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Number 17 | Year: 1932 Classification: Mystery / Suspense Directed: - Alfred Hitchcock Actors/Actresses: - Leon M. Lion - Anne Grey - John Stuart Well worth seeing I liked this film. While there are some weakness, particularly the final chase scene which was obviously a train set, overall the movie is quite good.<BR>The story focuses around a stolen necklace, and a series of colourful characters, including a cockney who was a scene stealer, a deaf mute woman, a rather nosy lead actor and a number of "bad guys". Well worth watching, particularly if you keep in mind that this film is over 70 years old, and still holds its own Hitch called it a 'disaster': he was wrong. 'Number Seventeen' offers early proof of Hitchcock's mastery of, and thriving in, confined spaces. The first two-thirds of the film takes place in an abandoned townhouse, whose physical and atmospheric character - its vast emptiness, with corpses and killers lurking in the shadows; its three-storey staircase on which the events take place, giant silhouettes flashing on the wall; its maze-like landings and rooms concealing unexpected surprises; its rotting woodwork, threatening to collapse the whole house; its forbiddingly geometric exteriors - has much more presence than the atrocious actors, prattling on with some nonsense about stolen diamonds in a plot that was obviously based on a stilted, but popular play. The film begins with one of those bravura silent Expressionist sequences Hitchcock was so fond of in his early films. On a blustery night, our first image is of a stray hat blowing into the screen, eventually followed by its owner, the film's enigmatic hero. He stops at the grounds of a large house, with an ancient 'For Sale' sign; curious, he enters. The half-comic, half-terrifying Grand Guignol that follows, intercutting shadows, candles, mysterious strangers, doors opening and shutting, slow creeps up staircases, is extraordinary. Even furing the interminable dialogue scenes that follow, Hitch overcomes boredome with brusque but witty editing and compositions. There is one more terrific set-piece indoors, when the hero and the nominal heroine are tied by villains to a landing banister at the top of the house, which suddenly collapses. You can tell Hitch is itching to get out for some fresh air, though, and jumps at the chance to follow the crooks on their getaway train. Here begins one of the greatest chase sequences in the cinema. The hero is pushed off the train, commandeers a coach full of passengers and at lightening speed, chases the train across country. Due to some bumbling and accidents.., the train has lost its driver and is hurtling towards destruction. The crosscutting of the two interrelated movements, and the mix of cinematic formalism and 'human-interest' stories, is breathtaking. And, brilliantly, it doesn't end there... stunning chiller A stunning chiller, Hitchcock's NUMBER SEVENTEEN is a suspenseful thriller filled with great performances and great scenes. A dead body in a deserted house, found with handcuffs and a gun in his pocket, suddenly disappears. Weird people meet in a deserted haunted house at midnight. Gunshots in the dark. Ghostly white clutching hands. A strange cockney. A deaf and dumb woman who speaks. A diamond necklace found in a water-closet. All these strange events happen in the timeframe of a few short hours, without any reason or warning. Hitchcock draws on all the tricks of the trade in this beautifully-constructed thriller, featuring Leon M. Lion, Anne Grey, Ann Casson, John Stuart, Donald Calthrop, Barry Jones, Garry Marsh, Henry Caine and Herbert Langley. Buy Number 17 at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Number 17 Search with the Priority Search Engine on Number 17 This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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