The Lodger: A story of the London fog

Hitchcock's silent 1927 adaptation of Marie Belloc Lowndes's novel, shown as part of a retrospective at BFI Southbank
The Lodger
10 August 2012

Now that Hitchcock’s Vertigo has been awarded the accolade of best film of all time in the Sight & Sound poll, his silent 1927 adaptation of Marie Belloc Lowndes’s novel, inspired by Jack the Ripper, is of more than usual interest.

It is part of the splendid ongoing Hitchcock retrospective mounted by the BFI Southbank and, on wider release, can be seen in a spanking new print with a swishing Nitin Sawhney score to enliven it further.

Even with its obvious debt to German Expressionism, The Lodger has Hitchcock hallmarks. It’s the master’s first film to suggest a certain kind of fun and games as well as thrills. And, lo and behold, there’s musical matinee idol Ivor Novello in the lead, though not singing one of those songs which so entranced middle-aged ladies a few years later.

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