- Based on a novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes that is itself based on her earlier short story, The Lodger had already been filmed first as a silent movie by Alfred Hitchcock and with sound by Maurice Elvey prior to the release of John Brahm's version in 1944. As such, Brahm's film should by all rights have been incapable of delivering a single surprise, which ironically may be why the film works as well as it does. Having seen Hitchcock's version, I thought I knew how things would end up. How wrong I was.
- The story takes place in 19th-century London just as the public mania over Jack the Ripper has hit an all-time high. In this midst of the hysteria, a mysterious lodger named Slade (Laird Cregar) takes up residence at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Bonting (Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Sara Allgood), who live with their niece Kitty (Merle Oberon), a stage performer. To say that Mr. Slade is a tad peculiar is an understatement. There doesn't seem to be a single conversation that he can't infuse with a sense of uncomfortable dread. In addition to keeping weird hours, Slade turns paintings of actresses to face the walls and conducts odd "experiments" that really resemble the destruction of incriminating evidence. Mrs. Bonting suspects Slade, but Mr. Bonting defends him. Kitty isn't convinced either way.
- As Scotland Yard steps in to investigate, the case's lead detective, Inspector Warwick (George Sanders), initiates an opportunistic investigation of his own into Kitty's personal life. In a particularly funny moment, the inspector invites Kitty over to meet his mother while giving a tour of the Yard's "Black Museum" of death masks and murder weapons. The only thing more awkward is perhaps Kitty's musical act itself, in which she parades around onstage lifting her frilly skirt while putting on a corny French accent. Despite nominally being about Jack the Ripper, there is perhaps no more terrifying moment in this film than a dance number called "The Parisian Trot." Maybe the murderer is not totally unjustified in targeting this particular act?
- The best parts of The Lodger are those that follow unwary victims around the dank and gloomy streets of London, watching as their inevitable fate catches up with them. In fact, the movie's opening scene, in which a drunken woman's murder is revealed by a dropped bottle of wine, is probably also its best. Although Cregar and Oberon do well enough with their roles, neither is quite as engaging as Sanders or Allgood, both of whom steal every scene they're in. Incidentally, I discovered after seeing this film that Cregar died tragically of a heart attack the same year this film was released. To my great astonishment, his eulogy was delivered by Vincent Price, which is somehow a cooler and creepier detail than anything that appears in The Lodger.
