With his third feature film, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, Alfred Hitchcock took a major step toward greatness and made what he would come to consider his true directorial debut. This haunting silent thriller tells the tale of a mysterious young man (matinee idol Ivor Novello) who takes up residence at a London boardinghouse, just as a killer who preys on blonde women, known as the Avenger, descends upon the city. The film is animated by the palpable energy of a young stylist at play, decisively establishing the director s formal and thematic obsessions. In this edition, The Lodger is accompanied by Downhill, another 1927 silent exploration of Hitchcock s wrong man trope, also headlined by Novello making for a double feature that reveals the great master of the macabre as he was just coming into his own.
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
-2K digital restoration, with a new score by composer Neil Brand, performed by the Orchestra of Saint Paul s
-Downhill, director Alfred Hitchcock s 1927 feature film starring Ivor Novello, in a 2K digital restoration with a new piano score by Brand
-New interview with film scholar William Rothman on Hitchcock s visual signatures
-New video essay by art historian Steven Jacobs about Hitchcock s use of architecture
-Excerpts from audio interviews with Hitchcock by filmmakers François Truffaut (1962) and Peter Bogdanovich (1963)
-Radio adaptation of The Lodger from 1940, directed by Hitchcock
-New interview with Brand on composing for silent film
-PLUS: Essays on The Lodger and Downhill by critic Philip Kemp
