Production
The Lodger is based on a novel of the same name by Marie Belloc Lowndes, and on the play Who Is He?, cowritten by Belloc Lowndes, about the Jack The Ripper murders.
Originally, the film was intended to end with ambiguity as to whether or not the lodger was innocent. However, when Ivor Novello was cast in the role, the studio demanded alterations to the script. Hitchcock recalled:
| “ | They wouldn't let Novello even be considered as a villain. The publicity angle carried the day, and we had to change the script to show that without a doubt he was innocent. | ” |
Ultimately, Hitchcock followed these instructions, but avoided showing the true villain onscreen.
Upon seeing Hitchcock's finished film, producer Michael Balcon was furious, and nearly shelved it (and Hitchcock's career). After considerable bickering, a compromise was reached and film critic Ivor Montagu was hired to salvage the film. Hitchcock was initially resentful of the intrusion, but Montagu recognized the director's technical skill and artistry and made only minor suggestions, mostly concerning the title cards and the reshooting of a few minor scenes.
The result, described by Hitchcock scholar Donald Spoto, is "the first time Hitchcock has revealed his psychological attraction to the association between sex and murder, between ecstasy and death." It would pave the way for his later work.
Hitchcock's assistant, Alma Reville, married Hitchcock on 2 December 1926, shortly before the film was released.
Read more about this topic: The Lodger: A Story Of The London Fog
Famous quotes containing the word production:
“The society based on production is only productive, not creative.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“The development of civilization and industry in general has always shown itself so active in the destruction of forests that everything that has been done for their conservation and production is completely insignificant in comparison.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“An art whose limits depend on a moving image, mass audience, and industrial production is bound to differ from an art whose limits depend on language, a limited audience, and individual creation. In short, the filmed novel, in spite of certain resemblances, will inevitably become a different artistic entity from the novel on which it is based.”
—George Bluestone, U.S. educator, critic. “The Limits of the Novel and the Limits of the Film,” Novels Into Film, Johns Hopkins Press (1957)