Because the Master of Suspense made so many memorable films it's easy to overlook some of his earlier, embryonic gems. But for anyone except a Hitchcock completist this rarely seen relic from the director's English period will hold only academic interest, anticipating (in some cases by several decades) specific highlights from later classics. The film may lack the trademark perversity (and occasional Freudian overkill) of his Hollywood features, but it still shows plenty of humor, suspense, and (by then already a signature) at least one astonishing camera move. The plot itself is pure Hitchcock, with a typically unexpected MacGuffin: the belt of an incriminating raincoat sought by a fugitive wrongly accused of murder. When seen today the only real liability to the film is its absurdly low pre-war budget. Hitchcock was always a thrifty director, but some of the miniature model work shown here is laughably unconvincing.
Review of Young and Innocent
