Alfred Hitchcock launched himself on the film making map with this adaptation of Marie Belloc Lowndes' 1913 novel. The film became the most successful British film up until that point and became as Hitchcock later told Francois Truffaut, the first real Hitchcock film. The idea of an innocent man on the run from the police was used by Hitchcock for the first time here became the theme of many of his future films such as The 39 Steps, Saboteur and North by Northwest.
The plot opens with another strangulation of a blonde by a killer calling himself the Avenger, All of London is on alert reaching all of the way to the Bunting household. Falling of hard times, the Buntings open the upper rooms to let, which are taken by a mysterious & eccentric man (Ivor Novello) looking for a quiet place to work on his experiments. He has strange habits and goes out in late hours which worry the Buntings but not their daughter Daisy (June Tripp) a model and dancer in a local theater. Daisy and the lodger see a lot of each other which upsets Daisy's sweetheart Joe Chandler (Malcolm Keene), a policeman assigned to the Avenger case. More murders occur and the Buntings start to suspect their tenant is the killer. Joe, after catching the lodger with Daisy, also has the same suspicions and goes to search his rooms. The lodger says that he isn't the Avenger but trying to find the killer since his sister was an Avenger victim. Joe arrests him anyways but the lodger escapes only to find himself the ire of an angry mob.
Lowndes novel was inspired by Jack the Ripper but set in contemporary times, as is the movie. While the focus of the book revolves mostly around Mrs. Bunting, Hitchcock makes the lodger and Daisy the main focus in the movie (The Lodger - called Mr. Sleuth in the book - and Daisy have only a couple of interactions in the book). Ivor Novello (who achieved greater fame as a songwriter and playwright) was a popular actor at the time of the filming and producer Michael Balcon insisted that Novello could not be the killer, even if by ambiguity, much to Hitchcock's displeasure. Producers also wanted a couple of edits made as well as the elimination of several intertitle cards. The film was nearly shelved before these edits which probably have ended Hitchcock's directing career.
Working in Germany with his past two films, one can obviously see the German Expressionism used by Murnau and Lang, especially when the film's second murder occurs and watching Mrs. Bunting being uneasy with her tenant gone. Another artistic touch occurs early in the film when Joe and the Buntings hear the footsteps of the Lodger upstairs and we see him pace back and forth via a glass ceiling.
Novello does give a very good turn in the title role, working with Hitchcock to become very sinister and strange, but warming up to the audience as the film goes on. Tripp (technically the first Hitchcock blonde) seems to have only two expressions on her face (apprehension and love) and doesn't do well here. Keene is decent but he just doesn't fit the role of the rejected suitor. Marie Ault & Arthur Chesney do well as the Buntings, but I really think that they could have had their roles expanded.
I do feel the film shows a lot of promise of what's to come from the director, but at times it does feel a bit too artsy in dealing with the subject matter. The film was remade in 1933 with Novello reprising his role, but Hitchcock declined to remake his film. The 1933 film (called The Lodger in the UK, but retitled The Phantom Fiend in the US) is definitely weaker thanks to terrible sound recording, little suspense and a cliche ending (but Elizabeth Allan gives a better performance as Daisy). In 1944, Twentieth Century Fox made their version set in time of Jack the Ripper (and using his name) with Laird Cregar giving a memorable performance in the title role which is considered by some to be a superior version that Hitchcock's. I have not seen the 1953 reworking Man in the Attic with Jack Palance nor the 2009 version.
Alfred Hitchcock makes his first cameo appearance in the film about 5 minutes in as a newspaper editor, after the original extra for the role didn't show up. He also appears at towards the end of the film as an extra in the mob scene at the gate.
The film has been released by Criterion on Blu-Ray and DVD, and is currently on the Criterion Channel as well as several public domain prints (a copy of the Blu-Ray and DVD can be purchased here). Lowndes' novel can be purchased here.
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