The Lodger Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

The Lodger Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 29, 2012

Alfred Hitchcock's first British film "The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog" (1927) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors NetworkDVD. The supplemental features on the disc include a video interview with composer Nitin Sawhney and a gallery of stills. The release also arrives with two bonus CDs with the film's new soundtrack performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and an illustrated booklet with writings on the film by Professor Neil Sinyard. With English intertitles. Region-B "locked".

He has arrived

A serial killer is terrorizing the streets of London. He kills young and beautiful fair-haired girls, typically late at night, when the fog comes down. The police have been trying to catch him, but are yet to figure out who he is. They call him The Avenger.

Some time after the latest murder, Mrs. Bunting (Marie Ault) rents a room out to a lodger (Ivor Novello). Her initial impressions are that the young man is a true gentleman. She finds it rather strange that he does not talk much, but likes the fact that he immediately agreed to pay her a month’s rent in advance.

Daisy (June), Mrs. Bunting’s daughter, also likes the lodger. In fact, she likes him a lot more than she should -- at least this is what Joe (Malcolm Keen), Daisy’s biggest admirer, who also happens to be a detective, thinks. There is something about the lodger that just isn’t right, like the way he looks at Daisy.

As time goes by, the lodger and Daisy become good friends. Concerned that they could become lovers, Joe constantly tries to push them away from each other. When Daisy warns him to stop embarrassing her, Joe gets a search warrant, hoping to prove that the lodger is not the type of man she should be spending time with.

When Joe and his buddies enter the lodger’s room, he panics. Joe isn't surprised. He knew it all along -- the lodger is a dangerous man, a bad man, someone who has something to hide. Now Joe can almost see Daisy coming back to him, thanking him for showing her that she was wrong. He can almost feel Daisy’s warm lips touching his lips.

One of Joe’s buddies brings a bag. In it there is a gun and a map of the places where The Avenger has killed before. This is the proof. The lodger must have been waiting for the perfect moment to kill Daisy. He is a monster. He is The Avenger.

Based on the novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog was Alfred Hitchcock’s third film and his first British film. The novel was adapted by Eliot Stannard, who worked closely with Hitchcock until the late ‘20s (their final work together was on The Manxman), and screenwriter and editor Alma Reville, who married the director in 1926.

The film has two different identities. The first profiles it as a love story about two people who meet and become attracted to each other under some unusual circumstances. There is plenty of melodrama but eventually the focus of attention convincingly shifts from the relationship between the lodger and Daisy to the mysterious serial killer.

The second identity is that of a suspense thriller with various dark overtones. Hitchcock’s attempts to misdirect the viewer are quite easy to spot, but they are not yet as convincing as they are in his later films.

There are some obvious gothic overtones in the film as well. The heavy fog, the dark and cold streets, and especially the manner in which the lodger is filmed -- very much reminding of the manner in which Jack the Ripper is typically filmed -- create and sustain a rather unusual for a Hitchcock film atmosphere.

Newly restored by the BFI National Archive in association with ITV Studios Global Entertainment, Network Releasing and Park Circus Films, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog is complemented by a brand new orchestral soundtrack courtesy of award-winning composer, DJ and producer Nitin Sawhney. The soundtrack blends traditional classical themes and some rather unusual exotic harmonies. There are plenty of memorable oboe and bassoon solos, as well as a very gentle vocal piece.

The Lodger Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Alfred Hitchcock's The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors NetworkDVD.

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog was restored by the BFI National Archive in association with ITV Studios Global Entertainment, Network Releasing and Park Circus Films. Principal restoration funding was provided by The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, The Film Foundation and Simon H. Hessel.

The restoration has produced marvelous results. For an 85-year-old film, detail and depth are often outstanding. Even extremely small objects (such as a necklace, ring, or lighter) look quite remarkable (see screencaptures #3 and 11). The atmospheric footage from London's dark and foggy streets also looks very pleasing -- what is visible is the soft fog, not macroblocking patterns; there is no fluttering either. The light brown and blue tinting is excellent. A layer of light and wonderfully well resolved grain is present throughout the entire film. Also, it is obvious that various stabilization adjustments have been performed as the film has a very consistent look. Damage marks, cuts, debris, and splices have been removed as best as possible. What remains are extremely light scratches and a few small vertical lines popping up here and there that obviously could not have been removed with current digital tools without affecting the integrity of the film. Compression is good. All in all, this is indeed a wonderful restoration and presentation of Hitchcock's first British film. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

The Lodger Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray disc: LPCM 2.0. The film does contain English intertitles.

The LPCM 2.0 track is outstanding. The sound is lush and exceptionally crisp, while dynamic movement is as good as it could possibly be. Regardless of how one feels about Nitin Sawhney's new soundtrack, from a purely technical point of view the LPCM 2.0 delivers everything one would expect from it.

Please note that NetworkDVD have also included two CDs with Nitin Sawhney's soundtrack.

The Lodger Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Scoring The Lodger With Nitin Sawhney - composer, DJ and producer Nitin Sawhney discusses how the new soundtrack for The Lodger came to exist and the unique influences from different cultures that can be heard in it. In English, not subtitled. (19 min, 1080/50i).

• Gallery - a collection of posters, behind the scenes stills, production images, and photographs of Alfred Hitchcock and his lost film The Mountain Eagle. (3 min, 1080p).

• CD - two CDs with the soundtrack by Nitin Sawhney performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.

• Booklet - 15-page illustrated booklet with writings on The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog by Neil Sinyard. The author is a Emeritus Professor of Film Studies at the University of Hull and Visiting Professor of Film at the University of Lincoln. He has published over twenty books on the cinema, including studies of directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Woody Allen, Jack Clayton and Nicolas Roeg.

The Lodger Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I think it is fair to say that this year we have seen some truly outstanding releases from NetworkDVD. The latest one is Alfred Hitchcock's newly restored The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, which really looks quite remarkable on Blu-ray. I don't know if there are plans to bring to Blu-ray the rest of the early Hitchcock films that are being restored, but I hope someone releases them. It would be quite the treat to see them looking as good as The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog does. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.