Why so much hype?

What a waste of my time!!!

Just so...so bad

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

'Number Seventeen' is not so classic Hitchcock, but it has its moments and there are plenty of those. The Hitchcockian style of huumor and mystery is all there. Although occasionally out of balance with comedic overtones following with dark shadowy play, the fast pace of the movie and never ending twists and surprises manage to keep the film on track. Hitchcock himself detested the movie and even called it as one of his worst movies, 'Number Seventeen' is still masterful piece of filmmaking. Entertaining edge on your seat ride from beginning to end. The chase scene with train and bus is amazing that one can even call it groundbreaking action film making.

Assorted characters bump into each other in a seemingly empty house on a dark and windy night. This is one of Alfred Hitchcock's least popular films, with many even going so far as to call it his worst (I assume they have been mercifully spared viewings of Jamaica Inn, Juno and the Paycock, and Topaz). I actually like it. Not love but like. Yes, I found Leon M. Lion as annoying as everyone else the first time I saw this. But having seen it a couple of times since he bothers me much less than he did originally. It's a good-looking picture with some nice "old dark house" atmosphere going for it and the beginning and ending are sequences worthy of consideration for Hitch's 1930s highlight reel. If you like ODH films, which were certainly very popular in the '20s and '30s, then you will probably enjoy this one. I think if it didn't have Hitchcock's name attached, with the high expectations that come along with that, then it might be more appreciated.

Taken separately from the rest of the film, the first half of Number Seventeen is probably the worst thing Hitchcock has ever done. The plot is so confusing that I had almost no idea what was going on. A character's supposed to be mute, so when she speaks it's supposed to be a surprise, but her supposed muteness is so poorly conveyed that I had no idea that she was supposed to be a mute. The whole reason for anyone to be there in the first place is similarly nebulous and I'm still not exactly sure why the police inspector is pursuing the criminals either.The acting is also pretty atrocious; special mention goes to Leon M. Lion who gives one of the worst performances I've ever seen in a professional motion picture. The garbled audio quality certainly doesn't help, but again going by the acting, it's probably merciful we don't get to hear all of the dialogue. The chase scene and train crash at the end is rather exciting – and the only really worthwhile part of Number Seventeen – but it's not enough to redeem the awful first half.

Although I have not seen all of Hitchcock's UK sound films, this has got to be the worst. It opens like Dreyer's VAMPYR (released the same year as this), murky doings in an old house, people coming and going, a dead body disappears, and all in silence. Then characters arrive and interact with each other. However, without any exposition and with the sound recorded so low, one can't make out what is going on or what they are saying. The accents are omnipresent, the speech is fast, there is a cockney fellow, Ben, whose every word is indecipherable. Henry Higgins would have run screaming from the theater.After half an hour of this muddled dialogue and people wandering around encountering each other, we suddenly cut to a chase between two models, one of a bus, the other of a runaway train, for another half hour, until the obligatory crash at a canal barge, a few rescues and the end title. My print ran 1:05:33.This would have fared better as a silent with numerous title cards, explaining either what we just saw and/or what we are about to see. If indeed there was a plot. Or is this a joke, pulled over our eyes by Hitch, just to see what we'd make of it. There is a hallucinatory effect over the whole project, as if we were drugged and trying to make sense out of brain fog.In any case it is a waste of time and along with JUNO AND THE PAYCOCK three years earlier, a true low in the director's oeuvre.