Number 13 (film)

This article is about the film. For usage of the word as a number, see Number 13 (disambiguation).

Number 13
Hitchcock filming Number 13 in Rotherhithe, London.
Directed by	Alfred Hitchcock
Produced by	Alfred Hitchcock
Written by	Anita Ross
Starring	Clare Greet Ernest Thesiger
Studio	Gainsborough Pictures
Release date(s)	Unfinished/unreleased
Country	United Kingdom
Language	Silent film English intertitles

In 1922 Alfred Hitchcock obtained his first shot at directing for Gainsborough Pictures with the film Number 13 (or Mrs. Peabody).

The film was to star Clare Greet and Ernest Thesiger as husband and wife. Unfortunately, the film's budget fell apart, and it was pulled from production after only a handful of scenes were shot.

Production

After the film was pulled from production, the script was also lost. Although it is ultimately unclear what happened to the film, it is probable that Gainsborough melted it down for the small amount of silver nitrate it contained.

However, some information about the film has survived. The story was about low-income residents of a building, financed by The Peabody Trust, founded by American banker-philanthropist George Foster Peabody, to offer affordable housing to needy Londoners.

Number 13 was written by Anita Ross, a woman employed at the Islington studio. She claimed to have a professional association with Charlie Chaplin, according to Hitchcock, in his book-length interview with François Truffaut, Hitchcock/Truffaut (Simon and Schuster, 1967).

Cast

• Clare Greet
• Ernest Thesiger

Background and Production

• Hitchcock rarely or never spoke about his first directing project, until his biographer, Donald Spoto asked him about life in the early twenties, and his first films.
• Hitchcock, on one occasion, spoke about the film, saying that it was a "somewhat chastening experience", no doubt referring to his directorial debut being shut down and running out of funds.
• Much like Hitchcock's later film, The Mountain Eagle, any possibly existing footage of Number 13 has become widely sought after. Film historians and collectors have been looking for this film for decades and have no knowledge of what happened to it.
• Clare Greet was obliged to help the production by financing it with her own money; before her, Alfred Hitchcock's uncle John Hitchcock had also provided funds.
• Greet's generosity was something he never forgot, and she appeared in more Hitchcock films than any other performer (except for Leo G. Carroll who also appeared in six Hitchcock films) -- The Ring (1927), The Manxman (1929), Murder! (1930), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), Sabotage (1936), and Jamaica Inn (1939).

See also

• List of lost films

References

• Donald Spoto, The Life of Alfred Hitchcock: The Dark Side of Genius (HarperCollins Publishers, 1983) ISBN 0-00-216352-7
• Patrick McGilligan, Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light (Wiley and Sons, 2003) ISBN 0-470-86973-9

External links

• Number 13 at the Internet Movie Database
• Mrs. Peabody at SilentEra
• Link to still from film