There are those couples where the glue that binds them together appears to be a compound of one part Florence Nightingale, one part helpless-but-adorable little boy.  Young and Innocent is the story of one such couple binding.  Luckily, this story was not told by someone with "artistic" intention and a bag full of pretension --or by David O. Selznik, for that matter-- but was instead brought to life by the young Alfred Hitchcock who was then in the middle of his British Classic thriller hitting streak.  And so, this film is a brisk, deft, humorous little thriller about a man wrongfully accused of murder that is also a pleasant observation of two young souls discovering the symbiotic balance that will bind them together.

          Young and Innocent is too lightweight to be considered one of Hitchcock's masterpieces, but failing to be a masterpiece is hardly a criticism for a well-crafted, thoroughly-enjoyable piece of filmmaking.  The cast does an exemplary job, all of them.  And since the hero's innocence is known at the outset --not to mention the film's tone having "happy ending" written all over it-- there shouldn't be any harm in taking a good, close look at just how this story of young innocence is told.

THE PLOT------------------->

• Christine Clay (Pamela Carme), film star, is found murdered, floating in the surf, strangled by a raincoat belt.

• Robert (Derrick de Marney) finds the body and runs for help --he is seen running away from the body by two female swimmers.

• The police detain Robert as the chief suspect in the crime.

• Robert can't produce his raincoat --it was stolen from him at a "common shelter" called "Tom's Hat" when he went in for cigarettes.

• Robert knows the murdered woman.  She left him twelve hundred pounds in her will.  When the cops inform him of Clay's will Robert faints and is brought around (ministered to) by the chief constable's daughter, Erica Burgoyne (Nova Pilbeam). There is clearly an immediate attraction between the two.

• Robert is charged and is assigned an attorney, "Biggs", to defend him.

• Biggs is a nearsighted buffoon.  He ticks off all the points against Robert, shaking his head in despair.  At the last point:

Biggs:  (sighing) "Oh, dear me, that belt."
Robert:  "I wish to God I could go out and find the blasted coat. I swear it was stolen at Tom's Hat."
Biggs:  "You lost your hat too?"
Robert:  (beginning to despair himself) "Oh, no…"
Biggs:  "Oh, well --that's something.  Oh, yes -that's quite a good point."  [Befuddled pause]  "Or is it?"

• Robert manages to lose himself among the crowd while being led to a courtroom by the nearsighted Biggs.
  


• Robert flees.  He runs into the Erica after her car breaks down on a country road.  He helps her push the car to the nearest petrol station.

• Robert asks Erica to take him to Tom's Hat.  Instead, she drops him off at a deserted old mill, then heads home.

• There is a hilarious scene at dinner with Erica, her father --Colonel Burgoyne (Percy Marmont)-- and four brothers.  One brother displays a huge dead rat he's shot.  Another brother says that if the fugitive is really out of money, he's as good as caught, "like a rat".  "With rooks pecking at his eyes," offers yet another brother.

• Later that night, Erica drives back to the old mill with some food and money for Robert.  Here, Robert sums up the film's plot by saying: "Christine Clay was strangled with a belt from a raincoat.  I knew her and can't produce my raincoat --it was stolen.  But I'm going to find it with its belt, you'll see.  Then I'll be cleared."

• Robert met Clay in Hollywood.  She liked a story he wrote and asked him to do another, that's all.  He met her three or four times at her cottage.  [There's no mention as to why she may have willed 1,200 pounds to such a casual acquaintance.]

• The police arrive at the old mill; Robert and Erica dash off.

• When they are out of sight of the police, Erica takes the wheel and, after some initial indecision, drives Robert to Tom's Hat.

• At Tom's Hat, Erica goes in alone (lest Robert be recognized) to see what she can find out about the coat.

• Some truck driver tells Erica that he saw Old Will (Edward Rigby), "the china-mender", with a raincoat that was nearly brand new.  Old Will said some bloke had given it to him, but the driver didn't really believe it.  Some of the other truck drivers take exception to the first's talking out of school with a stranger and a brawl breaks out.  The first truck driver finds the time to tell Erica that old Will can be found late that night at a certain lodging house.

• Robert jumps into the brawl, bumps his head, and Erica ministers to him --yet again.  [Yes, she really is a regular Florence Nightingale.]

• Robert decides to part from Erica and take off to the lodging house (which is about thirty miles away) on his own.  Erica sees him start to walk off, feels pity for him, and decides that she will drive him to the lodging house herself.

• On the way to the lodging house the pair stops off at Erica's Aunt's house to (a) to burn time and (b) so that Erica will have some explanation of where's she been all bright summer evening.

• It turns out to be Erica's niece's ("Felicity") birthday party.  Erica goes in alone, hoping to get out quickly.  Robert is spotted in the driveway by Erica's uncle (Basil Radford) and is coaxed inside.

• Robert is grilled by Erica's Aunt (Mary Clare) as to his identity --he introduces himself as Beechcroft Manningtree, then, later, as Beechtree Manningcroft.  Erica tells Aunt that Robert is an advertising copywriter, he tells Aunt that he's a musician.

• The ever-more suspicious Aunt is blindfolded for a game of Blind Man's Bluff and our heroes escape the party.

• Suspicious-Aunt calls Erica's father --he wonders what the heck is going on.  Colonel Burgoyne, shortly thereafter, finds out from a cop that Erica sped off when asked to stop by a policeman who recognized the man she was driving with as Robert, the fugitive. The news devastates lawman/father.  Erica herself worries that she is now guilty of being an "accomplice".

• Erica and Robert hide out in a train yard until Old Will is likely to be found at the lodging house.  There is a Tender Moment. [There are many such Tender Moments between Robert and Erica.]

• Robert leaves Erica in the car at the train yard and takes off for Nobby's Lodging House in search of Old Will.

• Robert poses as a transient and as a friend of Old Will.

• Robert inadvertently falls asleep until morning.  Then he finds old Will.

• Robert drags Old Will off to the car, with the police in hot pursuit. There is a car chase and our heroes lose the cops.

• It is discovered that Old Will is wearing the raincoat but --UH OH!-- the belt is missing!

• Old Will says "some fellow" gave him the raincoat. "Some fellow who blinks."

• With the cops still on the chase, Old Will suggests they drive to the Old Mine Workings to hide out.

• Cut to: Police car stops on road with no one in sight.  Stumped, one cop says to the other:  "Let's try the Old Mine Workings!" (Good call!!!)

• Then there is a great scene at the Old Mine Workings where the ground collapses under Erica's car.  Robert and Old Will jump out, but Erica can't quite manage it. Robert reaches out for her hand as the car sinks into a deepening pit.  At the last second Robert manages to pull her to safety, "Indiana Jones"-style.

• The cops arrive at the Old Mine Workings, capture Erica, but Robert and Old Will manage to escape.

• At the police station, the cops grill Erica.  She protests Robert's innocence.

• Back at home, the chief constable/daddy grills Erica.  She protests Robert's innocence.  The devastated man calls Erica an accomplice and shows her his letter of resignation from the police force.

• Erica goes to her room, falls on her bed and sobs into the night.

• Robert sneaks into her room that night, through an open window, and kills her. (Just kidding.)   They embrace.  Robert announces that he's going to give himself up.  (How can he prove his innocence without the man who gave Old Will the raincoat?)

• Somehow Erica mentions that the police found matches from the Grand Hotel in the pocket of the raincoat.

• Ah Ha!  Robert announces that he's never been to the Grand Hotel in his life.  Then, whoever killed Christine Clay has been and might still be there!

• Next day, it's off the Grand Hotel. Old Will buys himself a presentable set of duds and meets Erica in the lobby.  They search about for the fellow who blinks.

• After a bit, discouraged, Erica and Old Will take a table in the ballroom, hoping they might spot the man in the crowd.  The band strikes up the tune: "No One Can Like the Drummer Man." Meanwhile cops in the hotel spot the two at their table and place a call to Erica's father.

• Erica and Old Will scrutinize the crowd.  The band plays on.  Cut to: A long shot of the lobby of the Grand Hotel.  The camera, from high above, passes through the lobby wall into the ballroom, still in a long shot.  The camera starts to close in (a crane shot) traveling slowly across the dance floor.  Without a cut, the camera keeps closing in and trucking right until the shot has become a full-frame shot of the band.  Then, still without a cut, the camera closes in on the band until the shot becomes a close up of the drummer, a somewhat unrecognizable figure in politically-incorrect blackface.  The camera continues to close in on the drummer.  His face fills the screen.  Then, closer still, until only his eyes fill the screen.  And --what do you know?-- the eyes now filling the screen in extreme close-up start to twitch!  The audience has been informed, in a most dramatic fashion, that the drummer is the man Erica and old Will are looking for.

• Cut to: Erica and Old Will's table.  They are still looking around furtively.

• The song ends.  The drummer spots Old Will and recognizes him as the bum to whom he gave the incriminating raincoat.  The band strikes up another tune, Erica and Old Will take to the dance floor for a closer look at the crowd, and the drummer tries to hide his face.

• The tune ends and the drummer goes out for a smoke.  To calm his nerves he takes some type of pills so he might control his facial twitching.

• The cops apprehend Robert outside hotel and then go inside for Erica and Old Will.

• The band reenters the ballroom and resumes playing.

• The drummer, who has evidently taken too many pills, starts "losing it", big time.  The band stops playing.  The drummer passes out upon his drum set.

• Just as Erica is being escorted out of the hotel by the cops, she hears the drummer fall and runs back into the ballroom to administer first aid to the man.  She spots the drummer's twitch. The blackface is removed and the killer confesses on the spot, laughing like a drugged and/or crazy man.

• Erica invites Robert over for dinner; they have bonded.