YOUNG AND INNOCENT aka The Girl Was Young (1937) Nova Pilbeam & Derrick De Marney | Mystery | B&W

Young and Innocent, released in the US as The Girl Was Young, is a 1937 British crime thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Nova Pilbeam and Derrick De Marney. Based on the 1936 novel A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey, the film is about a young man on the run from a murder charge who enlists the help of a woman who must put herself at risk for his cause. An elaborately staged crane shot Hitchcock devised, which appears towards the end of the film, identifies the real murderer.

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

On a stormy night, at a retreat on the English coast, Christine Clay (Pamela Carme), a successful actress, argues passionately with her jealous ex-husband Guy (George Curzon). Not accepting her Reno divorce as valid, he accuses her of having an affair. Finally, she slaps him and he leaves the room. While they had been arguing, his eyes twitched violently; they continue to do so when, once outside, he turns angrily to look at the closed door behind him.

The next morning, Robert Tisdall (Derrick De Marney) happens to be walking along the seaside when Christine's dead body washes ashore. He recognizes her, and runs for help. Two young women arrive just in time to see him racing away from the corpse. The police quickly decide that Tisdall is the only suspect. Christine was strangled with the belt from a raincoat; his raincoat is missing and he says it was recently stolen. He admits knowing the victim for three years since he sold her a story but the authorities assume the two have been having an affair. When they learn that she has left him money in her will (unbeknownst to him), they feel they have hit upon a motive and Tisdall is arrested.

Scotland Yard detectives grill him all night. The next morning, he faints and is revived with the aid of Erica Burgoyne (Nova Pilbeam), daughter of the local police Chief Constable. Tisdall is assigned an incompetent solicitor, and is taken into court for his formal arraignment. Doubting if his innocence will ever be established, he takes advantage of overcrowding in the courthouse to escape, wearing the solicitor's eyeglasses as a disguise. He gets away by riding on the running board of Erica's Morris car, revealing himself to her after the car runs out of petrol.

He helps push the car to a filling station, pays for petrol, and convinces her to give him a ride. Though she is initially fearful and unsure about her passenger, Erica eventually becomes convinced of his innocence and decides to help him in any way that she can. They are eventually spotted together, forcing both to stay on the run from the police. Tisdall tries to prove his innocence by tracking down the stolen coat: if it still has its belt, the one found next to Christine's body must not be his.

The duo succeed in tracing Tisdall's coat to Old Will (Edward Rigby), a homeless, but sociable, china-mender. But Will was not the thief; he was given the coat by a man with "twitchy eyes", and with its belt already missing.

After becoming separated from the others, Erica is taken in by the police. Upon realizing that his daughter has fully allied herself with a murder suspect, her father chooses to resign his position as Chief Constable rather than arrest her for assisting a felon. Though mutually undeclared, by this point she and Tisdall are in love, Tisdall sneaks into their house to see her, intending to surrender and assert he kidnapped her, to save her honour and her father's reputation. But she mentions that the coat had a box of matches from the Grand Hotel in a pocket. As Tisdall has never been there, he surmises perhaps the murderer has a connection to the hotel.

CAST & CREW
Nova Pilbeam as Erica Burgoyne
Derrick De Marney as Robert Tisdall
Percy Marmont as Colonel Burgoyne
Edward Rigby as Old Will
Mary Clare as Erica's aunt Margaret
John Longden as Inspector Kent
George Curzon as Guy
Basil Radford as Erica's uncle Basil
Pamela Carme as Christine Clay
George Merritt as Detective Sergeant Miller
J. H. Roberts as the Solicitor, Henry Briggs
Jerry Verno as Lorry Driver
H. F. Maltby as Police Sergeant
John Miller as Police Constable
Syd Crossley as Policeman
Torin Thatcher as the owner of Nobby's Lodging House

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Gerald Savory (dialogue), Alma Reville (continuity)
Screenplay by Charles Bennett, Edwin Greenwood, Anthony Armstrong
Based on A Shilling for Candles 1936 novel by Josephine Tey
Produced by Edward Black
Cinematography Bernard Knowles
Edited by Charles Frend
Production company Gaumont-British
Distributed by General Film Distributors
Release dates November 1937 (London), 17 February 1938 (US)
Running time 83 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English

Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. He can be seen outside the courthouse, holding a camera, at 14 minutes into the film.