Monday, March 10, 2014

Horror Film countdown 2013, part 20


The Lodger (1926), dir. Alfred Hitchcock, Woolf & Freedman Film Services



While the countdown continues we turn our focus to the first horror films directed by the famed and the infamous. The first one is also the earliest made and was directed by one called the master of suspense: Alfred Hitchcock. This was also the first film Hitchcock appeared in a cameo.

 

On the fog covered streets of London, a masked killer calling himself the Avenger is murdering blond women with curly hair on Tuesdays. Daisy Bunting (June Tripp), a showgirl with curly blond hair, is a bit spooked by the deaths, as is her policeman boyfriend Joe (Malcolm Keen). Her parents (Marie Ault and Arthur Chesney) are concerned too, but their finical worries are concerns too. They decided to rent their attic out to a nice young man named Jonathan Drew (Ivor Novello). Drew is charming, witty, and utterly taken with the Buntings and their daughter. He also makes a habit of walking the streets on Tuesday nights with his face covered, demands that paintings and photos of blond woman with curly hair be removed from his sight, and his only luggage is a satchel containing a gun and map, a map marked with every single location of the Avenger’s victims.

Surely Joe is simply jealous when he starts to suspect Drew is the Avenger? Eve can’t believe Joe’s arguments, especially when he gets assigned the Avenger case. When Joe serves a warrant on the Bunting house and finds the aforementioned items, as well as several pictures of the Avenger’s first victim, Joe is more than convinced. Can Drew prove his innocence? Will Daisy believe him?

 

The hallmarks of the Hitchcock’s style are evident even here, with plenty of camera tricks to keep the viewer guessing. Hitchcock’s disdain for the authority is evident even here as well. Surprising, Hitchcock rarely uses title cards, letting the audience follow the story through the performers and their body movements.  As it is a silent film, this does present a challenge at times, but it is worth it to see the first steps towards Psycho and the Birds.
 

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