Young and Innocent: a girl finds truth and wisdom through deception in light-hearted crime thriller comedy

Alfred Hitchcock, “Young and Innocent” (1938)

A plucky teenage girl aids a young man on the run from bumbling police who suspect him of murder by driving him in her police-chief dad’s car through the English countryside. Sounds like the kind of young adult crime thriller fiction Enid Blyton might have once wanted to write but in fact this is the synopsis of a light-hearted and entertaining film by Alfred Hitchcock. The original source material is a whodunnit by writer Josephine Tey but as was his habit Hitchcock reworked the story into another variation of the meta-movie running in his head in which an innocent man, falsely accused of a heinous crime, must prove his honesty and character by finding the real culprit with no help other than a feisty and resourceful blonde lady by his side. Whom he falls in love with, naturally. A link object – in this case, a raincoat – provides an implausible yet valuable clue to finding and identifying the murderer who conveniently gives himself away at the film’s climax.

Seventeen-year-old actor Nova Pilbeam, boasting past childhood acting experience, steals the show as the determined Erica who is unwillingly drafted by Robert Tisdall (Derrick de Marney) into helping him but who ends up taking charge of the search for the real criminal. The character of Erica could have been very one-dimensional jolly-hockey-sticks / senior high-school prefect and while Erica does veer very closely to that stereotype, Pilbeam works into the character spunk and warmth and not a little desperation at times. Tisdall on the other hand is blank and isn’t much help to his own cause even when the couple fetch up at a pub and a fight breaks out there which traps Erica; Tisdall’s attempt to rescue her ends up with her rescuing him. The romance which develops between the two is very fleeting and not at all convincing, and one has the impression Hitch himself was rather uncomfortable with it due to Erica’s very young age (she’s 16 years old, Tisdall is over 30 years of age) and the circumstances in which Erica and Tisdall are thrown together.

The adults in the film are laughable stereotypes: there’s a kind-hearted tramp who could have easily taken advantage of Erica when they’re alone together; Erica’s suspicious aunt and easy-going uncle are a comic couple; the police chasing Erica and Tisdall get into all kinds of silly scrapes; and the crook himself turns out to be a nervous wreck who undoes himself by overdosing on tranquillisers when he sees police surrounding him. (He does not know that they’re actually after someone else which is part of the situation comedy in the film’s ballroom scenes.) The only adult who comes out looking sensible is Erica’s father, a benevolent and comfortingly patriarchal presence.

The film has impressive technical chops as well with a tracking camera shot gliding across the huge ballroom scene to focus on the crook playing drums in a jazz band. While Hitch at the time was not very good with co-ordinating and filming crowd scenes generally, the same can’t be said for his mass ballroom-dancing scenes which are well done and include some slapstick comedy. Quick camera shots here and there and a rescue scene in an abandoned mine herald similar scenes in future Hollywood works like “Vertigo”, “North by Northwest” and “The Birds”.

The film is well-named: Erica, initially innocent in the ways of the world, becomes aware of its injustices in her effort to prove Tisdall’s innocence and by film’s end, she is a very knowing and transformed character while Tisdall has barely changed. Erica has learned that to get to the bottom of things to find the truth, one must practise deception and practise it better than everyone else in the film does. Familiar motifs running through the film include trains, distrust of police, resistance to authority, and birds and seascapes as heralds of disaster caused by human sexual jealousy and violence. Although “Young and Innocent” goes easy on the suspense and menace, and often overdoes the comedy especially in its later ballroom scenes, it’s an enjoyable comedy crime caper that even young people today might thrill to. Enid Blyton might well have wished she had scripted this flick.

 

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