The Lodger – 1926 | 75 mins | Drama | B&W – Silent

Plot Synopsis

The first true Hitchcock film was The Lodger, ostensibly about Jack the Ripper, but this is left open. The concept of suspicion, though, was the crux of the picture and the basis for suspense. Adapted from the novel of the same name, the plot was basically: was the new boarder in the lodging house Jack the Ripper? The suspense mounts until even the audience – who up to that time considered the boarder innocent thinks he is the killer. This is the first appearance of the theme of many later Hitchcock films: that of the wrong man accused of a crime and his escape from the people in pursuit. The distribution company, Wardour, on first viewing thought The Lodger was terrible and cancelled its bookings. Even with the drawing power of its matinee-idol star Ivor Novello, The Lodger just could not interest the distributor. A few months later a new screening was arranged.

After Wardour asked Hitchcock to make some small changes, it released The Lodger to reviews calling it about the best British picture ever made. No doubt this was due to the many technical tricks Hitchcock created for the film. For example, when the landlady hears the lodger’s footsteps above, she “sees” them in what looks like a double-exposure but is actually a plate glass floor. The use of lighting to create the suggest shadows which haunt the film, and the gripping mob scene at the end of the film-with the lodger in handcuffs hanging on an iron fence, alluding to the crucifixion are also significant. All of these trend-setting innovations were controversial in their day, but they worked then as they now. Luckily the boarder has been discovered to be innocent and is saved from the mob which rounds him. He too is after the killer, as his sister was a victim.

Extract© Richard A. Harris, Michael S. Lasky: The Complete Films of Alfred Hitchcock.