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 Lodger, The
(1927)
Director:
Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Ivor Novello
Release Company:
Laserlight Video
MPAA Rating: NR
Alfred
Hitchcock Store
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"I had seen a play called Who Is He?, based on Mrs. Belloc Lowndes' novel The Lodger. The action was set in a house that took in roomers and the landlady wondered whether her 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."
Alfred Hitchcock
Although Alfred Hitchcock had directed a few previous films, The Lodger represents his first real film--the first in which he exercised his own visual and narrative style. Returning from a stint in Germany, Hitch enhances his film with a memorable ceiling shot through plate glass (destined for film school study) and incorporates expressionist symbols throughout the well-paced drama. In what would become a trademark, Hitchcock appears for first time in one of his films, actually appearing twice--sitting in a newsroom and leaning against the railing on the right hand side during the classic crowd scene near the end.
Other Hitchcockian conceits abound for sharp-eyed viewers: heavy use of the MacGuffin, blonde heroines, ambiguity of character (where both good and evil may both exist), and the theme of an innocent man being accused of a crime. Hitchcock returns to this idea--the protagonist must find the criminal to clear himself--numerous times, notably in The 39 Steps, Saboteur, and North by Northwest. As Hitchcock indicated to François Truffaut, he uses this theme of the accused innocent man primarily with the audience in mind, giving them a greater sense of danger: "It's easier for them to identify with him than with a guilty man on the run."
Indeed, when the audience definitively learns that an innocent man is wrongly accused, Hitchcock builds additional layers of suspense by putting his life in danger, handcuffing him as a frenzied mob pursues him. To escape a potential lynching, the innocent man gets hung up over a railing, suggesting a possible Christ metaphor. Hitchcock suggests that the handcuffs have sexual connotations but, true to form, he remains delightfully ambiguous.
Had the silent era lasted longer, Hitchcock undoubtedly would find himself in the same pantheon of silent director gods that includes Griffith, Chaplin, Murnau, Lang, and Eisenstein. His visual style certainly matches the greats of the silent era, but history shows that Hitch mastered both silents and talkies. Hitchcock's often-overlooked original version of The Lodger is a fine film, tightly edited and economically paced.
Opening with a blonde screaming with an immediate cut to a flashing electric sign advertising a musical called "Tonight, Golden Curls," a crowd gathers around a drowned girl; murder is suggested. London Police arrive with the Press right behind. The camera follows a newsman to a phone and the story is revealed bit by bit, beginning with a Teletype machine. The news spreads like gossip through gatherings of people, radio announcements, a large electric news sign, and newspapers. Puzzle pieces emerge: a serial murderer along the lines of Jack the Ripper leaving a triangle calling card as "The Avenger," only women are killed, only blondes, on consecutive Tuesdays.
Hitchcock shows a montage of Londoners' reaction shots. Paranoia spreads, especially among the numerous blonde women in the film, including Daisy (identified only as "June” in the IMDB), who still lives with her father and mother nearby. A possible witness to the most recent murder describes the assailant, emphasizing the scarf he wears.
Enter Ivor Novello, wearing a dark cape and scarf, only his eyes visible--one of the great entrances in film history! Responding to the "Room to Let" sign placed by Daisy's parents, he seeks lodging and pays for a month's rent. Not only does his entrance arouse suspicion, but his behavior is odd. The Lodger's effeminate mannerisms indicate that he is different than the usual men who frequent the neighborhood, and he is both drawn and repulsed by the wall photographs of blonde women, soon asking that they be removed.
Yet he is drawn to Daisy. Does he love her, or does her fair hair perversely attract him? He certainly appears filled with guilt-ridden angst in the privacy of his room, yet he gazes at Daisy tenderly whenever she's present. Sexual tension fills these scenes, so the audience continually must piece these mysterious contradictions together. Can such a likeable character really be the dreaded serial killer?
Hitch plays up the ambiguity to the hilt, adding a police investigator to the sexual mix as well. He has pursued Daisy for a period and takes an instant dislike to his competitor. It's not beyond Hitchcock's imagination to cast the investigator as a wolf in the sheep herd either, and hints of this possibility are dropped. Hitchcock might have done more with his protagonist, but he faced the same problem here that he would later encounter in the 1940s with Cary Grant in Suspicion: Certain stars had to be used with tight restrictions. According to Hitchcock,
"Ivor Novello, the leading man, was a matinee idol in England. He was a very big name at the time. These are the problems we face with the star system. Very often the story line is jeopardized because a star cannot be the villain."
Such is the life of the consummate director. Hitch may not have been able to supply all the nuances that he wanted to include in The Lodger (and the eventual resolution concerning the actual killer proves to be a letdown), but the tightly constructed 83-minute thriller is a damned fine piece of filmmaking, a preview of some of his finest work to come. The Laserlight Video DVD copy jumps in places and contains some spots and other blemishes, but is watchable. If another version preserves a better copy of this 1927 silent, it's worth collecting. This first true Hitchcockian film is a keeper.
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