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So much average

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The first time I saw this picture I found it overwhelming, the third time it was still overwhelming. Hitchcock really played his game in this picture using all available tricks concerning both photography, effects, intrigue and above all constantly towering suspense. All is experienced from poor Ben's point of view, who is scared out of his wits from the start by the dead man's hand and all that follows. The intrigue is ingenious in its complexity, and you never get it all the first time, maybe not even the second, maybe not even the third, but it's logical all the same. The whole story is just some gangsters trying to run away, but poor Ben understands nothing and only gradually gets into one detail after the other. Even the cliffhangers are used at large and are immediately followed by worse ones. It's dynamic dynamite all the way in the development of a thriller intrigue, and not until the very end at last something is explained, and naturally, poor Ben saves the situation. Or else it would not have been Hitchcock.

it has been reported that Hitch shucked this one off after it was made and didn't have anything good to say about it. The Movie does seem disjointed and clunky at times and is certainly a product of its Era. But hold on. You would be hard pressed to find another very Low-Budget Movie from the early thirties with a final Third Act so frantically edited and exciting in its use of quick cuts and miniature manipulation.It zips along with a frenetic chase between a bus and a train and finally a Docking Pier that eerily anticipates modern Film Technique. It is true that Hitchcock abandon this visceral type of fast paced thrill for more crafted Suspense and toned down displays. But here He experiments with the tools at hand and shows why He would later be called a Master. This was Playtime for Hitch at School and it shows.The first half of the Movie with its Old Dark House sensibility has its moments too. Darkly lit with creepiness and shadows lurking everywhere with some limited remarkable Action and Plot twists. It all emerges as not all that clear what is going on and who is who, but this is not serious stuff, it is just for some Fun at the Bijou.

That is sad because Alfred Hitchcock was/is one of the greatest and most influential directors of all time. None of his films seen(there are still some to go) are truly awful films but he did make some disappointments. And Number Seventeen is one of them, of Hitchcock's films it is in my bottom 3 along with Juno and the Paycock and Jamaica Inn. But it is a little better than those two, because it actually does feel like Hitchcock, but unfortunately not Hitchcock at his best. The best thing is definitely the climatic train chase sequence, it is very Hitchcockian and is suspenseful, fast-paced and thrilling. The lighting and use of shadows are striking and there is some nice spooky atmosphere going on. Anne Grey is also quite good in her role, the only one of the cast who stands out in a good way. Everybody else in the cast has acting that comes across as stagy and overacted, the character of Ben is very annoying. The editing ranges from erratically jerky to sloppy, making Number Seventeen one of Hitchcock's least audacious films. There are some of Hitchcock's touches like the McGuffin and the final twenty minutes, but there is really the sense that his heart was not in it and that he had little interest in the film. The script has the odd bit of black humour, which is more nice rather than funny, but too much of the script is stilted. The story suffers from being convoluted, things being left underdeveloped and under-explained due to the too short length and pacing that is, especially in the first third of the film(the final twenty minutes is really where Number Seventeen really comes to life), as creaky as nearly broken floorboards. Overall, Number Seventeen is far from truly disastrous but a disappointing misfire for the Master of Suspense. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Billy Wilder, a far greater filmmaker than Hitchcock could ever aspire to be, had a penchant for the name Sheldrake; he bestowed it on a Producer played by Fred Clark in Sunset Boulevard and almost a decade later he gave it to Fred MacMurray in The Apartment. In Number Seventeen Garry Marsh plays a character named Sheldrake and that, I'm afraid, is about as close to a genius like Wilder as journeyman Hitch ever came, despite the hype, PR and King's New Clothes element that clings to him like ectoplasm. If you're happy to go along with a plot that has a wind blow the hat off a character in the first minute and on retrieving it he decides, on a whim, to explore an old house with a For Sale/Rent sign in front of it, and then becomes embroiled with a disappearing corpse and a gang of jewel thieves then don't let me spoil your enjoyment. I'll be watching re-runs of 'Crossroads' which have more to offer.