Discuss The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog
Discuss → Movies → The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog → General
Alfred Hitchcock's first distinctive and acclaimed film (a 1927 Silent)
posted by genplant29STAFFMOD on May 3, 2017 at 10:00 AM
This is Hitchcock's first highly regarded and well known film. It wasn't his first feature film (it's his third), but is the one that started earning him serious widespread notice as a standout and that began to establish and make evident his signature style.
This has got the Hitchcock staples of a man unjustly viewed as being guilty of a crime (in this case crimes) he didn't commit, rampant paranoia, a possibly in danger beautiful blonde love interest, a brief Hitchcock cameo (his first), clever camera artistry (the window frame's cast crucifix shadow over the lodger's face; the pacing footsteps seen from underneath through the glass floor; the hand trailing down the length of a winding staircase's long railing; the suggested effect of crucifixion on a fence later on), some humourous touches, etc.
It's a nifty (though not masterpiece, as the film has definite weaknesses) Silent thriller, with lots of atmosphere and clever touches. The two leads, Ivor Novello and June (who professionally went by just that one name, but whose last name was Tripp), are both great looking. Novello was the top British matinee idol back in those days, but was earlier, as well as later, also an extremely popular and highly successful, in fact famous, song writer and composer in England. The British annual Ivor Novello Awards ("The Ivors") for songwriting and composing are named in his honour.
Regarding Novello, the film goes over heavily the misty-romanticism route (he's glamourously shot as a beautiful woman typically would have been during those times) whenever he's onscreen, clearly seeking to take full advantage of his major heartthrob standing at the time. It results, I think, in weakening the story's impact, as had he been given more general aura of possible "danger" or menace to his persona, it would have created increased suspense.
Marie Ault's performance as the landlady is terrific. It's very vivid, superbly shaded, and entirely believable.
If the landlady's husband looks very familiar, it's because actor Arthur Chesney (the portrayer) was beloved character actor Edmund Gwenn's near-lookalike brother.
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Reply by tmdb53400018
on May 3, 2017 at 2:28 PM
I've seen it. I agree that it looks like Hitch's signature style in places.
Reply by genplant29
on May 5, 2017 at 8:00 AM
Here's a stylish recent years new trailer I've just found on YouTube for this film. It features another new score, introduced in 2012.
I have the MGM Premiere Collection deluxe restoration that was done prior to this one, that features the 1999 Ashley Irwin score, and much prefer that score. The newer one, in the clip above, sounds terrific the portion that plays in the clip, but parts of the rest of the score ultimately get out of hand and detract, in the overall movie.
Reply by rooprect
on November 5, 2023 at 6:32 AM
I just discovered this gem of a movie and loved it. As usual, on 1st watch I wasn’t smart enough to appreciate the cinematic tricks like the ones you mentioned, but this excellent analysis by film scholar William Rothman opened my eyes:
Hitchcock’s visual signatures in The Lodger
(warning: he mentions some spoilers for The Lodger as well as other Hitchcock films)
Something I realized after thinking about all the cinematic hints Hitchcock throws at us: The beauty of this film is how much he breaks the 4th wall and includes the audience in the story. The whole presentation is like an elaborate puzzle, or a prank really, that he challenges us to solve with hints and decoys peppered throughout.
For example, the big challenge is solving who the killer is. It’s thrown in our faces that the lodger is our man so we instinctively resist the obvious; it has to be someone else, right? But an hour into the movie there are no other suspects even close. And if we notice the opening credits only list a bare minimum of possibilities: the lodger, Daisy, the cop, the landlady & her husband. Given these choices we’re forced to single out the lodger as the only sensible culprit, right?
But as you pointed out, Hitchock’s camera loves Novello. It constantly shows him in a romantic or even heroic light, and I think this was deliberate. I think it was Hitchcock tweaking our noses and relishing the fact that we don’t have any other suspects, so he can spoil the surprise for the entire movie while we are powerless.
It’s like he keeps reminding us throughout the movie: “By the way, the lodger is not the killer.” But with nothing else to go on, we start wondering if he is. Perhaps that’s Hitch’s way of drawing us into the mob hysteria of falsely accusing an innocent man.