Young and Innocent

Not top-notch Hitchcock, but engrossing enough. At the centre is another of his odd couples: an innocent man accused of murder and on the run (Derrick de Marney), and the young daughter of a policeman (18-year-old Nova Pilbeam) who finds herself helping him along the way. Both leads are very mannered: de Marney has a most odd whine of a voice, and Pilbeam is too gawky, too jolly-hockey-sticks (though she's fine in other films). So their parts, and their relationship, aren't as believable as they might be, with the result that most of the film is a bit loose. But there are at least two splendid sequences, with menace and suspense hovering, in typical Hitchcock fashion, over innocent amusements: first a children's party, and finally a hotel thé-dansant, where everything finally jells. (From the novel by Josephine Tey.)