1937 Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Robert Tisdall finds on the beach the corpse of a woman he knew. Others wrongly conclude that he is the murderer. Fleeing, he desperately attempts to prove that he is not the killer. A young woman becomes embroiled in the effort.
The Girl Was Young, Innocència i joventut
“The Young and the Innocent” riffs on Alfred Hitchcock’s theme of mistaken identity by being a mistake to ever have been made.
The movie starts with the murder of an actress, with the man who discovered her body implicated as the perpetrator, when - to his shock - he is found named as a benefactor in her will.
The setup for the script seems like it should play neatly into the director’s stylistic wheelhouse. Indeed it does, but perhaps too well. The picture is mediocre; with better versions on the same theme elsewhere in Hitchcock’s oeuvre. Perhaps the movie is best remembered for its ambition to depict young lovers on the run, a sort of romantic ideal that preceded a…
Early Hitchcock thriller focusing on the "wrong man" trope that would of course go on to make up the backbone of much of the director's filmography going forward. The film begins with the murder of an actress. Her corpse is found by a young man, and the police wrongly conclude that he commited the murder - leading to a chase through the British countryside as he seeks to prove his innocence. He is both young and innocent, you see, hence the title. The film is well paced, if not especially suspenseful. The budding romance between the two leads feels a little trite, but it riffs well with the absurd comedic stylings that preside over much of the action. The motorcar…
My poetic tribute to the lovely leading lady:
Ah yes, ‘twas a (super)Nova and not a star,
none smarter than she and could work a car,
light on her feet, a twinkle in her eyes,
soft spoken words could catch all the guys,
Thank God for Hitch that saw her glow,
to remember her always for us to know,
an ember breathing; a live fire it seems,
What a woman that Nova Pilbeam!
Now here is the romanticized “wrong man” trope Hitch struck gold with in The 39 Steps, even if Young and Innocent provides little to no suspense or an intimate love story, but Ms. Nova Pilbeam absolutely slays as the independent daughter of the police captain. Her enchanting…
Alfred Hitchcock directs this comedy thriller starring Nova Pilbeam and Derrick De Marney, about a headstrong young woman who helps a man accused of murder try to clear his name.
Though similar in premise to The 39 Steps, the film has its own individual charm, with a breezy pace and lots of humour. The chemistry between the two leads is palpable, and they really help to make the film so enjoyable. Alongside them are a cast of colourful and memorable characters, especially Edward Rigby as Old Will, a tramp who helps them out.
Hitchcock was a master at efficiently giving information, and some moments feel like they could have come from one of his silent films, telling the audience all they…
“the night always exaggerates things, doesn’t it? personally, i like the night. it’s much more reliable than the day.”
add this to the list of movies i was enjoying until people started randomly wearing blackface.
The title refers to the upstanding young person played by Nova Pilbeam, barely eighteen years old herself, so you can forget the kind of sexual electricity or hanky panky that went on between Robert Donat and Madeline Carroll in The 39 Steps. It also lacks the background political frissons of Hitchcock's previous two thrillers. So it feels less serious, more of a lark. This is despite a shouty opening scene involving a jealous husband and his wife followed by the intense imagery of a body washing up on shore. It quickly settles into comedy, for the most part, and Hitchcock's lightest man-on-the-run story. Except, bubbling beneath it all, is Hitchcock's deepest and most relentless condemnation of the police and, to…
Young And Innocent is a crime thriller that sees Alfred Hitchcock try and replicate the formula of The 39 Steps to entertaining effect, if not ever threatening to reach the heights of his 1935 classic.
It sees Derrick De Marney accused of murdering a woman and then fleeing from custody when he realises he has been set up good and proper. Headstrong Chief Constable's daughter Nova Pilbeam takes pity on him and assists him in trying to find the man really responsible for the murder.
It's easy to see Hitchcock would try and replicate the formula of The 39 Steps - his next two films, while relatively well received, failed to drum up nearly as much business and plaudits, and…
Quintessential innocent man on the run plus love interest from Hitchcock. Whilst he subverted this trope in Stage Fright, it has arguably been his safety blanket to fall back on. Whilst this isn't an outstanding example, it's a solid film nonetheless.
The best thing about this is most certainly the chemistry and charisma of the two stars. It almost lifts this to a more notable regard. Outside that though, the whole murder is a little poorly communicated. Once again, it has shaky beginnings (despite an eyecatching lighthouse scene). There are certainly pacing issues as well. The film works best when we forget the why and just leave our brain behind and get caught up in the emotions and suspense of the piece.
Slightly underappreciated in the annals of Hitchcock (you almost never hear about it), but there is little here to really sell this as a must see. An enjoyable deep cut for Hitch nuts.
Just about a decade from his silent flick The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog and two years after the exquisite thriller The 39 Steps comes yet another tale of the innocent man on the run bearing enough of the usual Hitchcockian nonchalance, a bit of the standard charisma, yet not much in interesting narrative. It just may be that this ‘37 early feature from the English auteur hits an unbalanced vibe of his usual thrills and charm without as much humor and striking deadpan delivery.
In a home along the stormy English coast late one night, a famous actress Christine Clay (Pamela Carme) argues with a jealous ex-husband Guy (George Curzon) over her infidelity leading up to her…
Definitely one of Hitchcock’s lighter thrillers, Young and Innocent is a straightforward wrong-man film elevated by the chemistry of its leads. Despite being relatively underwritten, the romantic dynamic between Nova Pilbeam and Derrick De Marney works because they easily find the comedy in every scenario without undermining the dramatic tension. They’re kinda-sorta reluctantly on the run together, but as they come across the family and friends of Pilbeam’s character, the duo plays it as if they’re lovers trying to balance their personal happiness with her loved ones’ expectations.
It’s all fun and games until the finale, which hinges on one of the worst scenes of Hitchcock’s career: we, the audience, identify a suspect as the camera slowly zooms in on him…
“She’s got a nerve.”
“She certainly has.”
Yes, and now I am in love with Nova Pilbeam because of her role as Erica!!
I was the exact opposite of enamored with my second Hitchcock compared to my first (North by Northwest). So much so that I tried to watch it yesterday and I fell asleep. Was able to stay awake for my watch through today though! However, despite my less than stoked response to the film, Young and Innocent is very smartly written, to such an extent that the dialogue and character actions really do feel quite authentic.
Not much else to say here. It’s a very familiar type of story.
Wrong-man crime thriller crossed with meet-cute rom-com. Robert is caught alone on the beach fleeing from a woman's dead body, and the chief constable's daughter Erica finds herself in the unfortunate situation of believing that he didn't kill her. We don't choose the ones we love, and so a cop's daughter falls for a wanted criminal and they run off together, like a nonviolent Bonnie and Clyde.
Erica can appreciate Robert's predicament because in a slightly different way she's been there herself. Nobody believes that he's who he says he is (that is to say, an innocent man, not a killer) because of the circumstantial evidence piled up against him, and likewise nobody believes that she's who she says she…
