Young and Innocent (1937)
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100% of critics liked it
(16 reviews) -
63% of users liked it
(2,999 ratings)
As early as 1937's Young and Innocent, Alfred Hitchcock was beginning to repeat himself, but audiences didn't mind so long as they were thoroughly entertaining-which they were, without fail. Derrick De Marney finds himself in a 39 Steps situation when he is wrongly accused of murder. While a… More As early as 1937's Young and Innocent, Alfred Hitchcock was beginning to repeat himself, but audiences didn't mind so long as they were thoroughly entertaining-which they were, without fail. Derrick De Marney finds himself in a 39 Steps situation when he is wrongly accused of murder. While a fugitive from the law, De Marney is helped by heroine Nova Pilbeam, who three years earlier had played the adolescent kidnap victim in Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much. The obligatory "fish out of water" scene, in which the principals are briefly slowed down by a banal everyday event, occurs during a child's birthday party. The actual villain, whose identity is never in doubt (Hitchcock made thrillers, not mysteries) is played by George Curzon, who suffers from a twitching eye. Curzon's revelation during an elaborate nightclub sequence is a Hitchcockian tour de force, the sort of virtuoso sequence taken for granted in these days of flexible cameras and computer enhancement, but which in 1937 took a great deal of time, patience and talent to pull off. Released in the US as The Girl Was Young, Young and Innocent was based on a novel by Josephine Tey. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Directed By
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Written By
- Josephine Tey, Charles Bennett
- Genres
- Drama, Mystery & Suspense, Classics
- In Theaters
- Feb 17, 1938 Wide
- Studio
- General Film Distributors
Critic Reviews
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, Time Out
Not top-notch Hitchcock, but engrossing enough.
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Frank S. Nugent, New York Times
Alfred Hitchcock, England's jovial and rotund master of melodrama, has turned out another crisply paced, excellently performed film.
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Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
One of the most entertaining of Hitchcock's English films.
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, TV Guide's Movie Guide
One of Hitchcock's more charming efforts.
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Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
Though not one of Hitchcock's strongest UK films, the tale is entertaining and it contains many ideas and visua motifs that would appear in later, better works.
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Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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Nova Pilbeam
as Erica Burgoyne
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Derrick De Marney
as Robert Tisdall
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Percy Marmont
as Col. Burgoyne
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Edward Rigby
as Old Will
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Mary Clare
as Erica's Aunt
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John Longden
as Insp. Kent
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George Curzon
as Guy
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Basil Radford
as Erica's Uncle
- Frank Atkinson
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Pamela Carne
as Christine Clay
- Syd Crossley
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Geraldine Fitzgerald
as Singer
- Richard George
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George Merritt
as Detective Sergeant Miller
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John Miller
as Police Constable
- Frederick Piper
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John H. Roberts
as Solicitor
- Bill Shine
- Peggy Simpson
- Torin Thatcher
- Beatrice Varley
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Jerry Verno
as Driver
- Humberston Wright
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H.F. Maltby
as Sergeant
- Peter Graham Scott
- Anna Konstam
- Clive Baxter
- Fred O'Donovan
- Jack Vyvyan
- Albert Chevalier
- Derrick DeMarney