“Young and Innocent,” Hitchcock’s film of 1937, is not one of his strongest British works, but it’s entertaining enough to hold a place in the director’s otherwise distinguished output.
Grade: B-
The film was based on Josephine Tey’s novel, “A Schilling for Candles,” adapted to the big screen by Tey and Charles Bennett.
A variation on the structure of Hitchcock’s British chase films, especially “The 39 Steps,” which is superior, “Young and Innocent” concerns the recurrent theme of an innocent man who’s wrongly accused.
Robert Tisdall (Derrick De Marney) finds himself in a “39 Steps” situation, when he is wrongly accused of murder, the strangling of a woman who had left him money in her will.
“Young and Innocent” begins with a heated argument, shot in close-ups, between a man and a woman, whose identity is not yet revealed.
In the next scenes, her body washes ashore with a coat belt next to her corpse (Similar scene would appear in Hitchcock’s 1972 Frenzy, with a corpse of a strangled woman found in the Thames, and a tie replacing the coat’s belt).
While a fugitive from the law, De Marney is helped by Erika (Nova Pilbeam), the daughter of the chief police inspector.
Most of the story consists of driving (and chase) scenes, as the couple travels through the countryside of England, eluding the police, which come across as comically incompetent.
During their stops (in a motel, coffee shop, farmhouse, mill, train station), they encounter representatives of every walk of society (truly a cross-section), in a narrative structure similar to that of “The 39 Steps,” “Saboteur, “North By Northwest,” and other Hitchcock films.
This was the second appearance of the charming Pilbeam, who three years earlier had played the adolescent victim in Hitchcock’s 1934 “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” a film that Hitchcock would remake with an American cast (James Stewart and Doris Day) in 1956.
The tale contains the “fish out of water” scene, in which the couple (now romantically involved) are briefly slowed down by a banal everyday event, which occurs in the film’s last reel, during a child’s birthday party.
The actual villain, named Guy, whose identity is implied early on, is played by George Curzon, who suffers from a twitching eye.
Guy’s revelation during an elaborate nightclub sequence, which occupies about 10 minutes of the film’s short running time (only 84 minutes), is a Hitchcockian tour de force. It’s a technical virtuoso sequence of a dolly and forward tracking shot, which would become one of the director’s signature stylistic devices.
In this well-crafted track, the camera moves fast through a crowded dance hall, with the central couple and others dancing. It then sort of searches for the murderer, ending with a close-up on a drummer, defined by a nervously twitching eye. That the killer, Guy, is a blacked faced musician makes it all the more spooky.
The novel is a whodunit about the Scotland Yard inspector, who is Tey’s regular character Alan Grant. The storyline involving Robert Tisdall, Erica Burgoyne, and the missing coat is similar to the film story, but
In the novel, Grant focuses on various suspects, none of whom (including the book’s actual murderer) appear in the film.
Christine Clay in the novel is not divorced, but a femme involved in unconventional marriage to an aristocrat.
Hitchcock’s cameo
Hitchcock is seen outside the courthouse, holding a camera, at 14 minutes into the film.
Spoiler Alert: Villain
Performing poorly due to fear, Guy is berated by the conductor. During a break, he takes medicine to try to control the twitching, but it makes him very sleepy. Eventually, in mid-performance, Guy passes out, drawing the attention of Erica and the police. After being revived, he confesses to his crime and begins laughing hysterically.
The film was initially released in the U.S. as “The Girl Was Young” (a title Hitchcock did not like).
Nova Pilbeam
Producer Selznick, who brought Hitchcock to Hollywood, wanted to cast Pilbeam as the lead in his first American movie, Rebecca; he thought she could be an international film star. However, her agent was worried about signing five-year contract. Hitchcock, whose outlook differed from Selznick’s, auditioned actresses over many months, and finally cast Joan Fontaine, based on the recommendation of George Cukor, who had just directed Fontaine in the 1939 comedy, The Women.
Cast
Nova Pilbeam as Erica Burgoyne
Derrick De Marney as Robert Tisdall
Percy Marmont as Colonel Burgoyne
Edward Rigby as Old Will
Mary Clare as Erica’s aunt Margaret
John Longden as Inspector Kent
George Curzon as Guy
Basil Radford as Erica’s uncle Basil
Pamela Carme as Christine Clay
George Merritt as Detective Sergeant Miller
J. H. Roberts as the Solicitor, Henry Briggs
Jerry Verno as Lorry Driver
H. F. Maltby as Police Sergeant
John Miller as Police Constable
Syd Crossley as Policeman
Torin Thatcher as the owner of Nobby’s Lodging House
Anna Konstam as Bathing Girl (uncredited)
Bill Shine as Manager of Tom’s Hat Cafe (uncredited)
Beatrice Varley as Accused Man’s Wife (uncredited)
Peter Thompson as Erica Burgoyne’s bespectacled brother (uncredited)
Credits
Directed by Hitchcock
Screenplay by Charles Bennett, Edwin Greenwood, Anthony Armstrong, based on “A Shilling for Candles,” 1936 novel by Josephine Tey; Gerald Savory (dialogue); Alma Reville (continuity)
Produced by Edward Black (uncredited)
Cinematography Bernard Knowles
Edited by Charles Frend
Music by Jack Beaver and Louis Levy (uncredited)
Production company: Gaumont-British
Distributed by General Film Distributors
Release dates: November 1937 (London); February 17, 1938 (US)
Running time 83 minutes
