NUMBER SEVENTEEN (1932) B/W 63m dir: Alfred Hitchcock

w/Léon M. Lion, Anne Grey, John Stuart, Donald Calthrop, Barry Jones, Garry Marsh

This is one of Hitchcock's early British sound films, made prior to his successes THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH and THE 39 STEPS.

From Now Playing: A Viewer's Guide to Turner Classic Movies: "A detective sets out to recover a necklace lifted by jewel thieves."

From Francois Truffaut's book of interviews with the director, Hitchcock:

"F.T. You made Number Seventeen in 1932. I saw the film at the Cinémathèque. It was quite funny, but the story was rather confusing.

"A.H. A disaster! But there was a funny incident during the shooting. Part of the film was set in an empty house in which gangsters were hiding out, and there was to be a fair amount of gunplay. It occurred to me that it would be an intriguing idea if we used this house also as a refuge for all the stray cats of the neighborhood. Every time a gun was shot, a hundred cats would run up or down the stairs. These shots were to be separated from the action, for greater facility, in order to play around with the scene in the editing stage.

"The camera was set up at the bottom of the stairway. On the morning we were finally all set to shoot the cats, I arrived to find the studio full of people. I asked why there were so many extras. 'They're not extras,' I was told. 'They're the people who own the cats.'

"We put flat panels all around the bottom of the stairway. Each owner came forward and put his or her cat in the stall and then we were ready to shoot. The cameraman switched his motor on and the prop man fired a gun. All the cats leaped right over the barrier; not one went up the stairs. They were all over the studio. And for the next few hours all you could hear was the owners going around saying, 'Pussy, pussy, pussy.'

"'That's my cat!'

"'No, it's mine!'

"Eventually, we got them all together again, and this time we had a wire netting put around so that they couldn't run away. Everything was ready. Camera. Bang! This time only three ran up the stairs. All the rest turned and clung desperately to the netting. So I gave it up.

"F.T. The picture was based on a novel that had also been a stage play [by Jefferson Farjeon]. Did you choose the story?

"A.H. No, it was bought by the studio [British International Pictures] and they assigned me to the picture.

"F.T. As movies go, this one was rather short; it ran for about an hour. The first part, inside the house, is probably taken from the play. The second half, as I remember it, was better. There was a long chase sequence, with wonderful miniature models of cars and trains. As a matter of fact, the miniatures in your films are always very handsome."