Note: This post includes spoilers for the film.
In his book length interview with Francois Truffaut, Hitch stated, "
The Lodger was the first true 'Hitchcock movie.'" This may not have been Hitch's first film, but it was the first that felt like the type of movie Hitch would become known for. This was no longer the romantic melodrama that characterized his career before this, this was a suspense film, whose plot revolved around murder and mistaken identities. Such a view of this film would be shared by critic and biographer Donald Spoto, who would state that this was the first time Hitchcock, “revealed his psychological attraction to the association between sex and murder, between ecstasy and death”.
In this film, a serial killer, known as The Avenger, is murdering innocent blond women. Meanwhile a lodger (Ivor Novello) moves into a house where a happy family lives. Because of the lodger's strange behavior, the landlady (Marie Ault) starts to believe that he is perhaps the serial killer. When he starts spending time with her blonde daughter (June Tripp) she grows very nervous.
A few months ago, I took some friends to see this film at a movie theatre that plays classic films (
Old Town Music Hall in El Segundo, CA). Some of them had never seen a silent film before and some only had a passing familiarity with Alfred Hitchcock. Yet they all found themselves very much enjoying the movie and some admitted that they were surprised by some of the turns the story took. That this movie can still surprise and grip modern audiences with little to no familiarity with silent movies speaks to the power of Hitch's filmmaking.
This movie grips its audience from the very start. The opening shot is a close-up of a woman screaming. We have no context for this at first. This shot is followed by a montage of images. First, we see the words "to-night golden curls" in flashing lights. Then we see a woman's body lying dead on the floor. Afterwards is an older woman reacting in horror. Then we see a policeman taking down notes. Through these images our minds start to do detective work piecing together a story from images. This causes us to immediately become mentally absorbed in the film before we even meet the main characters. A similar opening would later take place in
Rear Window (1954) as the camera pans across L.B. Jeffries apartment giving us views of various photographs and newspaper clippings that cause us paste together what has happened to the main character before a single word of dialogue is spoken. Both scenes are also a great example of Hitchcock's ideal view of "pure cinema," where the story is told through various images rather than dialogue or intertitles. It is also fascinating that the opening shot is from the point of view of the serial killer, a character who we will never once see onscreen. In his book,
Hitchcock the Murderous Gaze, William Rothman examines this theme writing, "The opening shot shows us what the Avenger sees, even if it withholds all views of this figure from us (in particular, it withholds the woman's frightful vision). Within the world of the film, the Avenger is a viewer, The scene of which this is shot is a fragment is rooted in our own role of viewers. We possess views of this world, while necessarily remaining unseen by the being who dwell within it."
Many films with this great of an opening fail to live up to the great start. That is not the case with this movie at all. Hitch's passion for visual filmmaking is striking throughout. As can be seen in his films from this period, the influence of German expressionism is very clear. This can be seen in the ways each of the shots are set up, the various sets and the great stylized intertitles. Many of the shots here are just as perfectly framed as those in Hitch's later more popular films. As is true of many of Hitch's best films, there are shots that will stay with you long after you finish watching. Though Hitch would sometimes refer to his British work as the work of a talented amateur, the visual storytelling in this film prove that he was far from an amateur. At the same time these visuals are not only here to look great but also to help tell the story. Thanks to these visuals, there is a great sense of atmosphere throughout the whole film.
Yet this movie is not only worth watching for its visuals. While its story is rather simple (especially compared to Hitch's later work), it is quite engaging. We care about these characters. They may not be complex, but they are likable, and the happy ending (even if Hitch himself wasn't a fan) feels completely deserved and satisfying. There are also enough twists and turns to keep the audience guessing throughout.
About the formation of this film Hitch stated, "I had seen a play called
Who is He?, based on Mrs. Belloc Lowndes's novel,
The Lodger. The action was set in a house that took roomers, and the landlady wondered whether the new boarder was Jack the Ripper or not. I treated it very simply, purely from her point of view. Since then, there have been two or three remakes, but they are too elaborate."
Though today, Alfred Hitchcock is the name that most will know going into this film. The big name attached to this movie at the time was Ivor Novello, who played the title character. An actor, songwriter and singer, he was a very well-known name in the U.K. at this time. It was on this film that Hitch learned one of the most difficult aspects with working with popular stars, wasn't the stars themselves but the public perception of them. Simply put, a matinee idol like Novello could not be a villain. Because of this Hitch had to make it very clear by the end that Novello was in fact completely innocent of the crimes. This is not to say that Hitch planned to make the character an outright villain though. He had in fact wanted to end the movie with the audience still wondering whether or not the lodger was the killer. Later he ran into the same trouble making
Suspicion (1941), when having Cary Grant play a character, who the audience was supposed to whether or not he was a killer. Explaining his desire to not answer the question of whether or not the lodger was a killer, Hitch told Truffaut, "In this case, if your suspense revolves around the question: 'Is he or is he not Jack the Ripper?' and you reply, 'Yes, he is Jack the Ripper,' you merely confirmed a suspicion. To me, this is not dramatic. But here we went in the other direction and showed that he wasn't Jack the Ripper at all."
The theme of an innocent man being wrongful accused and finding themselves in danger would become one of Hitchcock's favorite motifs. It would be reused in such Hitchcock films as
The 39 Steps (1935),
Young and Innocent (1937),
Suspicion,
Saboteur (1942),
Spellbound (1945),
Strangers on a Train (1951),
To Catch a Thief (1955),
The Wrong Man (1956),
North by Northwest (1959) and
Frenzy (1972). In his book,
Hitchcock's Films Revisited, Film Scholar Robin Wood writes, "The 'falsely accused man' films typically take the form of what Andrew Britton has termed the 'double chase' plot structure: the hero pursued by the police, pursues the real villain(s)." In this Hitch's first movie with this motif, he already has established this "double chase" formula. Of these "falsely accused man" films the closest in spirit to
The Lodger is his last to use this theme,
Frenzy. Both have an unmistakably British setting, both feature a serial killer who is going around and killing women as well as an innocent man falsely accused of the crime and both balance out their darker story lines with a sense of humor.
Frenzy however takes this plot in a much more violent and sexual nature (it is a rare Hitchcock movie ton receive an R rating). Nevertheless, it is fascinating to compare these two films and see the work of an ever-evolving filmmaker at two different points in his career.
That the killer's victims are blonds also looks forward to future work of the great filmmaker. Hitchcock would later state, "Blondes make the best victims. They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints." Hitch would continue using blondes both as heroines and femme fatales. Due to their work with Hitch such actresses as Grace Kelly, Kim Novack, Eva Marie Saint, Janet Leigh and Tippi Hedren have all been referred to as Hitchcock Blondes. The term has become part of the common vernacular among cinephiles.
Upon its initial release, this film was hailed by critics as a landmark in British Cinema. Its 1928 release in America would receive less positive attention from critics. A reviewer from Variety was especially harsh stating, "They took a smashing theme, gummed it up with cheap and shoddy catering to the lowest taste of what they supposed to be their public, and then further smeared it with acting and photography that belongs to the American studio of 10 years ago."
This movie would later be remade multiple times.
The Lodger (1932) would even once again star Ivor Novello. Probably the best known of these remakes is Fox's 1944 version of the same name which was directed by John Brahm (who directed multiple episodes of
Alfred Hitchcock Presents and
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour) and starred Laird Cregar, Merle Oberon, George Sanders (who appeared in Hitch's
Rebecca (1940) and
Foreign Correspondent (1940)), Cedric Hardwicke (who acted in Hitch's
Suspicion and
Rope (1948) as well as two episodes of
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (
Wet Saturday (1956) and
A Man Greatly Beloved (1957))) and Sara Allgood (who appeared in Hitch's
Blackmail (1929) and
Juno and the Paycock (1930)). The film would also be remade again as
Man in the Attic (1953), which was directed by Hugo Fregonese. The story would also be reworked in a more contemporary setting with
The Lodger (2009), which was directed by David Ondaatje and starred Alfred Molina, Hope Davis and Simon Baker.
In early 1942 the Los Angeles Times stated that Hitchcock himself was interested in a color remake of the movie following the completion of
Saboteur. However, by the end of 1942, Fox would have already obtained the film rights to the story. However, Hitch had already been at least somewhat involved in a radio adaption of the story with a 1940 radio adaption. Produced by Walter Wagner (who produced Hitch's
Foreign Correspondent), it was Hitchcock's idea to adapt the original novel as a radio play. This was an audition for a series called
Suspense, which was originally intended as a series that would adapt Alfred Hitchcock films. As almost a forerunner to Hitch's later TV work, this series supposedly would have Hitchcock as the host. Actually, beyond suggesting this adaption and lending his name to the production, Hitchcock had little to do with the actual making of the production. Actor Joseph Kearns would even voice Alfred Hitchcock for the introduction. The stars of the radio play would be Herbert Marshall and Edmund Gwenn (both of whom appeared in
Foreign Correspondent). This radio adaption would not reveal the true identity of the killer, leaving many listeners very disappointed.
Suspense would actually be picked up as a radio series in 1942 but without any Alfred Hitchcock connection. You can listen to this radio production below.
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