The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) on Netflix
NR19271h 32mCrimeDramaMysteryThriller
A serial killer stalks blonde women in London. When a mysterious lodger rents a room from the Bunting family, their daughter Daisy grows close to him, troubling her policeman boyfriend Joe.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb7.3/1015,303 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes96%
Featurette
Plot summary
In London, a killer known as the Avenger targets blonde women on Tuesday evenings. Blonde model Daisy Bunting hears the news at a fashion show and laughs at the other showgirls' fear. Her parents and her policeman boyfriend Joe have been reading about the crimes at home. A secretive young man who resembles the wanted murderer comes to the Buntings asking about the room for rent. He turns the room's portraits of blonde women to the wall and asks for their removal. Daisy takes them down and feels drawn to him. As Daisy and the reclusive lodger grow closer, Joe becomes jealous.
Cast
- Arthur Chesneyas Her Husband
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Alfred Hitchcock's first recognisable film cameo, in the newsroom scene of The Lodger, happened because the actor cast as the telephone operator failed to turn up, so Hitchcock filled in for him. It became a standard practice in the rest of his films.
SPOILER
Hitchcock recalled that the studio would not let Ivor Novello be considered as a villain after he was cast as the lodger, and that the publicity angle forced a script change showing that he was innocent beyond doubt.- Producer Michael Balcon was reportedly furious when he saw Hitchcock's finished film and nearly shelved it; after considerable argument, film critic Ivor Montagu was hired to salvage the film.
- For the scene where the Buntings look up at their kitchen ceiling and the lodger is seen walking on it, the ceiling was made transparent using a thick sheet of toughened glass.
- June Tripp had recently undergone an operation when filming began, and wrote that Hitchcock's repeated takes of one scene gave her a sickening pain near her appendix scar and sent her back to hospital.
- Hitchcock later referred to The Lodger as the first true "Hitchcock film", and the film is credited with helping shape the modern thriller genre.
