Young and Innocent

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Mary Clare, Derrick De Marney, Pat Fitzpatrick, John Longden, George Merritt, Nova Pilbeam, and Edward Rigby in Young and Innocent (1937)

A man on the run from a murder charge enlists the help of a beautiful stranger who must put herself at risk for his cause.A man on the run from a murder charge enlists the help of a beautiful stranger who must put herself at risk for his cause.A man on the run from a murder charge enlists the help of a beautiful stranger who must put herself at risk for his cause.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.8/10

11K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
Alfred Hitchcock: Outside the courthouse holding a camera as Robert Tisdall (Derrick De Marney) escapes (at about 0:16:10).

Goofs
(at around 50 mins) When Erica Burgoyne and Robert Tisdall have taken refuge at night in a small town by parking her car next to a siding just before where the railroad underpasses a bridge, the entire scene has been staged and shot as an obvious miniature as revealed by three mistakes:
the somewhat jerky motion and unnatural lighting of an automobile (indicating that it was pulled) as it moves across the bridge above the railroad
the express train speeding under the bridge drags a length of cord behind it as it disappears from view
the camera tracking in closer to the parked automobile hidden in the shelter of freight trains on sidings reveals that the figures of Erica and Robert are actually modeled and painted figurines, motionless until the shot suddenly changes to a medium closeup shot of the two actors.

Quotes
Old Will: Two cups of teas please.
Grand Hotel Waiter: India or China, sir?
Old Will: No, tea!

Connections
Featured in Reputations: Hitch: Alfred the Great (1999)

Soundtracks
No One Can Like the Drummer Man
(uncredited)
Written by Samuel Lerner (as Lerner), Al Goodhart (as Goodhart) and Al Hoffman (as Hoffman)

User reviews131

Review

Featured review

7/10

well worth catching

I hold with what seems to be the majority opinion here, i.e. that this early Hitchcock effort is a neglected gem. Though certainly not as well-done as some of his more noteworthy movies, I found it to be thoroughly captivating and entertaining, with the blend of suspense and humor that one finds in, say, "To Catch a Thief" or "Family Plot". Derrick deMarney as the romantic lead does a particularly fine job; sort of a foreshadowing of the kind of thing Cary Grant later did so well.

One thought is that the title is perhaps a bit of a double entendre; we always associate the phrase "Young and Innocent" with a female, but the story is really about the attempt of the lead character - a young man - to prove his innocence. Then again, is he really the lead, or is the story about the girl after all? I'm sure Hitch intended this touch of ambiguity.

Once again I have to thank American Movie Classics for bringing us another worthy movie from the past. Hitchcock fans should not miss this one (come to think of it, the only dog that I have seen from Hitch is "The Paradine Case").