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Mystery thriller

Number Seventeen

Year
1932
Length
64 minBFI 64-minute presentation Version sources ↓

A vacant house, a corpse, a missing necklace, and several uncertain identities lead into a chase that refuses to remain indoors.

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Language
English
MysteryFunny Approachable · Moderate Mystery thriller
White railway tracks fork across vivid blue beside a red signal lever and diagonal title lettering.

Image: Monocurator · source · Original Monocurator artwork

What to expect

Hitchcock treats a conventional stage mystery as raw material for shadows, staircases, miniature spectacle, and accelerating movement. Its roughness reveals a director testing how far cinema can outrun explanation.

How to ease in

Do not demand perfect clarity from every identity. Follow the necklace and the shifting division between intruders, detectives, and thieves until the train sequence takes over.

Heads-up

A quick, non-exhaustive note Includes murder, gun violence, falls, train and ferry peril, deception, comic treatment of danger, and a deliberately tangled plot.
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The house promises a locked-room puzzle, then the film seems impatient with its own walls. I enjoy the moment explanation gives way to pure machinery and speed.

— Momo

Momo thinking about this film

Credits & versions

Version map

BFI 64-minute presentation 64 min 64 minutes is attached only to the named BFI 64-minute presentation. No unsupported cut, score, territory, frame rate, source element, or restoration detail is inferred. Source: British Film Institute — Number Seventeen Runtime reference · Checked 2026-08-22

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