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

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Marie Belloc Lowndes (novel)
Eliot Stannard (scenario)

Release Date:

14 February 1927 (UK)

Genre:

Crime | Horror | Thriller

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Suspect | Detective | Rent | Killer | Serial Killer

Cast

Marie Ault	...	The Landlady
Arthur Chesney	...	Her Husband
June	...	Daisy - a Mannequin
Malcolm Keen	...	Joe - a Police Detective
Ivor Novello	...	The Lodger

Also Known As:

The Case of Jonathan Drew

Runtime:

75 min | USA:83 min | USA:101 min (TCM print) | Spain:67 min (VHS version) | Canada:98 min (Ontario)

Country:

UK

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

Spain:13 | Spain:T | Canada:PG (Ontario) | South Korea:15 (2007) | Germany:12 | UK:PG | USA:Unrated | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Islington, London, England, UK

Company:

Carlyle Blackwell Productions

Trivia:

Director Cameo: [Alfred Hitchcock]a desk in the newsroom early in the film. Some people claim he also appears later in the crowd lynch scene.

Goofs:

Continuity: After the lodger escapes handcuffed, Daisy meets him sitting on a bank in the street. Then she sits down side by side with him. After that he puts his head on her right shoulder, with his face touching her face. Between shots she appears alone with nobody on her shoulder.

Quotes:

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

Movie Connections:

Featured in Paul Merton Looks at Alfred Hitchcock (2009) (TV)

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.