Year of Release: 1937Country of Origin: UK
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Nova Pilbeam, Derrick De Marney, Percy Marmont
Plot outline: Man on the run from a murder charge enlists a beautiful stranger who must put herself at risk for his cause (IMDb).
An assortment of Hitchcock's greatest early movies are featured in a three-disc collection.
Loosely based on Josephine Tey's 1936 novel A Shilling for Candles, although it misses the heart-tearing suspense, this movie (a.k.a. The Girl Was Young) serves his purposes - and ours - quite well. Hitchcock has the demonic knack of filling the commonplace with terror: a serene English countryside under his glance suddenly grows ugly and threatening; a rail road yard can be made as ominous and mysterious as Herr Frankenstein's castle; a crowded dance floor in a hotel dining room becomes sinister and dread. When murder blights a drowsy English village, Hitchcock twists and weaves these melodramatic commonplaces into a taut skein of adventure and romance. Nova Pilbeam plays the constable's daughter with a wholesome and natural charm and a delightful ease of manner. Derrick De Marney, as the suspect, is agreeably light-hearted in the shadow of the noose. And there are a panel of delightful characters around them - in particular, the annoyingly optimistic solicitor, J. H. Roberts, the frowsy old china mender, Edward Rigby, and the several muddling-through constables and Yard men. But chiefly, of course, I admire Mr. Hitchcock. (NYT)My judgement: *** out of 4 stars
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