The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (often just called
The Lodger) was a
1927 silent film directed by
Alfred Hitchcock. It is based on a story of the same name by
Marie Adelaide Lowndes about a fictional version of the
Jack The Ripper killings. The book itself was allegedly based on an anecdote told to the painter
Walter Sickert by his landlady when renting a room; she said that the previous tenant had been Jack the Ripper. This was the third film Hitchcock directed and the first he made a cameo in. It is also the prototypical "Hitchcockian" film.
Despite all the effort that Hitchcock put into the film, producer
Michael Balcon was furious with the end result and nearly shelved the film - and Hitchcock's career as well. After considerable bickering, a compromise was reached and film critic
Ivor Montagu was hired to salvage the film. Hitchcock was initially resentful of the intrusion, but Montagu recognized the director's technical skill and artistry and made only minor suggestions, mostly concerning the title cards and the reshooting of a few minor scenes.
The result, described by Hitchcock scholar
Donald Spoto, is "the first time Hitchcock has revealed his psychological attraction to the association between sex and murder, between ecstasy and death." It would pave the way for his later work.
The story is about a
Jack the Ripper-type murderer in
London, who has been killing young blonde women. Meanwhile, a mysterious man arrives at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Bunting looking for a room to rent. The Bunting's daughter, Daisy â€" a blonde model â€" becomes enamored with the lodger. At the same time, Joe â€" Daisy's boyfriend and a detective assigned to The Avenger case â€" becomes jealous of the lodger and suspects he may be the murderer.
Though made in 1926,
The Lodger still resonates with modern audiences. Ostensibly a murder mystery, the film is as much about public and media hysteria as about crime â€" the news reporting in
The Lodger is certainly not "fair and balanced." The film impacts how audiences view the benefits and drawbacks of the breakneck speed of modern communications and stimulates dialogue on current affairs.
The Lodger introduced themes that would run through much of Hitchcock's later work: the innocent man on the run, hunted down by a self-righteous society, and a fetishistic sexuality. Perhaps for the first time, a truly cinematic eye was at work in British cinema. Hitchcock had clearly been watching contemporary films by
Murnau and
Lang, whose influence can be seen in the ominous camera angles and claustrophobic lighting.
In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Hitchcock's birth, a new orchestral soundtrack was composed by
Ashley Irwin. The composer's recording of the score with the
Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg was broadcast over the
ARTE TV network in Europe on August 13, 1999.
The first live performance was given on September 29, 2000 in the Nikolaisaal in
Potsdam by the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg under the direction of
Scott Lawton.
The novel was remade into two other films:
The Lodger (1944 film) starring
Laird CregarMan in the Attic starring
Jack Palance*
Download a copy of Hitchcock's The Lodger from World Cinema Online
*
An analysis of The Lodger in the context of Hitchcock's career
