From the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, comes Number Seventeen, a gem of a comedy-thriller from the legendary director’s early years in the British film industry. In an empty London house, a hobo named Ben (Leon M. Lion) looks for shelter—but instead finds a corpse. When a detective (John Stuart) shows up, he questions Ben, but is interrupted when a girl (Ann Casson) falls through the roof. Her father has vanished, and she’s received an inscrutable telegram that mentions both the house and a missing necklace. Soon more suspicious characters turn up, all looking for the necklace, and none of them who they claim to be. With its exhilarating climactic chase sequence and masterful mix of suspense, scares and humor, Number Seventeen is pure, classic Hitchcock!
For thoughts on Number Seventeen, please check out my colleague Mike Vaughn’s thoughts here.
Video Quality
Number Seventeen makes its Blu-Ray debut thanks to Kino Classics with a brand new 1080p master from a 4K restoration performed by StudioCanal and BFI. For a film that is pushing 90 years old, this is a truly spectacular presentation. The gorgeous black-and-white photography shines in high definition with natural grain intact. There is a pleasing amount of detail present with nice textures on the clothing and within the production design. The new transfer shows off a great amount of depth and enhanced detail within the film’s composition. Black levels are very deep with no overwhelming occurrence of black crush or compression artifacts. The contrast is well defined, and the track experiences next to nothing in the way of flicker or other instability. This presentation has been lovingly restored to eliminate pretty much all damage. Kino Classics, StudioCanal and the BFI have done some marvelous work here.
Audio Quality
The Blu-Ray comes with a solid DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track that serves this movie incredibly well considering its place in early sound recording. Dialogue and background noises are represented in perfect harmony with all competing elements. This track does present with a minor amount of age related wear and tear including some faint hissing and hollowness that likely date back to the source elements. The music from Adolph Hallis never overpowers the dialogue or other important information. There are optional English (SDH) subtitles included for the feature film. The good folks at Kino Classics have done their best to provide the most stable track possible for this one.
Special Features
- Audio Commentary: Film Historian and Critic Peter Tonguette delivers a great, informative commentary track in which he discusses where Hitchcock was at this point in his career, how his visual style in this film compares to his other features, the convoluted nature of the plot, the film’s history, the techniques he would develop in future films and more.
- Hitchcock – The Early Years Documentary: A 55-minute archival documentary which delivers a lot of information about the early days of Hitchcock which do not get mentioned as much as his more famous work. There are several very knowledgeable film historians which detail how these films fit into his overall body of work along with numerous clips from these films.
- Hitchcock/Truffaut – Icon Interviews Icon: A six-minute audio interview in which Hitchcock discusses the process of creating Number Seventeen including trying to work with a big group of cats, his reputation of the time, his thoughts on the film and more.
- Introduction by Noel Simsolo: A nearly four-minute introduction from the film historian in which he discusses how Hitchcock came to make this film, the early attempts to make the film a farce, the technical achievements of the director, the themes of the film and more.
- Trailers: A 45-second trailer is provided for Number Seventeen. There are also trailers provided for Blackmail, Murder!, The Paradine Case, Under Capricorn and Lifeboat.
Final Thoughts
Number Seventeen is far from an essential work from Alfred Hitchcock, but it proves to be an interesting stepping stone for the Master of Suspense. The plot is slightly convoluted yet Hitchcock engages in some really intriguing filmmaking on a technical level that showcases how he utilized his imagination when crafting his work. Although the script is all over the place, the performers mostly carry their weight when it comes to execution. Kino Classics has released a new Blu-Ray featuring a truly stunning A/V presentation and a solid number of supplemental features. Those looking to round out their Hitchcock collection should find this to be an excellent addition. Recommended
Number Seventeen is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Kino Classics has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
