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| Number 13 | |
|---|---|
 Film still | |
| Directed by | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Written by | Anita Ross |
| Produced by | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Starring | Clare Greet Ernest Thesiger |
Production company | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Languages | Silent film English intertitles |
In 1922,Alfred Hitchcock obtained his first shot at directing forGainsborough Pictures with the filmNumber 13 (orMrs. Peabody) but due to financial difficulties, it was never completed.[1]
Clare Greet andErnest Thesiger were to star as husband and wife. The story was about low-income residents of a building, financed by The Peabody Trust, founded by American banker-philanthropistGeorge Foster Peabody, to offer affordable housing to needy Londoners.
However, the film's budget fell apart, and it was pulled from production after only a handful ofscenes were shot. Hitchcock rarely, if ever, spoke about his first directing project, until his biographer,Donald Spoto, asked him about life in the early twenties, and his first films. On one occasion, he said that it was a "somewhat chastening experience".
As with Hitchcock's laterlost filmThe Mountain Eagle, footage fromNumber 13 has become widely sought after by film historians andcollectors without success.
Number 13 was written by Anita Ross, a woman employed at theIslington studio. She claimed to have a professional association withCharlie Chaplin, according to Hitchcock, in his book-length interview withFrançois Truffaut,Hitchcock/Truffaut (Simon and Schuster, 1967).
Clare Greet was obliged to finance the production with her own money; before her, Alfred Hitchcock's uncle John Hitchcock had also provided funds. Greet's generosity was something the director never forgot, and she appeared in more Hitchcock films than any other performer (other thanLeo 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), andJamaica Inn (1939).
