Customer Reviews

Lodger [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is one of the best horror/mystery/gothic movies ever made
despite what another critic wrote. Laird Cregar was a great choice
for the part of jack the ripper. Not a slasher movie but for the
day was very shocking material. It was made by Fox so it's very
well written and directed and Cregar makes the movie worth watching.
George Sanders also stars as the detective and he does a good job.
No blood and gore just great movie making. A must see for all fans
of jack the ripper or early classic horror fans.

Alfred Hitchcock had made silent movies in Britain prior to "the Lodger". With this movie,which concerns a tenant and an an unsolved murder, he found something he was really good at and he would spend most of the next 50 years making this type of movie. The level of suspense is high and Hitchcock fans should enjoy this quite well with one caveat.
Silent movies are an acquired taste to the modern viewer. Telling a story without words is different and it is not everyone's cup of tea. The filmmakers of that day didn't have the tools that the modern directors do but this is a well told story holding viewer interest with high suspense.

This film has often been hailed as "the first true Hitchcock film" (including by his daughter, Patricia). I guess you just had to be there then.

The primitive nature of this public-domain copy seem to underline the primitive nature of this production. And this was in 1926, during the "golden age" of silent films!

I finally gave up trying to figure what the heck was going on and resorted to published descriptions about and synopses of the film. Far from a good sign.

To say that THE LODGER has not held up over time is really in error. Compared to other silent films of the late 1920's, it never got off the dime. The badly needed expository inter-titles (supposedly Hitchcock's forte) are few and far between; the editing is jump city making the film near impossible to follow much less comprehend; and the continuity is pretty much among the missing.

All in all this movie looks like an ancient failed art-house experiment rather than a mainline entry. If this film resulted in the rescue of the British cinema (as claimed by some), then the industry must have been a good six feet under at the time (and for some time)!

WILLIAM FLANIGAN, Ph.D.