Such a frustrating disappointment

Just perfect...

Fantastic!

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

As this film opens we see a couple arguing in a seaside house; the next morning the woman is found dead on the tide line with a raincoat belt nearby. Her body is discovered by Robert Tisdall who runs to alert the authorities; he is witnessed by two women who assume he is the fleeing killer. He is later arrested when it emerges that he knew the woman and she'd left him a considerable sum of money in her will. He manages to escape from custody and while the police are searching for him he meets Erica Burgoyne, the daughter of the chief constable, and after some time persuades her to help him find his own raincoat and thus prove his innocence. It won't be easy though as it was stolen and was last seen being worn by a tramp!This is an interesting early Hitchcock film; there was no real mystery as the identity of the killer is very strongly implied at the start and we see that Robert did find the body as he claimed. That doesn't matter though as the film is all about how he will prove his innocence. Derrick De Marney puts in a solid performance as the wrongly accused Robert and Nova Pilbeam is a delight as Erica; the two of them have a good chemistry. The rest of the cast are solid too. While this isn't a comedy there are plenty of laughs to be had; these are gentle and unforced so don't feel out of place. There is a scene where our protagonists drive into a disused mine working and the ground collapses under their car; I was surprised at just how good this scene looked given that the film will be eighty years old this year. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to Hitchcock fans and people looking for a good drama with no really offensive content.

Hitchcock's formula for his The 39 Steps (1935) proved so successful, he ran it again in his Young And Innocent two years later. Falsely suspected murderer on the run teams up with a woman who at first does not believe him, then not only does, but falls in love with him as well, helping him to further elude the law.In this one the girl is the Constable's daughter, adding a further bit of intrigue. Hithcock's oft- used theme of the "wrong man" being accused of a crime has its second outing here.Hitch loved to re-use actors. Nova Pilbeam played the kidnapped daughter in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and is now enough of a young woman to end her career as a child actress and play a mature role. John Longden, George Curzon, Percy Marmont and Basil Radford are all Hitch alumna, continuing to appear in Hitch's films.The film itself moves very quickly, and is full of both suspense and humor, as well as being quite romantic. Pilbeam and Derrick de Marnay play well together. He reminds me a bit of Leslie Howard. The writing is quite excellent. Dialogue is quick with plenty of close-ups and rapid fire editing. The film opens in the middle of a marital argument, which will soon lead to a murder. It certainly plunges the viewer right into the action. There is much comedy in a misbehaving fountain juxtaposed with an attempt to wash blood from a wound. The birthday party, which the couple accidentally fall into and then desperately try to escape from with the police hot on their heels, is full of both suspense and comedy.The stopping to rescue the heroine's dog, despite police on the trail, shows the hero's character and is the first step at displaying his innocence to the heroine. This is done without dialogue, simply an act of kindness establishing character. There is a hair-raising rescue of the heroine that has us on the edges of our seats. However, the one shot that remains in everyone's mind is an incredible reverse crane shot (this two years before GWTW's claim to have created the first one in the Atlanta railroad scene of Scarlett among the wounded). This begins very high and pans across two rooms of a nightclub, before picking out a character and then moving down in one amazing movement to a close-up of the character's eyes, which then produce the damning clue to the killer's identity.My print ran 82 minutes. All in all, a vastly entertaining and fascinating film. Hitch hit his stride in 1934 with The Man Who Knew Too Much and then proceeded to direct one hit after another (The 39 Steps, Secret Agent, Sabotage and now Young And Innocent (a dumb title, by the way, as was its American title, The Girl Was Young). Another feather in the Master's cap. He was to direct only two more UK films, before moving to the USA and Selznick's Rebecca.

a man is wrongly accused of a crime he didn't commit,, and it all stems from a raincoat that he left at an establishment,, turns out a tramp got hold of the afformentioned coat,, gave it to someone,, and there you have it,, he does get some much needed help from a young woman who is insistent in his innocence and stops at nothing to prove his innocene. he takes her on a wild goose chase for part of the film, looking for clues to where he left his raincoat,, or anyone who might be able to prove his innocene. later on the two of them have to stop at her family's house for an impromptu party, where her aunt becomes very suspicious, and starts to nose around,, digging for information,, and trying to trick the poor guy with a bunch of pointless questions.. not a bad movie to watch...

Following the classic Hitchcock themes that he was well known for in "The 39 Steps" and his later works, "Young and Innocent" is a well made movie with strong tension, great characters, exciting premise built up terrifically within the opening minutes and is an exciting adventure of a wrongly accused man attempting to his clear his name from wrongdoings. Nova Pilbeam and Derrick De Marney are absolutely terrific in the lead roles, having great chemistry back and forth, a romance story that is both interesting and necessary and a script that easily allows them to convey their thoughts. It is said that this is indeed Hitchcock's favourite British film and whilst this is a little far stretched, it is to me, one of his most exciting and overlooked films.