eyes.Not that Hitchcock is a slacker in the movie's less sensational sequences. There is a delicious sense of irony, both in the writing and the visuals, that runs through the entire movie. A captivating performance from Nova Pilbeam helps enormously too. Naturally she receives deft assistance from a fine roster of character players, led by Edward Rigby's superannuated tramp and J.H. Roberts' engagingly muddle-sighted solicitor.A bouncy music score, fine photography and eye-catching art direction further add to the total enjoyment of a very cleverly scripted, agreeably twisting and turning yarn.MY SECOND VIEWING: The work of no less than six writers has removed this movie a long way from Josephine Tey's "A Shilling for Six Candles". In fact it now hardly resembles the novel at all. Never mind, the result is a wonderfully taut and suspenseful, yet humorous and charmingly romantic thriller in which the hero's efforts to extricate himself from a murder rap get not only progressively more complicated and deeper into dutch, but take in a number of excitingly hairs- breadth escapes as well. True, the hero is perhaps a little wet and not at all your average macho type, but I found this to be a most agreeable novelty. Also out of the rut are some great character cameos including Edward Rigby as an ingratiatingly seedy old china-mender, Torin Thatcher as a brusquely suspicious doss-house keeper, J.H. Roberts as a not-so- soothingly "eagle"-eyed solicitor and of course the guy who plays the real murderer. Heroine Nova Pilbeam figures as a real charmer, although for a while there it looks like she's going to spend most of the action in the one costume. Fortunately she is allowed a couple of changes in the final reels. Hitchcock's mastery of staging suspense is always in evidence, and here he draws upon the expertise of a fine technical crew including art director Alfred Junge (I love his deserted water- mill), lighting cameraman Bernard Knowles (who doesn't put so much as a focus inch wrong in the climactic, justly celebrated crane shot), and film editor Charles Frend (whose scissoring throughout is a model of crispy smooth silkiness). A foot-tapping, jazzy music score too. In all, essential viewing for Hitchcock fans and marvelously enjoyable entertainment for cinema fans in general.

Following the classic Hitchcock themes that he was well known for in "The 39 Steps" and his later works, "Young and Innocent" is a well made movie with strong tension, great characters, exciting premise built up terrifically within the opening minutes and is an exciting adventure of a wrongly accused man attempting to his clear his name from wrongdoings. Nova Pilbeam and Derrick De Marney are absolutely terrific in the lead roles, having great chemistry back and forth, a romance story that is both interesting and necessary and a script that easily allows them to convey their thoughts. It is said that this is indeed Hitchcock's favourite British film and whilst this is a little far stretched, it is to me, one of his most exciting and overlooked films.

Sir Alfred Hitchcock was coming into his own as a film director and genius visionary. Thank God for sound and voices instead of soundtrack. In this film, Nova Pilbeam does a fantastic job as Erica who gets caught up in the murder mystery of actress Christine Clay. The prime suspect suddenly appears to be innocent and wrongly accused of the crime. Erica plays detective despite being young and female. She searches to exonerate the suspected killer. This film may not be one of Hitchcock's classic films but it's fine to watch. I especially enjoyed the scenes with Erica's Aunt (played by the wonderful Mary Clare, a British stage actress). I don't recognize many of the cast members and this film was done in London, England before World War II. This film is fine if you want to view Hitchcock's range of film directing.