Les cheveux d'or

... a thriller based on the book by Marie Belloc Lowndes. A mysterious killer known as "the Avenger" is terrorizing the streets of London. He targets women with blonde, curly hair, and the police are at a loss to stop him. Meanwhile, a sketchy new lodger (Ivor Novello) takes up residence in the rooming house of a landlady (Marie Ault) and her husband (Arthur Chesney). The landlady becomes convinced that the lodger is really the Avenger, which proves problematic as the lodger has caught the attention of the landlady's daughter, Daisy (June Tripp). Also featuring Malcolm Keen as Daisy's policeman boyfriend.

Inspired by the Jack the Ripper case, this was Hitchcock's first suspense picture, and was an immediate success, with one critic at the time even calling this the "best British film ever made". This is my second time watching it, and the first time watching the beautiful BFI restoration. The quality of the print is outstanding, and the commissioned score is excellent. Hitchcock uses a number of visually impressive double exposure shots, and I also liked the stylized intertitles. I still find the movie a tad too long, and Novello, who looks striking, is a silent-era-style ham, but it's still worth checking out for silent film fans. Arthur Chesney, playing the landlord, was the lookalike younger brother of Edmund Gwenn, and the former husband of Estelle Winwood.

The Lodger was the feature which Hitchcock himself described as his first true film (it was actually his third complete one), and film historians, particularly auteurists tend to focus upon it because it is it introduces themes of murder and suspense that Hitch's name would later be synonymous with.

To be honest, the first thing that strikes me upon watching The Lodger is its sense of rhythm. Hitchcock's earliest films were always very rhythmic and the opening moments of The Lodger are a great example, with a dynamic and attention grabbing sequence of shots and title cards. Much of this however may be down to the style of the seldom referenced screenwriter Eliot Stannard, who has a credit on all but one of Hitchcock's silents. Stannard was a master at telling stories in purely visual terms, and his screenplays often go as far as to map out series of interlocking images.

The next very obvious thing about The Lodger is that right from the start Hitchcock was more interested in cinematic technique than he was in performances or artistry. The Lodger is crammed with Expressionist effects, in particular double exposures. Hitch clearly hadn't learnt the art of subtlety yet and these are massively overused. We can also tell early on that Hitchcock was interested in using his camera to involve the audience in the film, throwing in point-of-view shots or drawing our attention to specific items. In this regard his technique was not yet refined. He was develop it in his later silents.

Of course what generally interests followers of Hitchcock's career is the fact that The Lodger is the first time he deals with the grisly subject of murder. It's true that there are many Hitchcockian elements here – murder, blondes, a love triangle and even a MacGuffin in the form of the Avenger whom all the characters are concerned about but isn't the focus of the story. There is a kind of morbid sensationalism concerning the killings, something we'd see right through to the other end of Hitch's career with the comment about "ripped whores" in 1972's Frenzy. There's also of course a "wrong man", although here he appears more as the subject of a whodunit. The later Hitchcock would have focused upon the plight of the wrongly accused, and made a more suspenseful film in the process.

All in all, The Lodger isn't really as significant an early Hitchcock as some would believe. For one thing there is the influence of screenwriter Stannard and the fact that Hitchcock, although he may have relished the material, was still very young and inexperienced. The fact is The Lodger may contain more of Stannard's influence than it does Hitchcock's. It's not as if Hitchcock immediately began making more murder thrillers. The majority of his British thrillers are of the espionage/adventure variety, and it would take up until the early 40s for Hitchcock to really begin making masterpieces in the domestic murder genre. It's also nowhere near being Hitch's best silent film, even though it tends to be remembered over more polished works like The Ring and The Manxman. Taken out of context though, it is a fairly decent late silent thriller, with only a few minor flaws in plot and direction.

Usually remembered as Alfred Hitchcock's first thriller, "The Lodger" is also a very good film in its own right. Although the acting is somewhat dated, and although there is not a really appropriate musical score that has survived, it has the carefully crafted plot and suspense that Hitchcock would become famous for.

The opening sequence uses the director's creative touches in setting the mood of a city terrorized by a mysterious killer, "The Avenger", who is targeting light-haired women. Then we meet the actual characters: an older couple and their daughter Daisy, and Daisy's policeman boyfriend. When a mysterious lodger appears and rents the family's extra room, his strange behavior begins to make them suspect that he might be the mad killer, even as he builds a close friendship with Daisy. As the story proceeds, tension and fear continue to build until an ending that is exciting, if somewhat melodramatic.

Hitchcock shows his mastery of silent film technique in using a wide variety of camera techniques and props to communicate the emotions of the characters. The acting is mostly good, although Ivor Novello as "the lodger" overplays his role rather noticeably. This is the kind of movie that could really benefit from a good musical soundtrack, and the fact that it is exciting to watch even without an appropriate score shows the quality of Hitchcock's craftsmanship.

Anyone who enjoys Hitchcock or silent films will definitely want to see "The Lodger".

This is the first real Hitchcock movie. The one in which he really starts to use all his abilities, although we can see that they are still not mature yet. It's very interesting because he makes a lot of experiments in this film, like the glass ceiling, and we see how hard he wanted, at the time, to really make his mark, to stand above the rest. Although the ending is not very good, the first 20 minutes of The Lodger are impressive, with Hitchcock slowly telling us (visually, of course) about the killer and his particularities, until the arrival of Ivor Novello. A must-see picture to any real Hitchcock fan

A story loosely based on Jack the Ripper. In London a killer called the Avenger goes around killing blond-haired girls. Around this time Mr. and Mrs. Bunting take in a lodger (Ivor Novello). He's quiet but very odd. He takes a liking to their blond-haired daughter Daisy (June Tripp). But then the Buntings begin to suspect that he may be the Avenger and want Daisy as his next victim...

Hitchcock's first thriller and a very good one. Very few title cards are used--he uses images to carry the film. Sometimes it works but, more than once, I was confused. It was one of his first films though so this can be forgiven. It also moves a bit too slow. But it's still worth seeing.

You can see the beginnings of his later work peeking through and there are some sequences so well directed that they're stunning (the one where Novello and Tripp kiss is just SO beautiful). Also the acting is actually quite good by everybody--especially Novello. He was a box office draw in the 1920s and it's easy to see why. The man is not only a good actor he was undeniably beautiful. It's easy to see why he was once called one of the most beautiful men alive.

Novello was gay--I wonder if Hitch knew that. There are two lines in this film where people talk about his character--"Good thing he doesn't like girls" and "Even if he is a bit queer". These lines are quite interesting now--I wonder if they were put in on purpose or just happened to be written without anyone knowing. Interesting to think about...