Number Seventeen [1932]

Hitchcock shows no interest in the stolen jewels mcguffin or in developing the romantic subplot - it is certainly not a labour of love, but it is one more step towards his classic British thrillers.


British Gaumont Productions   October 11, 2001
jasonyoung72@yahoo.com (London, England)
1 out of 8 found this review helpful

Having had success studying engineering at the University of London and going on to work as an illustrator for the 'Lasky Players Company', Hitchcock got the break to make early British silent and talking pictures. 'Number Seventeen' is one of those films which means that there is nothing distinctly Hitchcockian about it, but certainly very British. His move to Hollywood after 'Jamaica Inn' enabled him to transcend his skills as a director from being cultural to being a director.


Yes, you will end up squinting at the screen...   May 9, 2006
L. Davidson (Belfast, N.Ireland)
"Number 17" is perhaps the worst of Hitchcock's 1930's films, although I have not yet seen them all . Even taking into account it's age, it's grainy picture and fuzzy sound, this film is a poor effort , certainly when compared to "Murder" and "Juno and the Paycock" , which were made around the same time. A lot of the camerawork was shaky and I spent much of the film trying to identify which characters were which ,first in a house and then on a steam train. This endeavour wasn't helped by nearly all of the men being dressed in trilby hats and grey overcoats and speaking with the same clipped English accents. All except dear old cor-lumme-luvaduck-Guv'nor Ben of course , the not very lovable halfwit. The plot is about a gang of thieves who try to flee the country with a valuable necklace with the police hot on their tails. The action scenes in the final part of this short film were also unimpressive ; I don't think that model train set was fooling anyone...