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The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog
US film poster
Directed by	Alfred Hitchcock
Produced by	Uncredited: Michael Balcon Carlyle Blackwell
Written by	Novel - Play: Marie Belloc Lowndes Screenplay: Eliot Stannard Uncredited: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring	Marie Ault Arthur Chesney June Malcolm Keen Ivor Novello Uncredited: Reginald Gardiner
Cinematography	Gaetano di Ventimiglia
Editing by	Ivor Montagu
Distributed by	Woolf & Freedman Film Service
Release date(s)	14 February 1927
Running time	75 min.
Language	Silent film English intertitles
Budget	UK£ 12,000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (often just called The Lodger) is a 1927 silent film directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Production 3 Analysis 4 Soundtrack 5 Remakes 6 Trivia 7 References 8 External links

The story is about a Jack the Ripper-type murderer known only as "The Avenger" 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 — a blonde model — becomes enamored with the lodger. At the same time, Joe — Daisy’s boyfriend and a detective assigned to The Avenger case — becomes jealous of the lodger and suspects he may be the murderer.

It is based on a novel of the same name by Marie Belloc Lowndes, and a play "Who Is He?" cowritten by Belloc Lowndes, about 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. The landlady told Sickert that the previous tenant had been Jack the Ripper. This was the third film Hitchcock directed. 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.

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 – 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.^{[citation needed]}

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. While Hitchcock had made two previous films, in later years the director would refer to The Lodger as the first true "Hitchcock film"^[1]

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 also the basis of three other films:

• The Lodger (1932) directed by Maurice Elvey and also starring Ivor Novello in the lead role
• The Lodger (1944) directed by John Brahm and starring Laird Cregar
• Man in the Attic (1953) directed by Hugo Fregonese and starring Jack Palance

• Alfred Hitchcock cameo: Alfred Hitchcock appears sitting at a desk in the newsroom with his back to the camera (3 minutes into the film). This is Alfred Hitchcock's first recognizable film cameo and was to become a standard practice for the remainder of his films.

1. ^ Richard Allen and Sam Ishii-Gonzales Alfred Hitchcock Centenary Essays pg. iv

• Download a copy of Hitchcock's The Lodger from World Cinema Online
• The Lodger at the Internet Movie Database
• Essay: The Lodger: The First 'Hitchcock' Film

v • d • e Films directed by Alfred Hitchcock

1920s: Number 13 • The Pleasure Garden • The Mountain Eagle • The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog • Downhill • Easy Virtue • The Ring • The Farmer's Wife • Champagne • The Manxman • Blackmail • 1930s: Juno and the Paycock • Murder! • Elstree Calling • The Skin Game • Mary • Number Seventeen • Rich and Strange • Waltzes from Vienna • The Man Who Knew Too Much • The 39 Steps • Secret Agent • Sabotage • Young and Innocent • The Lady Vanishes • Jamaica Inn • 1940s: Rebecca • Foreign Correspondent • Mr. & Mrs. Smith • Suspicion • Saboteur • Shadow of a Doubt • Lifeboat • Aventure Malgache • Bon Voyage • Spellbound • Notorious • The Paradine Case • Rope • Under Capricorn • 1950s: Stage Fright • Strangers on a Train • I Confess • Dial M for Murder • Rear Window • To Catch a Thief • The Trouble with Harry • The Man Who Knew Too Much • The Wrong Man • Vertigo • North by Northwest • 1960s: Psycho • The Birds • Marnie • Torn Curtain • Topaz • 1970s: Frenzy • Family Plot