Product Details

• Actors: Carl Brisson, Lillian Hall-Davis, Ian Hunter, Forrester Harvey, Harry Terry
• Directors: Alfred Hitchcock
• Writers: Alfred Hitchcock
• Producers: John Maxwell
• Format: NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Subtitles: Spanish, Japanese, Chinese
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Cobra Entertainment LLC
• DVD Release Date: March 29, 2011
• Run Time: 98 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00000JQSC
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #190,354 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Number 17 / The Ring" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Mexican American Movie from the 1950's, January 24, 2004

By 

Marco Antonio Abarca (Colorado) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Ring [VHS] (VHS Tape)

There have been numerous movies entitled "The Ring". This review concerns the 1952 version of The Ring. (The 1955 in the Amazon caption is a mistake) This version stars Lalo Rios, Rita Moreno, Gerald Mohr, Jack Elam and the great Mexican American Boxer, Art Aragon.

From the box cover, "Recognition is an essential ingredient in being human and The Ring is an unforgiving caldron in which to learn of your self. The dream of life, to become all you are capable of being, is pounded into you daily by your family, friends, strangers and prejudice, yet we all cling to the dream. The dream: the way life could and should be. Tomas Cantanos (Lalo Rios), having been molded by the streets, sees the glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel and goes for it. Along the way he meets himmslef, along the way he meets life."

Tomas Cantanos is a young Mexican American growing up in the segregated Los Angeles of the early 1950's. He is frustrated and poor and has access only to limited opportunities. One evening Tommy is observed in a bar room brawl by a boxing manager. He is impressed with Tommy's prowess with his fists and convinces him to go to the gym and persue a career in the ring. The movie follows Tommy's rise and fall in the ring and his subsequent growth as a human being.

The Ring is your basic Hollywood immigrant drama where the new American must overcome racism and adversity to find himself and his place in American society. The story and acting are solid but nothing spectacular.

What made this a great movie for me was seeing Mexican American life in 1950's Los Angeles. There are great scenes of Tommy hanging out with his Pachuco friends at their club house. When I heard the Mambos and saw the cool suits, I could only think of my father's youth. I also loved the boxing scenes set in the great fight auditoriums of the 1950's. I had read of the great champion, Art Aragon, the Oscar de la Hoya of his day. It was great to see him in the ring. Finally, I had heard stories of the racism that Mexicans faced in the 1950's and it was powerful for me to see this racism portrayed on the screen.

On the screen, Mexican Americans have been all but ignored. This movie is more than 50 years old and still is as relevent and interesting as it was on the day it was released. The Ring is a wonderful mirror into 1950's Los Angeles.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, to say the least...., February 5, 2003

By 

melvin (Central Il) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Number 17 / The Ring (DVD)

I tend to dwell more on the technical side of the these Hitchcock Laserlite DVDs, than the movies themselves and this one may end up being that way for no better reason than the fact that this movie is just plain confusing! My recent viewing of the film "Number 17" was only the second time I'd ever seen it and I can easily assure any reader of this essay that I am more confused than I was after the first viewing. I can't decribe the plot because I don't really know what's going on. It starts with a tramp and a seeming gentleman finding a dead body in an old house, then the victim's daughter happens upon the two men, the body disapears, some jewel theives come to the house and cause havoc, then somehow they all (including the dead man who's not dead) end up in a train which leads to the grand finale: a chase between the train and a tour bus that comes out of nowhere. The special minerature effects at the end have often gotten flack for looking fake, but I believe now, as I did with my first viewing, that they don't look any worse than King Kong's stop motion animation on top the Empire State Building.

The second feature, "The Ring," is a lesser known and surprisingly entertaining Hitchcock silent drama about a circus ticket girl torn between two potential lovers: one a prize fighter, the other his sparring partner who happens to be the only man that can beat him. The plot sounds typical and forgettable, but don't let that fool you. Hitchcock adds a lot of very innovative visual flair to the film and the acting is pretty passionate not overly dramatic as a lot of silent acting performances tend to be.

The DVD transfer of "Number 17" is fair. The sound is full of annoying hiss which can be reduced by turning off the surround sound and turning up the bass up on your stereo, the contrast is annoyingly jumpy (too bright in some scenes and too dark in others,) however, it does remain flat for the most part, which is better than scenes being washed out all the time like some film transfers. Of "The Ring," I understand that not everyone can handle the silent treatment, but the intelligently chosen mucial accompaniment by Laserlite makes the movie an easy one to get through, even though the film was transferred at a slow speed, making the movie about 15 miutes longer than it was intended to be.

Rumor is Hitchcock was forced to do "Number 17" and even though it's far from his best film, it's almost just as far from his worst film too, and since it's obscure enough that it probably wont get a full-on restoration any time soon, it deserves a better treatment than what Laserlite has given it. But, to Laserlite's defense is the fact that they didn't have to release it at all and the low price tag on the disc plus the addition of "The Ring" makes it a good collectible for the budget-minded Hitchcock nut.

3 stars to Hitchcock for his confusing but, at times, entertaining film "Number 17," and his entertaining Silent treat "The Ring" and 3 stars to Laserlite for trying but not trying harder.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars You Decide, October 22, 2000

By 

J. Center (Wilmington, DE United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Number 17 / The Ring (DVD)

I'm going to sit right in the middle of the fence on this one. I rather like Number 17 despite its all-too-apparent flaws. It's one of Hitch's least leisurely films, running only an hour and three minutes. The train/bus chase is wonderfully imagined, if you can get past the obvious model work. The characters ARE hard to keep track of -- none are particularly engaging -- yet you find yourself rather quickly engaged by them and the truly silly, convoluted plot.

Unfortunately, Laserlight hasn't bothered with any restoration work, and the print is pretty awful on the DVD. The most that can be said is that it's not as bad as most of the Madacy prints and that, with the addition of the silent feature, The Ring, the DVD is a true value for the Hitchcock collector. And on that topic, The Ring has values of its own, including impressive performances by Carl Brisson and Ian Hunter. Sadly, Lilian Hall-Davis's heroine is mostly trashy and unattractive.