The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) / Public Domain 2023

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) / Director: Alfred Hitchcock / Length: 90 min. / Language: English / Entrance: FREE

We begin 2023 program with films that just entered public domain including The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, a 1927 British silent thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Marie Ault, Arthur Chesney, June Tripp, Malcolm Keen and Ivor Novello. The film is based on the 1913 novel The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes and the play Who Is He? co-written by Belloc Lowndes. Its plot concerns the hunt for a Jack the Ripper-like serial killer in London.

Hitchcock's first thriller, the film established him as a name director. Upon its release the trade journal Bioscope wrote: "It is possible that this film is the finest British production ever made". It also saw Hitchcock make his first cameo appearances in a film; he was depicted sitting in a newsroom, and in the second, standing in a crowd as the leading man is arrested.