Made in 1932, Number 17 sometimes shows it’s age. Netflix instant has an OK print. And its sound isn’t too bad.
Five minutes into it, you’ll be hearing past the hiss and seeing past any scratches without any effort on your part. It’s a fun movie that’ll pull you right in.
It starts with a man walking by a house at night. The house is empty with a For Sale sign on it. A light is moving around inside. The man goes in to investigate.
Before long, there’s a corpse! And a jewel thief! And a runaway train!!! And lots of shadows on the walls. There’s spooky houseness. There’s paranoia! It’s nice.
Stuff just keeps happening. I never knew what could possibly be next. For a pre-MTV movie, it’s pretty spry.
I really enjoyed the miniatures. They matched them with the full scale pretty well. I didn’t expect that either.
Although this is early Hitchcock, it’s still like nearly his 20th. His style isn’t as mature as in North by Northwest or Psycho, or maybe it is and only the acting styles changed over the years. Sometimes when the camera moves, it calls attention to itself. I think the technology just wasn’t there yet. There’s a bunch of small touches that really pay off.
A lot of people seem to dislike this film. Even Sir Alfred called it melodrama. But if you consider it was 1932 (!!!) , it’s so fresh.
And it’s just over an hour long, so you can’t say that you’d be wasting your time.
