"The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog" (1927)

 

As a fan of silent films, Alfred Hitchcock, and Jack the Ripper, I have been keen on seeing this version of the tale for quite a long time. "The Lodger" is based on a short story Marie Belloc Lowndes, and has been remade several times, but this is the original cinematic version, and, in my opinion, the best. (On a side note, there were a couple of radio versions as well, including the pilot of the radio series "Suspense," of which I am an enormous fan. The pilot episode was also directed by Hitchcock, but was left unfinished, to keep us in perpetual suspense.)

The plot is simple: In Victorian London, young, pretty girls are being slain by a mysterious figure known as the Avenger. An old landlady is taking an interest in the murders, like everyone else, when suddenly a mysterious figure shows up on her doorstep to inquire about the room she has for rent, which he accepts on the condition that he be left alone. Although he initially seems a pleasant enough man, the lady becomes suspicious of the stranger and convinces herself that he is the Avenger. She becomes obsessed with keeping her own young, pretty daughter away from him, which is easier said than done as the daughter's fascination with the Lodger increases...

In most versions of the story, the landlady's suspicions are confirmed and the daughter has to be saved at the last moment from the murderous clutches of the Lodger. But Hitchcock has added a few twists of his own to the story, by updating it to a contemporary setting and leaving the viewer guessing if the Lodger is the murderer or not until the final few moments. You can really see Hitchcock's directorial brilliance developing here - there's some animation during the dialogue slides, which, to my knowledge, is unique to silent films at the time, and several innovative shots, my personal favorite being when the Lodger looks out the window and the shadow of the window-frame, in the shape of a cross, falls upon his face.The title character is played brilliantly by Ivor Novello, who is not only strikingly handsome in this, but also lends incredible pathos to a man who may or may not be a murderer. He never seems to overact, which is difficult in a silent film, and the love scenes between him and the daughter are positively romantic, in that wonderful, old-fashioned way, when a kiss was so much more than a kiss. The pace of the film is also comparatively quick, so it's a good one for those unfamiliar with silent films to start out with. A genuinely wonderful movie.