The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog

Ivor Novello plays a strange lodger who may be behind a number of Jack the Ripper-style killings in Alfred Hitchcock’s silent thriller.

Alfred Hitchcock’s first thriller, about a man accused of being a serial killer, was a huge critical success upon its release in 1926, with trade journal Bioscope stating: “It is possible that this film is the finest British production ever made.” It boasts many staples of Hitchcock’s later work, including the themes of murder and suspicion, an obsession with blonde women and Hitchcock’s first ever cameo (as a newspaper editor).

The film’s distinctive style is clearly influenced from German expressionist films such as The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1919) – Hitchcock has just returned from working in Germany. Matinee idol Ivor Novello gives a highly stylised performance as the enigmatic, sometimes creepy title character, a role he would reprise in Maurice Elvey’s 1932 remake.