Review: Number 17
A hobo (played by
Leon M. Lion) and a couple of other people, stumble upon a dead body, and some
nasty jewel thieves planning to escape on a train out of England. But no one is
quite as they appear in this extraordinarily convoluted tale.
Superb black and
white cinematography and nicely captured atmosphere, and an interesting central
idea save this somewhat archaic, confusing and talky 1932 Alfred Hitchcock (“Psycho”, “Strangers on a Train”, “The
Lady Vanishes”, “Vertigo”) film
from being one of his worst.
The ridiculously
named Leon M. Lion is an acquired taste as the hobo character (Hitchcock
apparently hated the guy intensely, but then Hitch was never much of a fan of
actors, was he?), but aside from his dorky attempt at a cockney accent, I
rather enjoyed him compared to some of the stiffer members of the cast. In
fact, with the rather appropriately loud music score by A. Hallis, and the
Expressionistic photography and so on, this might’ve worked a lot better as a
silent film. Shame, then, that it’s a ‘talkie’ (and a talky one at that) and makes very little sense plot-wise.
Not bad overall,
though (I’d place it about 31st of the 39 Hitchcock films I’ve seen,
in between “Under Capricorn” and “Young and Innocent”), and at least
worth seeing once, especially for Hitchcock completists. The screenplay is by
Hitchcock, wife Alma Reville (“The Lady
Vanishes”), and Rodney Ackland (“49th
Parallel”), from the J. Jefferson Farjeon play.
Rating: C+
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