The Lodger – A Story of the London Fog / Hitchcock, Dickens, and the Fog… - NOSPR

Alfred Hitchcock’s cinema remains so firmly embedded in the cultural consciousness or the present day that it may seem counterintuitive to associate it with the silent era. Yet it was precisely during this period that the director’s artistic path and singular, inimitable style took shape. Later celebrated as the ‘master of suspense’ and king of the genre (the Hitchcockian thriller!), in 1927 he produced an intricate work he would call his first fully original work. A close examination of The Lodger – A Story of the London Fog reveals an unmistakable visual code characteristic of German Expressionism, here transposed to the banks of the Thames. The title itself offers an interpretative clue to WHAT the film is about. Hitchcock – born in London, steeped in the novels of Charles Dickens, and, like all Londoners, soaked to the bone in the city’s dense, at times foreboding fog (the very one that used to conceal Jack the Ripper) – returns to his roots. The titular lodger lives not only in his rented accommodation but also very much in the city with all its secrets. Ivor Novello, a Welsh actor (as well as a composer, musical theatre writer, and singer), plays the leading role, in some sense anticipating the protagonists of later Hitchcock works such as The 39 Steps and Psycho. Despite the dominance of Hollywood productions on the then British market, The Lodger shone brightly on big screens. Its directorial mastery, visual narrative power, and exemplary dramaturgy already heralded the craft and imagination of a grand master.

Anita Skwara