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

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

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

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

Stars:

June Tripp, Ivor Novello, Marie Ault

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Marie Ault	...	The Landlady
Arthur Chesney	...	Her Husband
June Tripp	...	Daisy - A Mannequin (as June)
Malcolm Keen	...	Joe - 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 | serial killer | fiancee | expressionism | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

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:

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

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

For the opening scene, where the Avenger's murder victim faces the camera and screams, Sir Alfred Hitchcock filmed the scene by having the actress lie down on a large sheet of glass, with her golden hair spread out around her head. He then lit the actress from underneath the sheet of glass, and filmed her with a camera mounted on its side, with the lens pointed at a downward angle. This gave the appearance that her hair (with its golden curls, so important to the murderer) was ringed in a halo of light.

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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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Alternate Versions

An earlier version broadcast on the AMC Channel (before commercials were part of their format) had a 74-minute print from the National Film Archive Collection and contained an unidentified orchestral score.

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Connections

Referenced in E! True Hollywood Story: Alfred Hitchcock (1999)

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.