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Hitchcock called The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1926) his first film, and aside from being the earliest surviving Hitchcock film, it introduces the audience to a style that eventually defines Hitchcock as a director. The Lodger is a silent adaptation of a novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes of the same name about Jack the Ripper. The plot focuses on a mysterious new lodger who takes a room, who the landlady suspects might be the Ripper. The audience is kept in constant suspense as to whether or not the lodger is the ripper until the final moments of the film.

The Film

The Lodger stars matinee idol Ivor Novello as the lodger, who Hitchcock cast against type to play the sinister character. The lodger becomes romantically involved with the landlady’s daughter Daisy, played by “June“, who is already involved with a righteous police detective Joe, played by Malcom Keen. The lodger is a very mysterious character, whose actions and motives are kept very ambiguous until he confesses the real reasons behind his erratic behavior. Hitchcock was apparently all for an ambiguous ending, allowing for the possibility that the lodger could be the Ripper, but the studios were against it, and the happy ending that followed found the lodger being cleared of all suspicion and Hitchcock striving to gain complete artistic control over this films in the years to follow. The Lodger is not a wordy film; it has about 80 words which are all simple, effective and brutally to the point. At the beginning of the film, the phrase ‘TO-NITE GOLDEN CURLS’ is repeated so often it becomes almost chilling, which works well for establishing mood. Unfortunately, my copy of The Lodger was not in especially good condition, and a lot of the times the actors faces are completely washed out due to cheap restoration.

Identifiable Hitchcock Traits

The marriage of sex and violence is very clear in The Lodger, a theme that would haunt nearly every one of Hitchcock’s films. Also, the theme of an innocent man pursued for a crime he didn’t commit, another one of Hitchcock’s hallmarks, is showcased well in this film. Without the use of sound or music, the suspense is created through the film cuts, the use of line and gaze, and light and shadows. The most exciting scene in the movie is not at the climax, but the highly stylized shot of the lodger pacing on a glass floor, with the landlady looking up at it. The Lodger also marks the first film in which Hitchcock makes his famous cameo appearance, which was by accident, due to an extra shortage. While The Lodger itself is still a little rough around the edges, it established a name for the 27 year old director at the time, and made him a force to be reckoned with.

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