Hitchcock rarely did whodunnits. We already discussed one with Murder (1930) and we'll be seeing ones who a loose interpretation of the genre later. Here with this film, Hitchcock gives his own interpretation on Josephine Tey's 1936 novel, A Shilling for Candles and with copious parts removed and interesting angles added.
The plot focuses on Robert Tisdall (Derrick De Marney) who finds the body of Christine Clay washed up on the beach. Two women see him run away. Since a belt from a coat that Tisdall owned was the weapon, he is accused of the murder. He manages an escape before the trial and convinces Erica Burgoyne (Nova Pilbeam) the daughter of the local constable to take him to where he lost the coat. Robert finds a lead that a tramp obtained the coat and he & Erica locate him in a flophouse. They get the coat back but its missing its belt and the tramp, Old Will (Edward Rigby) says the belt wasn't there when he was given the coat by a man with a twitch in his eye. Can Robert & Erica find the man before the police find them?
The film was a real treat to watch especially for the chemistry of De Marney and Pilbeam who just work very well together. De Marney does seem to have a James Stewart approach to his acting and is very fluid and watching Pilbeam again following her role as the abductee from The Man Who Knew Too Much does make you wish there was more to her career. Another acting highlight was Mary Clare and Basil Radford (we'll see him again next week in The Lady Vanishes) as Erica's aunt and uncle.
Hitchcock's directing is a highlight here especially probably for the most well known scene in the film where Erica and Old Will in restaurant dance room where Will tries to locate the killer and we see an unbroken shot across the dance floor straight to the killer and his eyes which twitch. Granted there's not much of a spoiler as to who the killer is due to there was only one person introduced the movie who wanted Christine Clay dead. Granted, for those in the PC police, the scene does contain an orchestra in blackface, but it is a very well done unbroken shot similar to a future scene in Notorious.
The movie does follow the theme of the book of Robert trying to convince others of his innocence of killing Christine, but the film goes off in different directions: The killer in the book is not mentioned in the movie and vice versa; Erica is only introduced in passing and is more of a secondary character than the lead from the movie; the book focuses more on the investigation of Inspector Alan Grant (a character Tey used in 5 of her books) who is given another name and only seen at the beginning and end of the movie.
Like our last film Sabotage, our film currently has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (Rebecca and Shadow of a Doubt are the other ones). Critics back in 1937 thought it another notch in Hitchcock's belt with the Monthly Film Bulletin citing Hitchcock's blend of romance, comedy and suspense and Harrison's Reports saying the story, plot and direction kept the viewer drawn from beginning to end.
Hitchcock's cameo occurs around 13-14 minutes in after Tisdall's escape, Hitchcock can be seen standing outside the police station holding a small camera. This is probably the longest of his cameo's lasting about 20 seconds.
Young and Innocent can be seen on several streaming sites due to its stay in the public domain but as usual, I'll recommend the print that's on Criterionchannel.com. A Shilling for Candles can be purchased here.
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