‎Young and Innocent (1937) directed by Alfred Hitchcock • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

Young and Innocent

1937 Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

A Brilliant Melodrama

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.

Nova Pilbeam Derrick De Marney Percy Marmont Edward Rigby Mary Clare John Longden George Curzon Basil Radford Pamela Carme George Merritt J.H. Roberts Jerry Verno H.F. Maltby John Miller

Country

Language

English

drama crime

83 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Silversaxophone ★★★★ 4

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…
Review by Ruth ★★★ 2

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.
Review by Steve G ★★★ 2

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…
Review by A. Jones ★★★½

I've been eyeing this one for a while (something about the title I guess) but never got around to it. Just bought a sweet Hitchcock boxset last week at HPB, though, so its time has come!

Young and Innocent (aka The Girl Was Young when it was released stateside) is a sort of cutesy version of the Hithcockian "Wrong Man" story trope — imagine Roger Donat was younger and nicer in The 39 Steps.

(Minor spoilers ahead, but nothing big enough to warrant marking it as a spoilers review)

The image of the woman washed up dead on the beach is pretty striking. Love the crane shot at the end — I saw a clip of that scene in class last year, but we didn't watch the rest of the film.

A Hitchcock a Month — 2018 (#9)
Alfred Hitchcock Ranked
Review by loureviews ★★★★ 1

#35 in the Reverse Hitchcock project.

This is better than I remembered and I think I was harsh in only giving it three stars to begin with. Young Nova Pilbeam (who died last year aged 95) is marvellous as the Chief Constable's daughter who decides to help wrongly accused Derrick De Marney after his film star friend is found strangled on a beach.

This film has one of Hitchcock's famous standby plots, the 'wronged man', but is played straight and true in this one. The man on the run and woman to help was revisited in his next film, "The 39 Steps", and despite the lack of big names the stars do have a lot of chemistry.

JH Roberts plays…
Review by Mr. DuLac ★★★½ 3

It's the standard innocent man on the run scenario that was done much better in The 39 Steps, but since they're both Alfred Hitchcock films, calling one better by no means require the other to be bad. In fact Young and Innocent, while a much more lighthearted film then Steps, is quite good.

The plot is simple but when a film is done this masterfully it doesn't detract from the enjoyment at all. Every single character that appears in the movie feels like they would be an interesting person, even if it's just a man selling a train ticket. The dialogue is snappy and witty. Characters have quirks sprinkled through out the film.

The 18 year old Nova Pilbeam, in…

Recent reviews

Review by A. Jones ★★★½

I've been eyeing this one for a while (something about the title I guess) but never got around to it. Just bought a sweet Hitchcock boxset last week at HPB, though, so its time has come!

Young and Innocent (aka The Girl Was Young when it was released stateside) is a sort of cutesy version of the Hithcockian "Wrong Man" story trope — imagine Roger Donat was younger and nicer in The 39 Steps.

(Minor spoilers ahead, but nothing big enough to warrant marking it as a spoilers review)

The image of the woman washed up dead on the beach is pretty striking. Love the crane shot at the end — I saw a clip of that scene in class last year, but we didn't watch the rest of the film.

A Hitchcock a Month — 2018 (#9)
Alfred Hitchcock Ranked
Review by GrantDF ★★★½

“Didn’t you realise there was something going on between them? She didn’t know his name. He didn’t know it himself, even, really.”

A charming Hitchcock ‘wrong man’ comedy-thriller featuring two very likeable leads (Derrick De Marney and the impressive Nova Pilbeam), some quaint but serviceable model work, an audacious crane shot that reveals the villain of the piece in a busy hotel ballroom. The blackface orchestra is regrettable and the story wrap-up is a little clunky but, overall, this is a fun ride from start to finish.
Review by Cameron ★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

“Yes, I see your point, but my hands are tied. I’ve racked my brain, but there simply isn’t a way to reveal the murderer in a manner that isn’t obscenely racist. I’d love to help you, but my otherwise charming movie absolutely requires it, you see.”

- Alfred Hitchcock (probably)
Review by Garrett Foster ★★★½

The 39 Steps with younger leads, basically, though that unfairly reads like a dismissive compliment; this is a perfectly fine iteration of Hitch’s patented wrong man thriller in itself, buttressed by a brisk pace and its director’s peerless formal prowess. All the usual tricks are here: the sound match-cuts, exceptional model and miniature work, the insertion of “noise” as an excuse to shoot scenes sans dialogue, the POV and camera-facing shots to put us in Erica’s psyche, the shadows of window bars overlaying our heroes to convey their sense of being trapped in the situation—so on, and so forth—not to mention a handful of the master’s favorite recurring themes and motifs, viz. birds as a symbol of chaos/evil, explorations of…
Review by Jake Brodsky ★★★

Not so innocent, this one...
Review by Chris Jackson ★★★½

Why does it have to have blackface, tho?
Review by Lebowskidooo ★★★

Young and Innocent
Review by Winston Bribach ★★★★½

While not particularly innovative, this might be the most purely enjoyable Alfred Hitchcock movie I've seen. It's a breath of fresh air.
Review by Brendan Wahl ★★★½

In something of a spiritual successor to "The 39 Steps," a young man named Robert (De Marney) is falsely accused of murdering a young actress and thus escapes police custody out of fear that his incompetent lawyer will fail to keep him out of prison. He quickly teams up with the spunky daughter of the police constable, Erica (Pilbeam), who slowly begins to believe him and assist in helping him bring the real criminal to justice.

In terms of being very close in plot to "The 39 Steps," it accomplishes that almost too well. It has scenes of remarkable similarity and most of the plot points are nearly identical. Still, there are some very good scenes filled with tension combined…