Amazon.com reviews for
The Lodger (1927)

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The Lodger (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Although Alfred Hitchcock had made two movies before The Lodger, he told François Truffaut that this was his first true film. And indeed, The Lodger contains elements that would appear again and again in the Master's later, more famous creations. It boasts the first of the famous "wrong man" plots and contains the first sequence in which handcuffs play a significant role. If your eye is quick, you'll also catch the first of Hitchcock's famous cameo appearances (he actually appears on-screen more than once).

The Lodger is also one of the first memorable pictures about the hunt for a serial killer. Terrified women and strange masked men walk the streets of London in a movie whose visual style was influenced by the German expressionists. In one tense sequence, the ceiling of a room becomes transparent and a character can be seen pacing back and forth on the floor above. The climactic chase is one of the most exciting Hitchcock ever filmed. This taut early film is a fine introduction to the silent cinema as well as to one of the world's greatest and most entertaining filmmakers. --Raphael Shargel