The Lodger (1926)

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1926
Running Times: 83 mins
Length: 2342.39 metres / 6 reels
Format: black and white     35mm
Ratio: 1.33:1
Sound: silent

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Gainsborough Pictures
Producers: Michael Balcon (uncredited), Carlyle Blackwell Sr (uncredited)

SCRIPT
Script: Eliot Stannard, Alfred Hitchcock (uncredited)
Novel: Mrs Belloc Lowndes (real name: Marie Belloc Lowndes)

DIRECTION
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Assistant Director: Alma Reville

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Baron Ventimiglia

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editor: Ivor Montagu

MUSIC
Music: Ashley Irwin (1999 re-issue)
Scoring Mixer: Malcolm Luker (1999 re-issue)

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: Wilfrid Arnold, Bertram Evans
Title Designer: E. McKnight Kauffer, Ivor Montagu

LOCATIONS
Studio: Islington Studios, London, England, UK

CAST
Marie Ault (the landlady (Mrs Bunting))
Arthur Chesney (her husband (Mr Bunting))
June Tripp (Daisy Bunting, a mannequin)
Malcolm Keen (Joe Chandler)
Ivor Novello (Jonathan Drew (the lodger))
Helena Pick (Anne Rowley - uncredited)
Alfred Hitchcock (extra in arrest scene - uncredited)

London is terrorized by a serial killer dubbed The Avenger by the press, preying exclusively on blonde haired women. Amidst the mayhem, a mysterious stranger takes up lodgings at the boarding house run by Mr. and Mrs Bunting. He ventures out during foggy nights, has a photograph of a blonde woman in his room and takes an interest in the Bunting's blonde-haired daughter. Could he be The Avenger?

The first and still the best adaptation of the famous Belloc Lowndes novel. The Lodger sees Hitchcock already experimenting with many of the techniques and even themes (especially the 'wrongly accused man') that were to surface time and again in his later, better-known work. The only real weak link in a film that otherwise still works remarkably well is Novello, whose performance as the titular killer is less than convincing.

UK
Theatrical Distributors: Wardour Films Ltd

USA
Theatrical Distributors: AmerAnglo Corp; Artlee Pictures
Video Distributors: Grapevine Video; Nostalgia Video; Video Image; Video Yesteryear

1927
February
14: UK - theatrical release

1992
April
Day Unknown: Germany - theatrical release

The Case of Jonathan Drew
Les cheveux d'or - French title
El enemigo de las rubias - Spanish title
O hóspede - Portugese title
El inquilino - Venezuelan title
L'inquilino - Italian title
The Lodger - A Story of the London Fog
London-mysteriet - Danish title
Der Mieter - Eine Geschichte aus dem Londoner Nebel - German title
Der Mieter - German title
Il pensionante - Italian title

REMAKES
The Lodger (1932)
The Lodger (1944)
Man in the Attic (1954)

SEE ALSO
Peeping Tom (1960)
Summer of Sam (1999)
The Wrong Trousers (1993)

FOOTAGE INCLUDED IN
The Men Who Made the Movies: Alfred Hitchcock (1973)
Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (1996)
Hitchcock: Shadow of a Genius (1999)

boarding houses, book into film, jack the ripper, police, serial killers

Last Updated: 15 October, 2008