Number Seventeen

Detective Barton arrives at a house marked for sale or rent. The door is unlocked and he wanders in. An unknown person with a candle is wandering about and a dead body is found. When confronted, the mysterious person claims innocence of the murder. Barton, who introduces himself as Forsythe, asks the stranger about the contents of his pockets before the shadow of a hand is shown reaching for a doorknob. The stranger, who later introduces himself as Ben, searches the dead body and finds handcuffs and a gun, which he takes.

The detective returns from investigating the weird sound and finds the handcuffs that the stranger had left on the ground. A woman called Miss Ackroyd is seen through shadows crawling on the roof. After falling through the roof, she is revived and cries out for her father. She explains that her father is on the roof and that they are next door in number 15.

The bell tolls half past midnight and the dead body has disappeared. Three people arrive at the windswept house: Mr. Ackroyd, Nora (a deaf-mute) and a third person. Ben draws out the gun and accidentally shoots the governor. Mr. Ackroyd draws out a gun and asks him to search the gentlemen, Ben and Miss Ackroyd. The telegram is revealed to Mr. Ackroyd. Sheldrake retrieves the diamond necklace, which he has hidden in the upper portion of a toilet. Ben causes a commotion and is locked away with Sheldrake.

Sheldrake reaches out and appears to strangle Ben, who is only feigning unconsciousness. When more members of the gang arrive, they suggest binding Miss Ackroyd and Forsythe. One of the men is Miss Ackroyd's father, a police officer, who locks away two of the thieves and frees Miss Ackroyd and Doyle. He opens the door behind which Ben is locked away with Sheldrake, and he engages in a fistfight with Sheldrake.

The other man reveals himself as Sheldrake (the supposed corpse) and frees the others. Miss Ackroyd and Forsythe are bound again. Nora reveals that she is able to speak and says "I'm coming back." She returns and frees Miss Ackroyd and Doyle. Miss Ackroyd faints but recovers. Nora returns to the basement to allay the suspicions of the other thieves and to buy time for the rest to escape. They free Ben and Miss Ackroyd's father. The thieves arrive at the railyard and board a departing freight train bound for Germany.

The train departs with Ben aboard and he stumbles onto crates of wine. The thieves, after dispatching the conductor, walk to the front of the train, shoot the fireman and catch the driver as he faints. Forsythe, who failed to board the train before it departed, commandeers a bus. Ben is revealed to have the necklace. Sheldrake discovers that he does n0t have the necklace and the thieves fight each other. Sheldrake claims that one of them is Barton, a detective posing as a thief. A chase scene occurs on the train as the thieves go after Barton, who escapes and handcuffs Nora. Forsythe's bus races after the train. The thieves, realising that the train is accelerating, try to find the brakes. They turn dials helplessly and notice Forsythe's bus.

Despite the thieves' efforts, the train only accelerates, leaving them unable to escape. At the dock, the ferry arrives. As Forsythe watches, the train hurtles through the dock, crashes into the train on the ferry at full speed and pushes it out to sea, dragging the remaining cars into the ocean. People are rescued from the water. Doyle tells Forsythe that he is posing as Detective Barton, but Forsythe, who is actually Barton, says to Doyle, "You can't be Barton because I am." All of the thieves are apprehended by the police. Ben reveals that he has the diamond necklace.

• Leon M. Lion as Ben
• Anne Grey as Nora – The 'Deaf-Mute' Girl
• John Stuart as Barton – The Detective
• Donald Calthrop as Brant – Nora's Escort
• Barry Jones as Henry Doyle
• Ann Casson as Rose Ackroyd
• Henry Caine as Mr. Ackroyd
• Garry Marsh as Sheldrake

Hitchcock returned to England from a trip to the Caribbean with a new idea for a film. He told John Maxwell about it, but Maxwell said that Walter C. Mycroft had a different project for Hitchcock: a filmed version of Joseph Farjeon's play Number Seventeen. Hitchcock was unhappy with the project, as he considered the story to be riddled with cliches. He instead wished to film a version of John Van Druten's play London Wall. Director Thomas Bentley, who directed the 1932 film adaptation of London Wall titled After Office Hours, had wished to direct Number Seventeen.[2]

Hitchcock was assigned writer Rodney Ackland for the film, which was intended as a comedy-oriented thriller.[2]

Although the opening credits confirm the picture's title as Number Seventeen, much of the promotional material and many modern-day film databases refer to the film as Number 17, which was its American release title. In the 1966 book Hitchcock/Truffaut, Hitchcock called the film a "disaster."

The film makes extensive use of miniature sets, including a model train, bus and ferry.

Many critics who may be unfamiliar with the film's comedy origins have judged Number Seventeen as a failed attempt at serious drama.[1] A reviewer for Variety wrote in August 1932: "Like the play, the story is vague and, despite its intended eeriness, unconvincing. It is asking a lot of an audience—even a picture one—to make them believe a woman accomplice of a band of thieves will fall in love at first sight with a detective and prevent his being done in by her associates." The review observed that the climactic train crash scene was "very good, but not sufficient to make it anything but a program feature."[3]

Upon the film's initial release, some audience members reacted to Number Seventeen with confusion and disappointment.[2] In the 1966 book Hitchcock/Truffaut, François Truffaut offered a similar verdict, telling Hitchcock that he had found the film "quite funny, but the story was rather confusing."

Number Seventeen continues to garner generally negative reviews; the critical consensus published by review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes calls the film "highly entertaining but practically incomprehensible" and an "unsatisfactory early tongue-in-cheek comedy/suspense yarn."[4]

Number Seventeen, as are all of Hitchcock's British films, is copyrighted worldwide,[5][6] but it has been widely bootlegged on home video.[7] However, various licensed, restored releases have appeared on DVD disc and video-on-demand services. On December 7, 2021, the film was released on Blu-ray disc in the U.S. by Kino Lorber.[8]

• Number 17 (1928)

• Spoto, Donald (1999). The Dark Side of Genius: The Life Of Alfred Hitchcock. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80932-X.

• Number Seventeen at IMDb
• Number Seventeen at AllMovie
• Number Seventeen at Rotten Tomatoes
• Number Seventeen at the BFI's Screenonline
• Number Seventeen at the TCM Movie Database
• Alfred Hitchcock Collectors’ Guide: Number Seventeen at Brenton Film