Product: Young & Innocent [VHS] (1938)
Rating: 4.0
A brilliantly filmed finale caps off this 1937 Alfred Hitchcock gem.
The more time I spend watching Alfred Hitchcock's British films from the 1930's the more I like them. The latest film I have sampled is 1937's "Young and Innocent". Released in the U.S. as "The Girl Was Young" this motion picture grabbed my attention from the compelling opening scene and simply never let go.As is so often the case in a Hitchcock film the plot revolves around an ordinary person who finds himself caught up in an extraordinary situation. Robert Tisdale (Derrick De Marney) is a struggling young writer who is simply in the wrong place at the wrong time when the body of a prominent young movie star washes up on the beach. Tisdale knows the victim and starts to run for help. He is spotted by a pair of young women and is ultimately accused of doing the deed. The victim had been strangled and the murder weapon appears to be the belt from a trenchcoat. Conicidentally, Tisdale owns such a trenchcoat but it had been inexplicably stolen from him just days earlier. With the circumstantial evidence mounting against him Tisdale manages to escape from police custody. He hooks up with an attractive young lady named Erica Burgoyne (Nova Pilbeam) who just happens to be the daughter of the local Chief Constable. Tisdale sets off on a desperate attempt to find his missing raincoat which he believes would vindicate him. Young Miss Burgoyne thinks him guilty at first but gradually comes to believe in his innocence. The balance of "Young and Innocent" revolves around the desperate search for that trenchcoat, the cat and mouse game between Tisdale and Burgoyne and the authorities and the slowly blossoming relationship between this most unlikely couple. In general, I found "Young and Innocent" to be a bit lighter than most of the Hitchcock films I have enjoyed over the years.But the piece de resistance in "Young and Innocent" is the closing scene that ultimately reveals the true idenity of the murderer of this young woman. Tisdale and Burgoyne ultimate track down the missing raincoat which was in the possession of an aging derelict known as Old WIll (Edward Rigby). Old Will finally surrenders the coat but alas the belt is missing. Old Will insists that he was given the coat by a man with a very distinctive twitch in his eyes. Just when it appears that all hope was gone Tisdale discovers a small but important clue in the trenchcoat pocket. It was a box of matches from the Grand Hotel a place Tisdall had never been to. The trio immediately heads for the hotel in search of the man with the twitching eyes. For my money the closing sequence of "Young and Innocent" is one of the most unexpected and cleverly filmed finales in any Hitchcock movie that I have seen. Outstanding!Overall, I found "Young and Innocent" to be the best of early Hitchcock films I have sampled thus far. I had never even heard of this one before. I urge you to give it a look. Highly recommended!