Like I said in my review of The Pleasure Garden, this is the one that’s usually referred to (in fact even by the man himself in François Truffaut’s booklength interview) as “the first true Hitchcock” and it’s hard to argue. Dealing with a suspicious new member of a household in the time of Jack the Ripper, it contains just about everything Hitchcock would become known for.

Hitchcock himself is rather dismissive of the most cited visual in this: a scene where the mysterious stranger paces back and forth in his room while below the residents gaze up at the ceiling, which becomes transparent to reveal his footfalls from underneath. My favourite shot comes when the Lodger himself arrives. It’s a hallway arrival to rival that of Father Merrin in The Exorcist over 40 years later, and though I’m certain I’d seen this movie a few times before now, it really put the chills on me this time around.

The visual storytelling here is just stunning. I had none of the trepidation about it being silent that I had coming to The Pleasure Garden. It plays less like a “silent movie” than as a movie that’s just so finely put together that it doesn’t need the dialogue. Even the title cards are sparse (something I noticed as I watched more silent Hitchcock was quite usual for him). And of course, if you do start to drift, there’s always the first instance of the Hitchcock Cameo to look out for (I won’t spoil it for you).

The bulk of what I have to say in this review (because as for the movie itself: it’s about as essential as Hitchcock gets at this early stage… you’ve just got to see it…) concerns the DVDs that are around of it. I’ve become quite obsessive about this Hitchcock marathon and built up a collection of all the movies in the best versions I could get my hands on. The Lodger was one of the few where I seem to have missed out on the “best” DVD release, and that’s in the MGM Premiere collection (which I’ve read has technical issues of its own anyway).

The version I got isn’t bad visually, being the BFI’s restored print included in the UK British Years box set. However, this disc gives you the choice between an old scratchy print (which either runs too fast or has scenes missing) with music, or this beautiful BFI version without. This didn’t hurt so bad until I discovered that none other than Joby Talbot (notable to me for his work with The League of Gentlemen; you might know him from The Divine Comedy) wrote a brand new score for this very print (parts of which can be heard here) which isn’t included for whatever reason. I hope one day there’ll be a release that includes this score (on Blu-ray perhaps!) In the meantime if anybody can direct me to a recording of that score (or any that fit, really), I’d be very grateful indeed.

Tags: Hitchcock, Jack the Ripper, London, silent

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