Young and Innocent
Alfred Hitchcock's Young and Innocent (1937) starred Derrick De Marney and Nova Pilbeam in the classic man-on-the-run formula that Hitchcock had perfected two years earlier with The 39 Steps. Thanks in part to a surprise ending featuring a jazz band in blackface, 
Young and Innocent deserves re-evaluation as one of his more significant prewar films. De Marney plays Robert Tisdale, an innocent man turned preordained suspect who, after his mistress is found strangled on the beach, must chase the real killer while he himself is chased by the police. Nova Pilbeam stars as Erica Burgoyne, the young and adventurous daughter of the lead police detective and romantic interest of the fugitive Tisdale. For Pilbeam, who was just 18 at the time, this was her first adult role; as a 15 year-old she had played the daughter in The 
Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
with Peter Lorre. Based on a Josephine Tey mystery, Young and Innocent was written by Charles Bennett who had scripted several of Hitchcock's U.K. films: The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps, Sabotage (1936), and The Secret Agent (1936). Tisdale's freedom (to pursue the detective's daughter, no less) rests on finding a missing raincoat and the man with the twitching eyes. Along the way are a multitude of hats, phones, cars, a chase through an old mill, and a strange birthday party. As Paul Duncan has written, the climactic crane shot in a London hotel was one of Hitchcock's most difficult, panning from 145 feet high down into a 4 inch close-up. The opening scene of this film--a strangled woman washed upon the shore--later reappeared at the beginning of Frenzy (1972).
Alfred Hitchcock's Young and Innocent (1937) starred Derrick De Marney and Nova Pilbeam in the classic man-on-the-run formula that Hitchcock had perfected two years earlier with The 39 Steps. Thanks in part to a surprise ending featuring a jazz band in blackface, 
Young and Innocent deserves re-evaluation as one of his more significant prewar films. De Marney plays Robert Tisdale, an innocent man turned preordained suspect who, after his mistress is found strangled on the beach, must chase the real killer while he himself is chased by the police. Nova Pilbeam stars as Erica Burgoyne, the young and adventurous daughter of the lead police detective and romantic interest of the fugitive Tisdale. For Pilbeam, who was just 18 at the time, this was her first adult role; as a 15 year-old she had played the daughter in The 
Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) with Peter Lorre. Based on a Josephine Tey mystery, Young and Innocent was written by Charles Bennett who had scripted several of Hitchcock's U.K. films: The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps, Sabotage (1936), and The Secret Agent (1936). Tisdale's freedom (to pursue the detective's daughter, no less) rests on finding a missing raincoat and the man with the twitching eyes. Along the way are a multitude of hats, phones, cars, a chase through an old mill, and a strange birthday party. As Paul Duncan has written, the climactic crane shot in a London hotel was one of Hitchcock's most difficult, panning from 145 feet high down into a 4 inch close-up. The opening scene of this film--a strangled woman washed upon the shore--later reappeared at the beginning of Frenzy (1972).
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