cult film freak: NOVA PILBEAM IN ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S 'YOUNG AND INNOCENT'

Nova Pilbeam and Derrick De Marney in YOUNG AND INNOCENT Year: 1937 Rating: ***

Alfred Hitchcock was the master of suspense — and the master of teaming up a wrong-man with a good girl in an espionage-driven adventure, which began with THE 39 STEPS and peaked with NORTH BY NORTHWEST with SABOTEUR and FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT in-between...

Then there's the least known, YOUNG AND INNOCENT, starring the McGuffin/kidnapped daughter from his original THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH in lovely girl-next-door Nova Pilbeam — here the local constable's daughter who takes to falsely-accused scriptwriter Derrick De Marney, having had an affair with a slain actress, part of an opening scene so wispy and melodramatic it almost seems like a parody...

Nova Pilbeam and Derrick De Marney in YOUNG AND INNOCENT

Probably deliberate since what follows is extremely subtle, grounded, and, unlike those other road movies, the token criminals — desperately wanting their dogged scapegoat to remain seeming guilty — aren't very tense or formidable as the romance means more than the plight...

Mostly thanks to Nova Pilbeam, whose lovely eyes sparkle intensely for the prosecuted, and yet he... while not a bad actor... seems to be going through the motions... like the brilliant auteur himself, lacking any truly memorable signature shot that usually glues everything together: making young Nova have to do pretty much everything here — which isn't so bad for ninety-minutes.