Hitchcock's First Big Success In A New Restoration.
Added 11/16/2009
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.
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Hey Lodger! Come down and visit me sometime. And bring that wonderful "Hitch" DVD!
Added 2/28/2009
You've probably seen The Lodger as a tired old black and white print. So glory be: Here's the refurbished print with sepia, blue, and rose tints restored and a music score (by Ashley Irwin, 1999) that powerfully supports the drama. At last you can really enjoy this landmark film, which is just one good idea after another.
The Supplements are worthwhile, but mostly boil down to Hitchcock's biography, even "The Making of..." featurette. There's only about a half-dozen anecdotes about making the film that have accumulated over the years. A half-hour radio dramatization of The Lodger is included, with Herbert Marshall as narrator and lodger, characterized as a religious fanatic; before it can be concluded, "Hitchcock" interrupts Mr. Marshall so there is no resolution.
Let's probe our four principals a bit. The mother Marie Ault had just done two popular "Rat" pictures with Ivor Novello, so this casting was a lure to bring British audiences to The Lodger. She and father Arthur Chesney enjoyed long movie and tv careers. In spite of his smooth pate, Chesney should remind you of his brother, Edmund Gwynne. Detective Malcolm Keene also appeared many times on movie and tv screens. The daughter June made only a few films, probably by her choice. Online I do find one photo of her as a dancer, likely a solo dancer as suggested by her solo name.
Ivor Novello was already a matinee idol when he made The Lodger. That's why the original novel (The Lodger) and the stage play (Who Is He?) were modified to make the protagonist sympathetic. Ivor's films span 1919-1934. In the 1930s and 40s he wrote and starred in elaborate musicals in the West End, generally of Ruritanian flavor. To be noted, his beautiful singing voice deserted him at puberty, so in the musicals he was Prince Charming while the ladies vocalized. In his movie period Ivor had a brief stint at MGM, but the execs found him to be, well, not quite Kosher--well, to be blunt, GAY. So they squirreled him away to write the script for Tarzan the Ape Man. Remember "Me Tarzan, you Jane"? Well, Ivor wrote that, and was left so parched he went back to England for his cup of tea. In 1951, after curtain calls, he went up to his flat above the theater, suffered a coronary seizure, and died. His buddy had to rush to Ivor's country home to burn papers and photos to spare Ivor & Friends ruinous embarrassment.
So come on, You there, join the Lodger in his sepia digs, two spacious rooms, tea and bread and butter, and hum "We'll Gather Lilacs" while Ivor princes about. Trust me, he wouldn't hurt a fly.
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Much more than a great Hitchcock thriller!
Added 2/20/2009
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.
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5 stars for the film ... the verdict is still out on quality of disc
Added 11/29/2008
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.
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The Lodger (1926)
Added 12/6/2004
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.
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