I was going to write about a bunch of Hitchcock movies I saw recently, but I thought I'd focus on just one.
The Pleasure Garden (1925) was a pretty good film. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this early Hitchcock piece. Easy watching romance/thriller.
Under Capricorn (1949) is ok. Much better for the acting performances than for the Hitchcock factor. Easy watching romance/thriller.
The Lodger (1927) was actually harder to watch than either of the other 2, but, upon completion, resonates both better and longer.
It's much more in the best Hitchcock theme of romance/horror, with a Jack The Ripper type premise. We join the story after a mysterious serial killer has already killed a few victims and foggy, cold London is already in the grip of suspicion and speculation as to who could be the evil one.
We centre on a household of lovely people, 2 oldy parents and their beautiful daughter and her potential fiancé. Everything is beautiful. But they live in the killer's zone of operation. And they have rooms for rent. And in walks... The Lodger:
Played to absolute perfection by the legend that was Ivor Novello, creating an iconic image that rivals nosferatu for most iconic horror imagery of the decade:
Another cold and foggy night passes by after he moves in. Another murder takes place. And it's taken place in the very close vicinity of our fateful heroine. And our fateful heroine is becoming very attracted to The Lodger. And her dejected fiancé is... a police detective assigned to the investigation of the serial killer.
The dynamic of this scenario is played slowly. Hence the initial difficulty in watching a silent film try to gradually set-up a very complicated plot-line. But it bears fruit, lots and lots of very ripe fruit so that when the shit starts hitting the fan you are fully into everyone and their predicament. The romance scenes in particular are extremely effective. I'm not normally one for romance, but these scenes are so brilliantly performed that even I was wowed.
The film has undergone many restorations over the years, the most significant being a 1999 reworking of the score by Ashley Irwin and a 2012 attempt at converting it to tinted digital. The new score is probably the biggest drawback as there are two scenes where modern music is used, including singing, which feels very out of place in a 1925 movie, but it's only a couple of small temporary intrusions to an otherwise great score.
The film is one of those with an open licence and as such there are several uploads of it in full on Youtube. I can't remember which I watched.
The Lodger provides a great insight into what constitutes a 1920s superstar actor and how even in the silent era a performer can rise above the crowd with their performances and help us understand why, when Robert Altman made Gosford Park, he chose Ivor Novello (played by Jeremy Northman) as the typical silent era star to attend his high society period piece.
Stays with you for life/10.