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 | expressionism | angry mob | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

None

Release Date:

14 February 1927 (UK)

Also Known As:

The Lodger

Filming Locations:

Islington, London, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

GBP12,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$83,260

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

In shots looking downstairs to the hand-cuffed Daisy, the lodger's position varies between left shoulder forward to the camera and right shoulder forward.

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Quotes

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

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Crazy Credits

Closing credits: Thank you to everyone who supported the BFI's Silent Hitchcock restoration project.

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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

Featured in The One Show: Episode dated 22 January 2013 (2013)

User Reviews

The real Hitchcock is born

This is the first real Hitchcock movie. The one in which he really starts to use all his abilities, although we can see that they are still not mature yet. It's very interesting because he makes a lot of experiments in this film, like the glass ceiling, and we see how hard he wanted, at the time, to really make his mark, to stand above the rest. Although the ending is not very good, the first 20 minutes of The Lodger are impressive, with Hitchcock slowly telling us (visually, of course) about the killer and his particularities, until the arrival of Ivor Novello. A must-see picture to any real Hitchcock fan