Hitchcock | Number Seventeen (1931)

Number Seventeen (1931)
written by Alfred Hitchcock, Alma Reville & Rodney Ackland, based on the play by Joseph Jefferson Farjeon

Word is that Hitchcock didn't want to direct this one. Luckily, he decided to have fun with the film and maybe get some directorial practice out of it. Hitchcock plays with shadows and farce and model trains. There are people dangling from railings, jumping over boxcars and failing through skylights.The film is populated with an unemployed wino/sailor, a man pretending to be a detective pretending to be a crook and a detective pretending to be a disinterested party. None of the characters have any depth to them whatsoever, but at least the movie's fun to watch.

What can you say about Number Seventeen? It's a brief sixty minutes of Hitchcock being a goofball. For one of his throwaway films, it's not a bad way to spend an hour. (6/10)

Watched the region 2 DVD released by Optimum in 2007 as a part of the Early Hitchcock Collection. Nice print and bad compression, as with all of their releases.