British films in the early 1930's were notorious for having next to no production budget, and Number 17 looks really cheap with it's abandoned house set which is a series of empty rooms. However Hitchcock's inventive direction makes the film very entertaining.
There are a series of clever scenes, a couple hanging from a banister over a staircase, a fight scene that's very well edited and much noirish camera work. Hitchcock throws in lots of comedy relief with some sort of cockney character who is a really over the top after a while.
Towards the end of the film there is an exciting chase between a bus and a train. The model work leaves a lot to be desired (always kind of a problem in a Hitchcock picture), but if you can overlook that aspect of the film, it's extremely well done and very exciting, in some ways it reminds me of the finale to Strangers On A Train.
Number 17 was made three years before Hitchcock's breakout film The 39 Steps, but it has a lot of his famous weird camera angles, his montage editing effects and his mixture of suspense and humor all things he was to use repeatedly in his career. Hitchcock was a very skilled filmmaker in his prime.
It's somewhat surprising this film isn't better known it certainly has a lot to recommend it.
64 minutes.
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