The Lodger (1927)
"The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog" (original title)

A landlady suspects her new lodger is the madman killing women in London.

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Marie Belloc Lowndes (from the novel by), Eliot Stannard (scenario),

Stars:

Marie Ault, Arthur Chesney, June

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Marie Ault	...	Mrs. Bunting - The Landlady
Arthur Chesney	...	Mr. Bunting - Her Husband
June	...	Daisy Bunting - Their Daughter
Malcolm Keen	...	Joe Chandler - a Police Detective
Ivor Novello	...	The Lodger

Storyline

A serial killer known as "The Avenger" is on the loose in London, murdering blonde women. A mysterious man arrives at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Bunting looking for a room to rent. The Bunting's daughter is a blonde model and is seeing one of the detectives assigned to the case. The detective becomes jealous of the lodger and begins to suspect he may be the avenger.

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Plot Keywords:

lodger | detective | suspect | killer | rent | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 February 1927 (UK)

Also Known As:

The Lodger

Filming Locations:

Islington, London, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

£12,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Gainsborough Pictures, Carlyle Blackwell Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

68 min 74 min (National Film Archive print) 90 min (TCM print) 67 min (VHS) 98 min (Ontario) 92 min (2012) (theatrical)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Hitchcock told François Truffaut that, though he had made two films prior to this, he considered this his first true film.

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Goofs

When the lodger is playing a game of chess with Daisy (about 26 minutes into the movie), the chessboard is set up incorrectly. A game of chess is always played with a black square on the far-left and a white square on the far-right of the board as they face it; on this occasion the board is the wrong way around and should be rotated 90 degrees in either direction for it to be correct.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Female eyewitness: Tall he was - and his face all wrapped up.

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Connections

Featured in Perspectives: Jonathan Ross: Alfred Hitchcock - Made in Britain (2013)

User Reviews

Fun stuff, very Hitchcock!

This movie is fantastic and fascinating mostly because of its director, but it would be fun either way. I'd say that it's better than many films of the same period, but not to the same extreme degree that Hitchcock's movies eventually achieved.

You can see it's his work, though. Hitchcock knew that what made a suspenseful movie good had nothing to do with gore or loud noises, and this shows even in his early work. The Lodger has a distinctly Hitchcock feel to it--fun and scary--and it's interesting to see how he gets around the lack of sound, considering the fact that most (all?) of his other films were talkies.