O Rei dos Vampiros

Having seen the HItchcock silent film, this was a disappointment. It lacks HItchcock's gift for the misunderstood protagonist. There is so much done to make Ivor Novello look like the bad guy that we know immediately that he is not it. He is made much more quirky and not mysterious enough. At times he lapses into normalcy and quickly moves back to this eccentric, almost unapproachable being. The plot, of course, involves a "Jack the Ripper" figure who is killing women near telephone boxes. Novello's character shows up and rents an apartment at the home of an older woman and her husband. The female interest is also there. Because "London is lonely," he strikes up a relationship with the young woman, much to the chagrin of her boyfriend, a loudmouthed, overbearing character. People are suspicious of the foreign visitor and when he is discovered with blood on him, he is handcuffed but escapes. There is great concern for the young woman who, by the way, should be scared and should be looking out for herself. I will not spoil the end, but it is not nearly as captivating as the Hitchcock version, where the man is hunted mercilessly. The speeches are really hard to make out; alas, the new technology; and this really diminishes the effectiveness. See this as a curiosity. It just doesn't work very well.

Lodger, The (1932)

** (out of 4)

The first remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1927 film of the same title. A serial killer is running through London at the same time as a strange young man (Ivor Novello) shows up at a boarding house. Even though this thing runs a small 60+ minutes it feels like three hours because the pacing is so incredibly slow and boring. The acting is among the worst I've ever seen and the performance by Novello is incredibly bad. I could help but laugh at his acting, which is so bad it almost seems like he's spoofing the film.

Based on the original silent version of THE LODGER, Director Maurice Elvey's THE PHANTOM FIEND is a classic in its own right.

Angeloff (Ivor Novello) moves into a London boarding house just as a murdering maniac gets busy with his grisly work. Angeloff is immediately under suspicion due to his odd behavior and "peculiar" way of speaking. His deepening relationship with a young woman named Daisy (Elizabeth Allan) is the emotional heart of the film.

The fear of strangers / others is explored. Novello plays his eccentric role very convincingly, mixing a controlled menace with a subtle vulnerability.

Elvey uses various lighting and camera techniques to give the sense of growing paranoia.

A wonderful movie that's more than just another thriller...

This was actually the shorter (67 mins. as opposed to the full-length 85) version released in the U.S. under the title THE PHANTOM FIEND. While it pales in comparison with Hitchcock's seminal original – a rare expressionist film to emerge from Britain – especially since this has the tendency typical of early Talkies to emphasize dialogue (which is so muffled as to be unintelligible most of the time anyway, a deficiency which unfortunately seems to plague most British films I've seen from this era) at the expense of technique. As a matter of fact, the latter is only apparent during the atmospheric, fog-laden climax in which leading lady Elizabeth Allen mistakes the real Ripper-type murderer for the young man who lodges with her family (Ivor Novello, who reprises his role from the Hitchcock classic!).

Despite its basic purposelessness (though I would guess that a remake was commissioned, so soon after the Silent version, not so much to have a Talkie of the intriguing story – based on a popular novel – but more in response to the American horror boom of the early 30s), the plot is compelling enough to keep one watching…and predictable enough to be followed, so that it could have dispensed with dialogue altogether. The film features an impossibly young Jack Hawkins in one of his earliest roles as a fast-talking reporter (!) and Allen's fiancé, whose jealousy of Novello leads to the latter being targeted as prime suspect of the killings (also because his background, and wardrobe, is strikingly similar to that of the murderer)!

As I said earlier, perhaps the film's best sequence – at least with respect to direction – is its denouement; however, the changes done to the ending from the Hitchcock original are unconvincing and unsatisfying (especially since the romantic triangle at the centre of the plot isn't resolved…though this may very well have been trimmed for the American version, hence its abruptness.

This film, known in the US as 'The Phantom Fiend' and seemingly only surviving in appalling prints with muddy soundtrack, was the first sound remake of Hitchcock's wonderfully atmospheric silent classic, 'The Lodger'.

As in the earlier film, British composer and matinée idol Ivor Novello plays the mysterious lodger of the title, this time affecting a bizarre European accent and managing to be even more creepy than in the silent version. His acting though was far too mannered for the sound screen, even if we do get to hear his piano playing in this film!

In support, Elizabeth Allen and a very young Jack Hawkins are not at all bad, although the story is extremely familiar and you could take a fair attempt at guessing the ending. Maurice Elvey's direction is rather pedestrian but the principals are photographed well and the tension is kept up well over the short running time.

Not a substitute for the silent version (or the superior sound version with Laird Cregar) but an interesting curio.