- Actors: Marie Ault, Ivor Novello
- Directors: Alfred Hitchcock
- Format: PAL, Full Screen, Black & White
- Subtitles: English
- Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3 - 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: PG
- Studio: GMVS Limited
- DVD Release Date: 26 April 2004
- Run Time: 79 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B0002B963Y
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 51,644 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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Reviews
Amazon.co.uk Review
Although Alfred Hitchcock had made two movies before The Lodger, he told François Truffaut that this was his first true film. And indeed, The Lodger contains elements that would appear again and again in the Master's later, more famous creations. It boasts the first of the famous "wrong man" plots and contains the first sequence in which handcuffs play a significant role. If your eye is quick, you will also catch the first of Hitchcock's famous cameo appearances (he actually appears on-screen more than once).
The Lodger is also one of the first memorable pictures about the hunt for a serial killer. Terrified women and strange masked men walk the streets of London in a movie whose visual style was influenced by the German expressionists. In one tense sequence, the ceiling of a room becomes transparent and a character can be seen pacing back and forth on the floor above. The climactic chase is one of the most exciting Hitchcock ever filmed. This taut early film is a fine introduction to the silent cinema as well as to one of the world's greatest and most entertaining filmmakers. --Raphael Shargel
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
50 of 52 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
The Lodger showcases some of the earliest examples of Alfred Hitchcock's infamous cinematic touches - This is a great 'silent' movie... However, this version has been mastered from a really grim copy of the film - minus the Blue and Sepia tints I have seen elsewhere. To make matters worse the added soundtrack couldn't be more inappropriate - It opens with Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance! Remember, this is a thriller and, as much as I like Elgar, it renders the film a comedy. There is a version on video (BFI?) with a brilliant, considering its age, picture and a superb soundtrack that turns this thriller into a masterpiece. This is a historic film and should be treated with the respect it deserves.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
If you're looking for a way in to early Hitchcock then The Lodger is a good a place to start. It is the first suspense flick Hitch turned his attentions to, and his talent for the genre shines through immediately.
The story is derived from the Jack The Ripper tale, and remember, the 1926 London shown in this movie is not so different from the city that suffered the ravages of the Ripper. The atmosphere throughout is genuinely eerie and seedy -- a good historical document!
Ivor Novello is a suitably creepy, and his slightly hammy performance brings home the Expressionist nature of silent film. He plays the lodger Jonathan Drew, a tortured soul who is showing an unhealthy interest in the recent spate of blonde-girl murders. What is worse, the blonde daughter of his landlady is showing an unhealthy interest in him, oblivious to his oddities.
But is he the murderer? Well, why else would he carry a case with a map of all the killings?
Directed with Hitchcock's blend of clinical care and a dash of lusty voyeurism, this is an easy chime with 1960's Psycho. Check out the house layout: it's the same!
For all you trivia buffs, this film also Hitch's first cameo - spot the youngster if you can.
Excellent early Hitch -- but don't overlook his other non-suspense silents. This was a director plying his trade in all genres.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
This third film of Alfred Hitchcock's was his first thriller. This inspired account of a Jack-the-Ripper-style murderer named "The Avenger", who kills blond-haired women on Tuesday nights in London, shows a young and creative directorial talent at work.
Hitchcock worked from his own scenario of star Ivor Novello's stage play for this initial foray into what would later be familiar Hitchcock territory. Novello portrays a strange and aloof lodger, who stays in a room above a lower-middle-class family. In the evening streets of London, the Avenger's victims are being found closer and closer to the lodging houses. Eventually the landlords, and their daughter's police detective suitor, come to suspect that the mysterious lodger has unholy designs on their beautiful blond daughter. Can their suspicions be confirmed before it is too late?
Throughout the film there are examples of visual inspiration in shots of a restless lodger in the room above pacing back and forth as seen, through the floor (as if eyes could read what ears are unable to hear in silent films), by the landlady below, or in the desperate lodger suspended only by handcuffs on a spiked metal fence. The Lodger is an early treat for fans of Hitchcock's distinctive storytelling technique. We dare say that this film is his most entertaining and flashy narrative until 1929's Blackmail. And, for those wondering, Hitchcock makes the first of his on-screen appearances, with Hitchcock sitting with his back to the camera in an early newspaper office sequence and as a flat-grey-hat wearing crowd member in the climax.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Hitchcock's Apprenticeship.
From the perspective of the history of film the DVD was interesting but it bore little similarity to Mrs Belloc Lowndes's chilling novel. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Ray Macdonald
Hitchcock's 'The Lodger' Region 1 DVD
Lodger [DVD] [1927] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] Part of MGM's 'Hitchcock Premier Collection', this has been superbly restored - MGM spent very heavily on this collection. Read more
Published 18 months ago by notvertigo
A superb movie starring Britain's own superstar - Ivor Novello
......Major spoiler.....
I wasn't interested in this being a Hitchcock movie as I've no interest in Hitchcock and never followed his movies - it didn't matter to me who... Read more
I wasn't interested in this being a Hitchcock movie as I've no interest in Hitchcock and never followed his movies - it didn't matter to me who... Read more
Published on 4 May 2009 by Helen
NEW VERSION OF THIS FILM TO BE RELEASED SOON.
Amazon.com (the USA site) lists a "new" version for this film, to be released 9 October. It's called: FOX HORROR CLASSICS, it's being released by 20th Century Fox, and it includes:... Read more
Published on 17 Aug 2007 by mari
beautiful!!
maybe beautiful isn't the way to descibe a 1920's thriller but the way it is shot and the lighting makes this a film any person who enjoys horror should watch. Read more
Published on 27 Jun 2005 by Ms. F. I. Macdonald
A fascinating silent film directed by Alfred Hitchcock
I am a relative newcomer to silent films, so I can not pontificate on all of the nuances and wonderful subtleties The Lodger surely showcases. Read more
Published on 28 Feb 2003 by Daniel Jolley
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