I disagree with those who give short shrift to Number Seventeen.  First off, there's Ben, one of the more entertaining sidekicks ever to inhabit a Hitchcock film.  Then there's the sheer audacity of a train-versus-bus race that would put even a modern special effects wizard to the test.

          Okay, okay... I'll be the first to admit that the special effects displayed in Number Seventeen are positively primitive by today's standards. I'll also be the first to admit that the story is somewhat slight.  Still, the film is great fun and those who disparage it for being slight ought to stop delving for deep Hithchcockian themes, relax and allow themselves to enjoy a well-executed adventure story that goes so nicely with a bowl of popcorn.

          But, I digress.

          Number Seventeen is a Spooky-Old-House story that becomes a Jewel-Heist-Caper story which finally transmutes itself into a Runaway-Train story.  There's a nice contrast between the confines of the empty, old house during the first two-thirds of the film and the fast-paced action aboard a steam train speeding through the night which constitutes the third act of the picture.

          The male lead, John Stuart, is a bit wooden, but this is more than compensated for by Leo M. Lion as "Ben", one of those salty-types who are given to addressing their social betters as "Guv-ner".  Anne Grey, as the girl from next door, is cute, about as shiny as a new penny and... well, seems to be just learning her lines in most scenes.  (At least she's not over-rehearsed, if you want to look at it that way.)

          All in all, this film is well worth viewing as a light, early Hitchcock effort that has a kind of giddy fun with the studio's scale-model electric train set.