In 1944 Laird Cregar had appeared in the film version of THE LODGER which has generally been considered the best version of that film of the three versions (although Hitchcock's silent version has it's admirers). Cregar's performance led to a follow-up film HANGOVER SQUARE, which proved to be his final performance due to a crash diet he put himself on that killed him.
Nine years later 20th Century Fox decided to remake THE LODGER, and the current version starred Jack Palance. It was retitled MAN IN THE ATTIC - perhaps because the 1944 film had gained classic status. The story remains the same.
It is based on a legend of the Ripper that keeps cropping up, most recently in the discussions of the connection of the painter Walter Sickert with the Whitechapel Murders. Sickert loved to discuss crimes, and he told the story about having rented rooms at a lodging house, and being told the former tenant of the rooms was suspected by the landlady of being Jack the Ripper. The prior tenant had only gone out at night, and came back disheveled, and would pounce on all the newspapers on those days that followed the next Ripper murder. However, this tenant had left the room when his health failed, and the landlady learned that he had died two months later. Sickert did tell this story to several people: Osbert Sitwell (who wrote of it in his book NOBLE ESSENCES), Max Beerbohm, and Sir William Rothenstein being three of them. But no name was ever passed down on this suspect (Rothenstein apparently wrote it down, but the writing was destroyed). The story became known to novelist Marie Belloc Lowndes (possibly she heard it from Sickert or some common acquaintance), and she wrote a short story "The Lodger" which was subsequently expanded into a small novel or novella of the same name.
Mr. Slade (Palance) is a pathologist at a London Hospital, who rents rooms in the lodging house of the Harleys (Rhys Williams and Frances Bavier - "Aunt Bea" on THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW"). Slade is very silent and mysterious, and slowly Mrs. Harley begins to suspect if Slade is the Ripper. However Mr. Harley keeps contesting her proof (by the fact that he would act the same way as Slade would). The situation worsens when the Harley's niece Lily Bonner (Constance Smith) returns from a successful tour of Paris, to perform at the Picadilly Music Hall. Bavier is increasingly worried about her niece, who is the only person who can somehow make Slade relax and be friendly.
In the novel/novella the actual guilt of Slade as the Ripper is left unsolved by his suicide before the police can act (his death by drowning is also based on a rumor that the Ripper drowned himself - a matter as contentious as any other in the mystery). In this version Palance makes one suspicious for most of the film, but we feel he is capable of better actions (and he is disgusted by some of his rival's, Detective Inspector Warwick - Byron Palmer - patterns of behavior, such as predicting he understands the Ripper or taking Lily for a tour, with Slade, through the Black Museum of Scotland Yard).
The conclusion of the film actually is far more exciting than in the 1944 version (complete with a horse and carriage chase). But the ambiguity of Slade's guilt remains here, unlike the 1944 version. When he does threaten - SPOILER HERE - Lily he can't bring himself to kill her, as he loves her. Palance brings this off well, unlike Cregar whose interest in Merle Oberon in 1944 was not as potentially romantic, but simply part of a religious mania.
I still like Cregar's version of the central role better, but Palance's performance is well worth watching - as are Bavier, Williams, Palmer and Smith in support. I also note that this version is good in capturing some of the actual story. Sir Charles Warren, the Commissioner of Scotland Yard is mentioned, as is his resignation under fire in November 1888. Another character is named as Chief Inspector Melville, an actual Chief Inspector of the Yard. Maybe not quite as atmospheric as the 1944 version, but not one to be casually dismissed out of hand either.
Nine years later 20th Century Fox decided to remake THE LODGER, and the current version starred Jack Palance. It was retitled MAN IN THE ATTIC - perhaps because the 1944 film had gained classic status. The story remains the same.
It is based on a legend of the Ripper that keeps cropping up, most recently in the discussions of the connection of the painter Walter Sickert with the Whitechapel Murders. Sickert loved to discuss crimes, and he told the story about having rented rooms at a lodging house, and being told the former tenant of the rooms was suspected by the landlady of being Jack the Ripper. The prior tenant had only gone out at night, and came back disheveled, and would pounce on all the newspapers on those days that followed the next Ripper murder. However, this tenant had left the room when his health failed, and the landlady learned that he had died two months later. Sickert did tell this story to several people: Osbert Sitwell (who wrote of it in his book NOBLE ESSENCES), Max Beerbohm, and Sir William Rothenstein being three of them. But no name was ever passed down on this suspect (Rothenstein apparently wrote it down, but the writing was destroyed). The story became known to novelist Marie Belloc Lowndes (possibly she heard it from Sickert or some common acquaintance), and she wrote a short story "The Lodger" which was subsequently expanded into a small novel or novella of the same name.
Mr. Slade (Palance) is a pathologist at a London Hospital, who rents rooms in the lodging house of the Harleys (Rhys Williams and Frances Bavier - "Aunt Bea" on THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW"). Slade is very silent and mysterious, and slowly Mrs. Harley begins to suspect if Slade is the Ripper. However Mr. Harley keeps contesting her proof (by the fact that he would act the same way as Slade would). The situation worsens when the Harley's niece Lily Bonner (Constance Smith) returns from a successful tour of Paris, to perform at the Picadilly Music Hall. Bavier is increasingly worried about her niece, who is the only person who can somehow make Slade relax and be friendly.
In the novel/novella the actual guilt of Slade as the Ripper is left unsolved by his suicide before the police can act (his death by drowning is also based on a rumor that the Ripper drowned himself - a matter as contentious as any other in the mystery). In this version Palance makes one suspicious for most of the film, but we feel he is capable of better actions (and he is disgusted by some of his rival's, Detective Inspector Warwick - Byron Palmer - patterns of behavior, such as predicting he understands the Ripper or taking Lily for a tour, with Slade, through the Black Museum of Scotland Yard).
The conclusion of the film actually is far more exciting than in the 1944 version (complete with a horse and carriage chase). But the ambiguity of Slade's guilt remains here, unlike the 1944 version. When he does threaten - SPOILER HERE - Lily he can't bring himself to kill her, as he loves her. Palance brings this off well, unlike Cregar whose interest in Merle Oberon in 1944 was not as potentially romantic, but simply part of a religious mania.
I still like Cregar's version of the central role better, but Palance's performance is well worth watching - as are Bavier, Williams, Palmer and Smith in support. I also note that this version is good in capturing some of the actual story. Sir Charles Warren, the Commissioner of Scotland Yard is mentioned, as is his resignation under fire in November 1888. Another character is named as Chief Inspector Melville, an actual Chief Inspector of the Yard. Maybe not quite as atmospheric as the 1944 version, but not one to be casually dismissed out of hand either.