Notable cast/crew: Nova Pilbeam as Erica Burgoyne makes her second Hitchcock film. Derrick de Marney as Robert Tisdall. Percy Marmont as Colonel Burgoyne makes his third Hitchcock film. John Longden as Detective Inspector Kent makes his fourth Hitchcock film. Basil Radford as Uncle Basil makes his first of two Hitchcock films.
Running time: 82 minutesDirector: Alfred Hitchcock
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| KISS' original drummer's make-up left something to be desired |
He stows away in the police chief's car, and he makes his getaway when the chief's daughter, Erica, drives away from the courthouse. He enlists her help in proving his innocence, and she drops him off at an abandoned mill so he can lay low.
They track down Will the China Man (a peddler who mends broken China) who can provide an alibi for Robert. They survive a mine collapse while on the run. The trail leads to a hotel where Will is looking for the man he got his coat from: a man with a facial tic.
The man they're looking for is disguised in blackface as part of the hotel band, and he's the same man we saw arguing at the beginning of the film. He sees Will and tries to hide. He takes some pills to try to stop his twitch, but he overdoses causing him to collapse at the drum kit. Will identifies him, and when asked what he did with the belt from the coat, he confesses he murdered his wife with it.
MacGuffin: The coat and missing belt
Hitchcock cameo: Taking a photograph outside the court room
Hitchcock themes:
- Falsely accused hero
- Identity
- Murder
Verdict: This was released as The Girl Was Young in the US. It is a lesser known film, but it's a turn back toward lighter fare after Sabotage. It's more of an action/thriller/romance in the vein of what Hitchcock would do in North By Northwest. It holds up well as the fifth of six thrillers that led to Hitchcock getting hired to direct films in America.
There are two sequences of note that evidence the technical mastery of the camera Hitchcock is noted for: the mine collapse and the hotel crane shot. The mine collapse is an innovative shot where a car is driven into a mine shaft, and the floor gives way underneath it. The car falls in, and Erica has to be pulled to safety with further bits of the ground falling away as she's pulled clear. Regarding the crane shot, in an interview with Francois Truffaut, the director recalled, "I place the camera in the highest position: above the hotel lounge next to the ceiling, and we dolly it down, right through the lobby, into the big ballroom, and past the dancers, the bandstand, and the musicians, right up to a close-up of the drummer. The musicians are all in blackface, and we stay on the drummer's face until his eyes fill the screen. And then, the eyes twitch. The whole thing was done in one shot."
The theme of identity is played throughout the movie from the wrong man being accused to his sneaking out of court by way of disguise and on through his posing as other people several times in the movie. Erica's aunt plays a game of blind man's bluff at a party which Hitchcock felt was a symbol of the entire movie. Will is given new clothes to hide his identity, and the killer hides in plain sight in blackface, again masking his identity. Ultimately everyone is found out, suggesting that Hitchcock is emphasizing that someone's inner character always protrudes through the mask they wear and reveals them for who they are.
Out of five bananas, I give it:
There are two sequences of note that evidence the technical mastery of the camera Hitchcock is noted for: the mine collapse and the hotel crane shot. The mine collapse is an innovative shot where a car is driven into a mine shaft, and the floor gives way underneath it. The car falls in, and Erica has to be pulled to safety with further bits of the ground falling away as she's pulled clear. Regarding the crane shot, in an interview with Francois Truffaut, the director recalled, "I place the camera in the highest position: above the hotel lounge next to the ceiling, and we dolly it down, right through the lobby, into the big ballroom, and past the dancers, the bandstand, and the musicians, right up to a close-up of the drummer. The musicians are all in blackface, and we stay on the drummer's face until his eyes fill the screen. And then, the eyes twitch. The whole thing was done in one shot."
The theme of identity is played throughout the movie from the wrong man being accused to his sneaking out of court by way of disguise and on through his posing as other people several times in the movie. Erica's aunt plays a game of blind man's bluff at a party which Hitchcock felt was a symbol of the entire movie. Will is given new clothes to hide his identity, and the killer hides in plain sight in blackface, again masking his identity. Ultimately everyone is found out, suggesting that Hitchcock is emphasizing that someone's inner character always protrudes through the mask they wear and reveals them for who they are.
Out of five bananas, I give it:
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