Detective Barton (John Stuart) approaches number 17, an empty house with a for sale or rent sign in front of it. Inside he sees the light from a candle flicker at the windows. He enters the house to investigate. Inside he finds a squatter named Ben (Leon M. Lion). To keep his identity a secret he tells Ben that his name is Fordyce. He also finds a dead body. Ben claims that he knows nothing about the dead man. Ben checks the dead man’s pockets and finds handcuffs and a gun. He takes the gun.
Barton continues searching the house. They hear sounds overhead. A young woman, Rose Ackroyd (Ann Casson) falls through the roof and lands by their feet. She says she lives at Number 15 and that she is looking for her father. When they return to the body, they find it gone.
Not long after that three people enter the house. Brant (Donald Calthrop), Henry Doyle (Barry Jones) and Nora (Anne Grey), a woman that Brant says is a deaf-mute. Brant and Doyle are looking for a stolen necklace that is supposed to be hidden in the house somewhere. The bad guys find a telegram on Rose. It is from Barton to Rose’s father, who happens to be a policeman, telling him about the necklace and that a criminal named Sheldrake (Garry Marsh) is expected to escape with it. It also tells Ackroyd to keep an eye on Number 17 until he gets there.
Sheldrake shows up and extracts the necklace from its hiding place. The dead body that had been on the stairs turns out to actually be alive and is Rose’s father Officer Ackroyd (Henry Caine). The thieves and the good guys fight. Ben manages to steal the necklace off of Sheldrake in the scuffle. The good guys get locked up in one of the rooms and the bad guys, Brant, Sheldrake and Doyle along with Anne, whose loyalties seem to have shifted, take off. They leave the house and board a train headed out of the country. Trying to catch up with the criminals. Barton high jacks a bus and heads out after the train. The pursuit begins.
“Number Seventeen” AKA “Number 17” was released in 1932 and was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is a British thriller comedy. The film was based on the 1929 stage play of the same name written by Joseph Jefferson Farjeon.
One of the most talked about problems with the film is that it is confusing to many. One of the reasons for that is that several of the characters have false identities and are pretending to be other people. It makes for some strange character references. You quickly lose track of who’s who. The main draw of the film is the chase scene between the bus and the train. It goes for a long time and has some really nice miniatures as special effects. I kinda liked the movie. Yes, it was confusing and I had to watch it more than once to get some of it, even though I’m still confused in spots, but the visuals were actually interesting. It had a noir vibe to it that drew me in. Outside of that, it’s not the best Hitchcock had to offer.
It is an older lesser known Hitchcock film and one that Hitchcock himself didn’t like. Supposedly it was one of the few Hitchcock films that Hitchcock himself doesn't have a cameo in, although I have read that he was an unconfirmed passenger on the high-jacked bus. Either could be true.