Product: Young & Innocent [VHS] (1938)
Rating: 5.0
The Girl is Young
One of Alfred Hitchcock's early British films, YOUNG AND INNOCENT is fairly light and innocent itself, but its theme is one that would be revisited many times by Hitchcock: an innocent man is accused of a brutal murder and must go on the run to prove his innocence. It is no secret that Hitchcock himself harbored a healthy mistrust, even dislike of the police, and this is one of the earliest of his many films in which a police investigation is misguided and it is ultimately up to his endangered protagonist to solve the case at hand.Derrick De Marney plays the young man, Robert Tisdall, who stands accused of the vile crime and Nova Pilbeam plays the daughter of the local police constable. She first falls into reluctantly aiding the boy and, ultimately, she falls in love with him. Just three years earlier, Pilbeam had played the abducted child role in Hitchcock's first version of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH; she is playing her first adult role here and is quite effective as the resourceful young woman Erica.YOUNG AND INNOCENT is a charming film about a young romance, albeit in the unexpected setting of a fugitive hunt. De Marney and Pilbeam can't help but be extremely likeable in their roles. The plot holds sufficient interest to keep a modern audience engaged throughout the film and the outcome of the film is, of course, satisfying.Hitchcock's movie-making craft is in full maturity in this film. Apart from the aforementioned plot elements which would become the staple of his work, Hitchcock's camera work in YOUNG AND INNOCENT is innovative and effective and, as he has explained, "[substitutes] the language of the camera for dialogue," a skill for which he was later much renowned.Look for Hitchcock's bit part in YOUNG AND INNOCENT as he plays a press photographer fumbling with his camera in one of his most amusing cameos. Anyone who has a passing interest in the films of Alfred Hitchcock owes it to himself or herself to check out the British films that he made prior to 1940. YOUNG AND INNOCENT is one of the best representatives from that body of work.Jeremy W. Forstadt