The Lodger (re: 2012)

Running time: 92 minutes

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Starring: Ivor Novello, Marie Ault, June Tripp

As thrillingly immersive and powerfully evocative as any modern 3D experience, THE LODGER tells a story (via Marie Belloc Lowndes’s novel of the same name) inspired by the crimes of Jack the Ripper; crimes that, at the time, were not yet 40 years old. Once again, fans will spot shades of themes to come, not least the central ‘villain’ of the film depicted as physically attractive, boyish and bashful; in short, a proto-Norman Bates. The film is also notable for the kind of innovative and creative camera tricks still used today by directors such as Robert Zemeckis and David Fincher (namely a conceit whereby the inhabitants of the rooms below the Lodger’s can ‘see’ him pace the floor above as they hear him, as though the ceiling is momentarily invisible). A dark, spine-tingling, highly atmospheric little tale of menace that is exceptionally well suited to its subtitle: A Tale of London Fog…

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