The Lodger

I'm not too sure that with London regularly steeped in dense fog and with a murderer lurking the streets at night, I'd be looking to be renting out my spare room, but luckily for musician "Angeloff" (Ivor Novello) he not only finds bed and board with the kindly "Bunting" family but gets an added bonus in that he is soon also courting the daughter of the house, "Daisy" (Elizabeth Allan). Is he all he seems? Well the police are less than convinced as some of his nocturnal activities out-of-doors leave him open to suspicion. Now, what undoubtedly compromises this is the fact that the audience is in on the secret a bit too early in the proceedings and that it does take rather a while to get itself up and running. Once it is, though, the contributions from a lively Barbara Everest and A. W. Baskcomb as his hosts; the possibly a little too flighty Allan and the engaging Novello - who does manage to squeeze in a tune to remind us that it isn't so very long since this would have been a silent movie, all build well enough to it's dimly-lit denouement. Keep an eye out for Jack Hawkins and if you try not to compare it to other (earlier) versions, then I think it's quite a watchable outing for a charismatic star.

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.

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.

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.

Not much to recommend in this creaky antique. It's another version of the Ripper story, with the mysterious killer loose in London. He appears to be a lodger in an ordinary household where the daughter takes a shine to him despite his odd behavior. But then his lyrical piano playing does indicate a romantic soul. On the whole, however, actor Novello delivers a rather unfocused performance as the lodger, never gelling as a real object of menace. But I suppose something like that was required for his crucially ambiguous role. On the other hand, actress Allan is quite natural as the charming daughter, a turn that could easily transfer to the modern screen.

The Amazon print that I saw was murky in the extreme, effects of age I suppose. Too bad, because whatever atmospheric lighting was used was clouded over; that plus a muddy sound track made this version rather difficult to watch. Moreover, the choppy narrative suggests a poorly edited longer cut. Overall, it's an oft-told tale, done to much better effect by Hitchcock (1927) and John Brahm (1944), at least in terms of the version I saw.