Henry Caine

So here’s Number Seventeen, a Hitchcock film that’s almost never mentioned when Hitchcock is up for discussion. “A disaster,” is how the man himself described it, having been forced into directing it by his studio. But then who remembers Rich and Strange (great title) which came before, or Waltzes from Vienna, which came after? In the silent era Hitchcock had already hit his stride with The Lodger, but when the talkies came in it’s as if he had to re-learn everything. By 1934 and The Man Who Knew Too Much, the process was complete. But here, in 1932, he’s only halfway there. That said, there’s lots of good stuff here. The opener, for … Read more