Silent Revue’s season dedicated to horror turns its attention to the era’s earliest instances of serial killers with our screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s most revered silent work, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog. His third feature as a director, Hitchcock honed his skill and mastery over the medium with the Jack the Ripper-themed The Lodger, and in doing so, according to biographer Donald Spoto, “revealed his psychological attraction to the association between sex and murder, between ecstasy and death” for the first time—a preoccupation that would define his decades-long career as the Master of Suspense.
When a mysterious young man (Ivor Novello) arrives to a boarding house, the landlady (Marie Ault) suspects him of being “The Avenger”—a serial killer on the loose in London who exclusively victimizes young blonde women. Her suspicion and concerns are amplified when the murders encroach on her neighborhood, and when her beautiful blonde daughter Daisy (June Tripp) starts spending time with the enigmatic lodger.
Featuring Hitchcock’s first director cameo (as a telephone operator), The Lodger is key to understanding the director’s origins and the prevalence of serial killers on screen—not to be missed! (ALICIA FLETCHER)
Live accompaniment by Marilyn Lerner
Silent Revue is curated by Alicia Fletcher
Silent Revue is sponsored by Hollywood Suite