The Lodger

Laird Cregar stars as the titular lodger in this 1944 third screen adaptation of the 1913 thriller by Marie Belloc Lowndes (the most famous was the 1927 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock) set in London during the reign of Jack the Ripper. While the city panics in the wake of another murder of a showgirl by the knife-wielding madman, a man who identifies himself as Mr. Slade (Cregar) takes a room in a middle-class home. Also living there is Kitty Langley (Merle Oberon), an attractive, flirtatious entertainer making the leap from music halls to more respectable theaters, and the Bible-quoting Slade can barely hide his fascination behind his admonitions of sin and temptation. This is film noir by way of gothic thriller, a shadowy suspense thriller in the Victorian era of gaslight and horse-drawn carriages on cobblestone streets. Director John Brahm creates night scenes full of shadow, fog, and suspense, while directing Cregar to an intense psychological pitch of barely suppressed mania and hysteria in the role of Slade, a polite, soft-spoken man who keeps unusual hours, uses the back door exclusively, and behaves furtively after every new murder is reported. George Sanders costars as the Scotland Yard investigator who becomes sweet on Kitty and suspicious of Slade. A fine Hollywood thriller of the era, this is a beautifully crafted film that is more faithful to the novel than Hitchcock's version. Bowing on Blu-ray, extras include audio commentaries, a “making-of” featurette, a vintage radio show adaptation featuring Vincent Price, and a restoration comparison. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)