Customer Reviews

The Lodger

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This excellent DVD release is well overdue because "The Lodger" is an essential and important film in the Alfred Hitchcock repertoire, being the first film to feature all the famous Hitchcock trademarks. Not only was it revolutionary new genre back in the mid 1920s, but it remains an outstanding silent film to this day, and is a shining example of how effective, dramatic and poignant a well-made silent film can be. Without the medium of sound, silent film directors became very creative in the use of visual effects, and "The Lodger" boasts some excellent examples. These were most probably inspired by German Expressionism, to which Hitchcock was exposed early in his career, and from which he took their effective use of light and shadow, unusual camera angles and visually expressive style to make good use in his own productions. The shadowy look and solemn mood of typical German Expressionist films suit the theme of this Hitchcock thriller perfectly because it is based on the ever-popular story of Jack the Ripper. On foggy Tuesday nights in London, young blonde girls are murdered by someone calling himself `The Avenger', and when a mysterious stranger arrives at a house looking for accommodation, the family begins to suspect their unusual lodger of being the killer. Suspense and drama escalate in true Hitchcock fashion as the viewer wonders if he really could be the killer, and if so, what danger awaits the daughter of the family who is falling in love with the mysterious stranger.

More than just a typical Hitchcock thriller, "The Lodger" boasts all the best features of finest silent cinema, and it was the turning point in Hitchcock's career, being acclaimed as the greatest British film made up to that date in 1926. Very good picture quality throughout is accentuated by perfect musical accompaniment to create the right mood, with even a choice of two different scores. The many bonus features on this DVD add to the viewer's understanding of the film and of Hitchcock himself, with a 20-minute documentary focussing on "The Lodger" as well as interviews with Hitchcock, an audio commentary to the film and other exciting and unusual items. Needless to say, this is an essential addition to any Hitchcock collection, but should not be overlooked by the general cinema enthusiast because silent films represent the foundation of modern cinema, and reveal the roots and early development of motion picture, as well as the various pioneers of the industry, Hitchcock being one of them.

I am a relative newcomer to silent films, so I can not pontificate on all of the nuances and wonderful subtleties The Lodger surely showcases. I can say that I enjoyed this film very much; the story retained its vigor throughout, and some of my preconceived notions regarding the conclusion were proven quite wrong. The Lodger bears the unmistakable influence of the Jack the Ripper murders. A number of fair-haired young ladies have been murdered on successive Tuesday nights in London, and the police basically have no clue as to the killer's identity. On the heels of the sixth murder, a stranger comes seeking a room at the lodging house of an elderly couple. The woman is put ill at ease immediately, and who could blame her? The mysterious lodger makes his appearance standing at the door with a scarf covering the lower part of his face, looking amazingly just like Bela Lugosi would look several years later when he made his grand entrance in Dracula. He's a little strange, taking down all the pictures of fair-haired girls in his room, but the kindly old woman's suspicions are raised significantly when she witnesses her strange boarder sneaking out for a half hour on the next Tuesday night, returning just after a fresh murder had been committed down the street. The couple worries about their daughter Daisy, who has taken a definite shine to the strange young man (to the chagrin of her traditional suitor, who happens to be a detective assigned to the serial killer hunt). Determined to keep Daisy away from possible danger, her parents nevertheless manage to let her go out with the lodger the next Tuesday night, and this serves as the setup for the culminating scenes wherein Daisy's long-time suitor/detective accuses the stranger of being the wanted serial killer known as The Avenger.

It is something of a strange experience to watch a silent movie. I always wonder what the actors are actually saying; they talk up a storm, yet we are shown only scattered fragments of their conversations. The actors all play their roles to great excess, seemingly overemphasizing their expressions to help make up for the lack of actual dialogue. Sometimes their faces are completely bleached out as the quality of the picture varies. Frankly, I had not even thought about Alfred Hitchcock having made silent movies early in his career, but The Lodger, his third silent film (although Hitchcock essentially chose not to count the first two), displays the genius Hitchcock would become famous for. There are several scenes that seemed quite impressive for a film made in 1926: early on, there is an interesting montage of faces blending from one to another; in one scene, the camera pans up and we see the ceiling disappear to show us the pacing strides of the lodger up above; and toward the end we witness a series of images pan across the ground as a character looks down in deep thought.

I was quite impressed by The Lodger. The basic story is clearly delineated despite the lack of dialogue, the direction is masterful, and the ending is in no way anticlimactic. I admit I sometimes found myself making up dialogue for the actors and actresses, but by the midway point I was so absorbed in the story that I forgot about it being a silent movie and just sat back and let myself become absorbed in the growing drama. If you are going to watch a silent movie, Hitchcock's The Lodger is more than worthy of your consideration.

This third film of Alfred Hitchcock's was his first thriller. This inspired account of a Jack-the-Ripper-style murderer named "The Avenger", who kills blond-haired women on Tuesday nights in London, shows a young and creative directorial talent at work.

Hitchcock worked from his own scenario of star Ivor Novello's stage play for this initial foray into what would later be familiar Hitchcock territory. Novello portrays a strange and aloof lodger, who stays in a room above a lower-middle-class family. In the evening streets of London, the Avenger's victims are being found closer and closer to the lodging houses. Eventually the landlords, and their daughter's police detective suitor, come to suspect that the mysterious lodger has unholy designs on their beautiful blond daughter. Can their suspicions be confirmed before it is too late?

Throughout the film there are examples of visual inspiration in shots of a restless lodger in the room above pacing back and forth as seen, through the floor (as if eyes could read what ears are unable to hear in silent films), by the landlady below, or in the desperate lodger suspended only by handcuffs on a spiked metal fence. The Lodger is an early treat for fans of Hitchcock's distinctive storytelling technique. We dare say that this film is his most entertaining and flashy narrative until 1929's Blackmail. And, for those wondering, Hitchcock makes the first of his on-screen appearances, with Hitchcock sitting with his back to the camera in an early newspaper office sequence and as a flat-grey-hat wearing crowd member in the climax.

One of the best silent films still in existence was first reported to have no extra features. It turns out that it has several including a very excellent commentary track by a film historian quite familiar with Hitchcock's work.

Story synopsis: A serial killer is seeking blonde girls as his victims in London. A strange lodger moves into a rented room. The man goes out on foggy nights, keeps a photo of an unidentified blonde girl in his room, and flirts with the landlady's daughter, Daisy, who just happens to be blonde. Daisy's boyfriend is a police detective, and jealousy arouses his suspicion more than it might normally be stirred. Along with Hitchcock's "Champagne", it is a landmark of the evolution of what was to become Hitchcock's style.

This disc is part of the Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection (Lifeboat / Spellbound / Notorious / The Paradine Case / Sabotage / Young and Innocent / Rebecca / The Lodger) released in the autumn of 2008. Initial pressings of this set revealed a humongous amount of complaints about quality, not just a few isolated ones. Numerous customers tried several sets only to see some problems in all of the sets and finally just give up and demand a refund. This disc was one of the four particularly "troubled discs" in this set, so you should approach with caution, although my disc has arrived and played trouble-free.

One theory about the problems is the tight wrapping on the packaging in the big Hitchcock set is warping discs and causing them to freeze, make horrendous grinding noises, or just not play at all. So far, there appears to be no studio response to this mishap.

First off, the DVD made by MGM, The Lodger, The Story of the London Fog, is an amazingly great package they put together.

Not only is this great silent picture meticulously restored, but you get two different scores to choose from, a funny story from Hitchcock's granddaughter Mary Stone, a Making Of featurette, two interviews with Hitchcock done in the early Sixties, commentary by film historian Patrick McGillian, and a 1940 radio show also directed by Hitchcock.

OK, so I hear all the hype: the first Hitchcockian thriller, the best film to come out of Britain at that time, first rate, must see, etc. Is it true?

In watching the film, the first thing you note is the German Expressionist film artistry that Hitchcock picked up from his time in Germany during the time of F.W. Mirnau and other great silent directors of the time. Their experimentation with light, tinting and shadow are evident.

Hitchcock created his own brand though, can't accuse him of being a copycat!

Briefly, the film starts out with a screaming woman with light-colored hair as she's being strangled, her hair all aglow. On the side, we see a marquee "To-Night Golden Curls." Prophetic.

The Avenger is a serial killer loose in London. The police are ineffective as this murderer kills any blondes he sees. It gets so worried women purposely wear dark curls under their hats so they won't be mistaken for blondes! "No peroxide for me!" one woman quips.

The Avenger though as bad a mass murderer can be, is secondary to the character of the Lodger, played by British silent film star Ivor Novello, and his budding relationship with Daisy, who is unfortunately blonde, and who unfortunately for her police detective fiancé, is falling for the Lodger.

The Lodger is not really given a name, which I thought was interesting. The suspense builds as the landlady and then the ex-boyfriend police detective, Joe, begin to suspect that the Lodger is in fact the Avenger. More and more clues are led up to a search warrant and the emptying of a mysterious satchel, the same kind of satchel that witnesses had said belonged to the Avenger.

Inside, we view a map with little triangles all over it (where murders were committed) and newspaper clippings of the Avenger's bloody trail. And a portrait! "Your first victim, eh?" snarls Joe!

Uh oh, doesn't look good for our man. Daisy adores him and can't see the Lodger being any kind of murderer. Is Daisy naive or is she about to be plucked?

The artistry of the film is amazing. The swinging ceiling lamp suggests pacing back and forth by the Lodger in his room. We seem to see through the ceiling to see his nervous pacing.

In fact, Hitchcock had a large six foot square thick pane of glass used to shoot through to the pacing young man, then super-imposed the glass image with the ceiling image.

Suspense-building, such as the white hand that is slowly going down the staircase, as the Lodger is making a mysterious exit from the lodge to some unknown destination or errand. The number on the lodge door: 13, naturally!

History:

Seeing the "making of" featurette was very educational. You hear Hitchcock's own words about his German influence, and how the studios did not want their prize boy being accused of murder. He states that he found the same with Cary Grant in "Suspicion." No one wanted Cary to actually be the murderer.

Despite the "star system" crimping his style, Hitchcock conveys all the mystery and suspense in this great silent picture, tints and all, Hitchcock's trademark personal cameos and the now-familiar themes of suspicion and mistaken identity are all here.

Highly recommended.

PS: I also have the Laser Light DVD version. That one is not restored and is difficult to see. Get the "Premiere Collection" from MGM.

Fortunately for all Hitchcock and silent film fans, MGM has released this cinematic achievement on DVD. This newly restored version looks great considering its age, and the minor film flicker and dots on the screen are not distracting from the movie at all. Most everyone already knows the story, basically Hitchcock has taken the Jack the Ripper story and played around with it to create this suspenseful movie about a mysterious lodger who is suspected by his landlords of being an infamous London serial killer. The film is classic Hitchcock, loaded with intrigue and wonderful camera shots.

The DVD itself is excellent as well. There is some juicy extras including a featurette on the making of the movie, Hitchcock audio interviews, and a 1940 radio play directed by Hitch himself. Another much appreciated extra is the two soundtracks to choose from. I would definitely go with the more classic and fitting 1999 score by Ashley Irwin. While the 1997 score by Paul Zaza is eerie in parts, it overall does not mesh with this 1926 film which benefits from the "older" sound of the dramatic 1999 Irwin score. Another interesting thing to note is that while Amazon lists the runtime as 83mins, this DVD has the uncut 100min version. In addition, the DVD includes a nice insert which gives a little bit of a backstory and includes a scene index. The DVD packaging and design is very appealing along with the rest of the Hitchcock films released by the Fox/MGM team. Also, unlike the discs from the Hitchcock Premiere Collection box set, none of these individually released discs seem to be defective.

All in all, i would recommend this great DVD to any Hitchcock fans or silent film lovers. While people who don't fall those two categories might still enjoy it, its hard to recommend it to everyone during this modern age of 3D visuals and booming sound effects. This DVD definitely will have you hearkening back to an older era of silence and shadows. Five Stars.

Hitchcock's ``The Lodger'' is a marvelous study in the obsessive behavior that lies latent in all of us, and sometimes boils up to the surface with disastrous results. The killer himself (note the nickname and the triangles) is clearly obsessed by something, though we never learn completely what. The lodger himself, the first victim's brother, is so dead-set on ``avenging'' his sister that he becomes a parody of the killer. The detective loses control of himself when his desire to catch the killer blends in with his anger over losing his girl to the lodger. And the crowd at the end - good people, but turned into ravenous wolves by their lust for the killer's blood as the lodger dangles Christlike between life and death. All in all, it's a profound, disturbing and thought-provoking film.

The Lodger is the first silent film I've ever seen but will probably be the best. Definitely classic Hitch about a man who looks very much like a murderer in London at that time and stays at a lodging house. In the house, is a girl who eventually falls in love for the man over her policeman boyfriend. When the policeman is around he and the others notice that the man is also acting very much like a murderer. Policeman then thinks that the man is the murderer. He finds equipment much like a murderer's in the man's bedroom and tries to take him in. The man escapes and is in an excellent climax. Turns out that the man was not the murderer but a man that noticed the murderer's tracks were leading to the house and was trying to catch him. Great climax scene with blood-thirsty crowd. Classic Hitch and I recomend to all that are searching for an old, good movie, or that follow hitchcock.

THE LODGER was Alfred Hitchcock's first big success and set the pattern for many of his future films. It also marks the first of his cameo appearances (there are two). Up until now, at least in the U.S., there have been no decent copies of THE LODGER available to see. It has been lovingly restored for this edition perhaps TOO lovingly as, in my opinion, this version has a few minor problems even though it's likely to be the best version available for many years to come.

Having spent his formative film years in Germany at UFA studios, Hitchcock wanted to use German Expressionistic techniques in his first mystery thriller. The title cards resemble THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI while the look of the film owes much to Fritz Lang especially his DR MABUSE movies. This restoration bathes the film in yellow and blue tints typical of the silent era but they appear a trifle oversaturated. The speed transfer seems unnaturally slow in places giving THE LODGER the look of a fever dream. This may have been Hitch's intentions but I don't think so. It looks more as if the film speed has been overcorrected much like Milestone's release of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA from a few years back.

A key component to silent film enjoyment is the background music score and here this PREMIERE COLLECTION edition got it right. The cheap public domain copies of THE LODGER which have been around for years have cheap public domain music to go along with them. This restored edition gives you two recent scores to choose from, a 1997 one by Paul Zaza and a 1999 one by Ashley Irwin. Both are very good and set the mood nicely. Most reviewers seem to prefer the Irwin score but I like the one by Zaza which incorporates familiar classical and popular tunes better.

Title: The Lodger
Release Date: 1926
Running time: 89 minutes (Brentwood DVD edition)
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Ivor Novello as Jonathan Drew (The Lodger)
June Tripp as Daisy Bunting
Malcolm Keen as Detective Joe Chandler
Marie Ault as Mrs. Bunting
Arthur Chesney as Mr. Bunting

Landmark silent feature by Hitchcock; considered by the director and many film buffs to be first example of the "Hitchcock style" of film making. The movie is a mystery/suspense film based on a novel by Mrs. Belloc Lowndes which was inspired by the murders of Jack The Ripper. The story details the fear and paranoia created by a series of murders of young blonde-haired women in London by a killer known as "The Avenger". The killer strikes on Tuesday nights and leaves a calling card (literaly) in the shape of a triangle with "The Avenger" written on it atop his victims bodies.
The movie opens with the killing of The Avenger's seventh victim and the immediate reaction to it as the news spreads across London. On the same night of the murder, a mysterious man appears at the front door of a home owned by the Bunting's, an elderly couple with an attractive blonde-haired daughter named Daisy. The man rents a room from the family and soon moves in upstairs. Daisy is smitten by the new lodger (played by London stage star/composer/playwrite Novello in an effectively creepy performance)which leads to a jealous reaction by Det. Joe Chandler, who himself desires to be with Daisy. Chandler soon finds himself assigned to the Avenger case, and through a series of events, comes to believe that the new lodger is in fact the murderer. Daisy's parents, particularly her mother (played by Ault in a good performance), also begin to believe that the man may be the killer. The movie builds to an exciting climax involving an enraged mob which leads to the resolution of the story. It is interesting that Hitchcock preferred to leave the ending up in the air, making the viewer decide whether the lodger was in fact The Avenger, but due to Novello's intense popularity with the English public, he was forced to resolve the film--with an ending that deffered from the novel's--in a way that would please the audience.
The movie features many things that would later become trademarks of Hitchcock's films. For instance the subject matter (a wrongly accused person being hounded by society), the camera techniques (including the way in which he shows the lodger pacing in his room above the Bunting's living area by showing the chandelier swaying back and forth on the ceiling while overlapping the image with a shot of Novello walking back and forth that was filmed from below through a specially designed plate-glass floor), the prevalence of blonde actresses in the movie, and the first on-screen appearance of the director (He appears in two scenes. The first is in a newsroom scene early in the picture and the second is during the climatic mob scene when he can be seen leaning against the railing as the lodger is rescued). The scene where Daisy is taking a bath while Novello is at the bathroom door also brings to mind Hitchcock's shower scene from Psycho. Perhaps the most famous scene in this film occurs 15 minutes into the movie when Novello makes his first appearance. The image of him emerging from the London fog as Mrs. Bunting opens the front door makes one's spine tingle. It's ironic that the production company that made the film refused to release it for several months because they thought it was a terrible movie. They forced Hitchcock to redo a couple of the scenes and then released it to the public. The movie became an instant hit and was heralded as one of the greatest British films ever released up to that time. The movie also made an instant star out of Hitchcock, who would make six more silent films before returning to the suspense genre with his first talkie, "Blackmail" in 1929.
Overall this was a very enjoyable movie which should be a part of any serious movie buff's collection. The version that I saw was a low priced DVD by Brentwood Productions. The overall quality was decent, but the transfer was jumpy and overexposed in places. Still it was very watchable. Hopefully one day soon the movie will be fully restored and released on DVD with extras included.