Product: Young & Innocent [VHS] (1938)
Rating: 2.0
Missing Ingredient: Tension
After recently watching such classic Hitchcock films as "The 39 Steps" and "The Lady Vanishes", I had high hopes for this effort as well. Unfortunately, the end product (while nicely polished) lack one key ingredient that would have automatically ratcheted it up a notch: tension.For a basic plot summary, "Young and Innocent" sees a young man named Robert Tisdall (Derrick De Marney) wrongfully accused for the murder of a woman found on a beach. While eluding the police through the England countryside on a mission to exonerate himself, Robert enlists the help of a young woman (Erica Burgoyne) who also believes in his cause.From a cinematic point of view, this 1937 effort is very polished and slick. If you were sitting in a theater at that time watching this movie unfold, you would more than likely have been entertained. However, its key fault is that it lacks any sort of dramatic tension whatsoever.For starters, there is never any doubt about Robert's innocence. Just adding some ambiguity to his character would have added a lot to the overall plotline. Plus, it doesn't help that the "chase" for Robert portrays the typically farcical cop who can't do anything right. Never for a second do you believe that he will be caught.Thus, while "Young and Innocent" isn't outrightly terrible, it is not one of Hitch's better endeavors. Only in the final climactic scene do we get a glimpse of the master director at work. Other than that, boredom seeps in through the cracks.