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Stranger danger demystified
Thursday, January 14, 2016
The seeds for Hitchcock's genius are in full germination in only his third picture, "The Lodger," a silent foray into suspense that reveals much about the master's tastes and tendencies. After putting on our detective hats and watching the film, here are the clues we uncovered:
THE LODGER WAS INNOVATIVE AND PIONEERING IN MANY WAYS, PARTICULARLY IN HOW IT WAS THE FIRST HITCHCOCK FILM TO INTRODUCE MANY OF HIS SIGNATURE ELEMENTS. WHAT “FIRSTS” FOR HITCHCOCK CAN YOU IDENTIFY?
• First known use of the Hitchcock MacGuffin, in this case the real Avenger, who motors the plot along but is never actually seen.
• Inaugural appearance of the director himself in a brief cameo (he’s sitting at a desk in the newspaper office).
• First use of three crucial Hitchcock themes: the accused innocent man on the run and a case of mistaken identity, the blonde heroin, and deviant, fetishistic sexuality.
• Possibly the first film in which Hitchcock gave priority to “the emotional realism of the story over and above the empirical realism of plot and setting,” wrote Gary McCarron, who also said: “(Hitchcock’s) attention to the complications of his characters, their puzzlements, ambitions, and occasionally contradictory desires, indicates his interest in using the cinema to evoke powerful, visceral reactions in his audience. And this could best be done by involving the audience in the emotional lives of the characters. One did not want the audience merely to watch actors play at experiencing emotions; one wanted them to live those emotions as though they were real.”
• First use of a cinematic doppelganger – a “double”, in this case the lodger and the Avenger.
• Initial employment of shared viewer guilt and audience identification with a suspected criminal: the lodger character, whom we don’t know is actually innocent until later in the movie, evokes viewer sympathy with his kindness toward Daisy and pursuit of justice for his sister’s murder.
• First instance of suspense scenes that depict something occurring prior to showing the audience who is behind the occurrence/action.
• Earliest instance of presenting imperfect, incompetent and untrustworthy detectives and police officers.
• First case of the use of an unnamed primary character: the lodger is never named.
• Initial suggestion of aberrant and lawbreaking proclivities possibly hidden within each of us, including assumedly innocent characters in the movie.
• First employment of visual symbols and motifs meant to signify a theme or pattern inherent in the film; motifs in this movie that are revisited in many later Hitchcock pictures include the triangle, the staircase and the cellar.
• First movie in which a man and woman are chained together via handcuffs.
• First suspected use of a push-in tracking camera (instead of a traditional zoom in) to underscore highly emotional/dramatic shots.
• Possibly the first film in which Hitchcock had each scene sketched out/storyboarded ahead of time, indicating his preference for careful preproduction planning.
WHAT DOES THE TRIANGLE SYMBOL/MOTIF REPRESENT IN THIS MOVIE?
• The obvious lover’s triangle – here, embodied by Daisy, the lodger, and Daisy’s boyfriend police officer Joe. She has to choose between an alluring sexual desire for an enigmatic stranger and a safe/conservative romantic interest in Joe. Consider that Daisy’s attraction to the stranger upstairs could be instigated by her cognizance that he may actually be the serial killer.
• The lodger’s conflict between choosing between Daisy and finding his sister’s killer: the lodger is one point of the triangle, while the two choices he has to make represent the other two points on the triangle.
• Daisy also has to choose between two levels that represent two opposite points on a triangle: the mysterious, sexually alluring and dangerous upstairs level, occupied by the lodger, and the downstairs level, occupied by safe, every day matters and characters; Daisy stands as the movie’s only character who can comfortably transition between either level.
WHAT VISUAL FLOURISHES DOES HITCHCOCK EMPLOY TO TRANSFORM AN OTHERWISE STAGE-BOUND MELODRAMA AND CONVENTIONAL MYSTERY NARRATIVE INTO A VISUALLY EXPRESSIVE CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE THAT DOESN’T NEED WORDS TO TELL ITS TALE?
• Shots that reveal how Hitchcock was inspired by German Expressionism, including: use of dramatic shadows and high-contrast lighting; the hand gliding its way down the staircase; the transparent ceiling showing a figure pacing back and forth above; the close-up of the shrieking blonde, with her blonde curls aglow via clever use of backlighting; and the religiously symbolic shots, including a cross shadow on the lodger’s face and his hanging from the gate, the latter suggesting innocent Christ-like suffering.
• “The major achievement of The Lodger, one might say, is its remarkable handling of such difficult themes as guilt, innocence, despair, and romance, and the technical virtuosity with which the young director confidently arranged the cinematic exposition of his narrative. Hitchcock transcended the limitations of the theatrical mannerisms of his principal players, and the abstractness of their motives and counter-motives, by using the eye of the camera to peer deeply into their thoughts and feelings. The Lodger explores moral and emotional ambiguity with a candor that impresses and disturbs audiences today,” McCarron also wrote.
WHAT SHOTS, IMAGES OR VISUAL IDEAS IN “THE LODGER” ARE REPEATED/REVISITED IN LATER HITCHCOCK FILMS?
• The undressing and bathtub scene – a sequence reimagined in Psycho
• The partners bound together, one or both with handcuffs – The 39 Steps
• The long, winding staircase – Notorious and Psycho
• The modeling/fashion show – Vertigo
• Close-up of a screaming female in danger – Psycho and Frenzy
• A lodging gassed with a dark secret – Shadow of a Doubt
• Close-up erotic kiss and extreme close-up of a face pre-kiss – Notorious and To Catch a Thief
• Ballroom dancing sequence that ends in foul play – The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
• Fetishistic obsession with female hair – Vertigo
• Man who could easily have turned out to be the villain but is proved innocent by the end – Suspicion
DO ANY OTHER FILMS REMIND YOU OF THE LODGER?
• M (1931)
• The Invisible Man (1933)
• Gaslight (1940)
• The Lodger (1944)
• Man in the Attic (1953)
• Inaugural appearance of the director himself in a brief cameo (he’s sitting at a desk in the newspaper office).
• First use of three crucial Hitchcock themes: the accused innocent man on the run and a case of mistaken identity, the blonde heroin, and deviant, fetishistic sexuality.
• Possibly the first film in which Hitchcock gave priority to “the emotional realism of the story over and above the empirical realism of plot and setting,” wrote Gary McCarron, who also said: “(Hitchcock’s) attention to the complications of his characters, their puzzlements, ambitions, and occasionally contradictory desires, indicates his interest in using the cinema to evoke powerful, visceral reactions in his audience. And this could best be done by involving the audience in the emotional lives of the characters. One did not want the audience merely to watch actors play at experiencing emotions; one wanted them to live those emotions as though they were real.”
• First use of a cinematic doppelganger – a “double”, in this case the lodger and the Avenger.
• Initial employment of shared viewer guilt and audience identification with a suspected criminal: the lodger character, whom we don’t know is actually innocent until later in the movie, evokes viewer sympathy with his kindness toward Daisy and pursuit of justice for his sister’s murder.
• First instance of suspense scenes that depict something occurring prior to showing the audience who is behind the occurrence/action.
• Earliest instance of presenting imperfect, incompetent and untrustworthy detectives and police officers.
• First case of the use of an unnamed primary character: the lodger is never named.
• Initial suggestion of aberrant and lawbreaking proclivities possibly hidden within each of us, including assumedly innocent characters in the movie.
• First employment of visual symbols and motifs meant to signify a theme or pattern inherent in the film; motifs in this movie that are revisited in many later Hitchcock pictures include the triangle, the staircase and the cellar.
• First movie in which a man and woman are chained together via handcuffs.
• First suspected use of a push-in tracking camera (instead of a traditional zoom in) to underscore highly emotional/dramatic shots.
• Possibly the first film in which Hitchcock had each scene sketched out/storyboarded ahead of time, indicating his preference for careful preproduction planning.
WHAT DOES THE TRIANGLE SYMBOL/MOTIF REPRESENT IN THIS MOVIE?
• The obvious lover’s triangle – here, embodied by Daisy, the lodger, and Daisy’s boyfriend police officer Joe. She has to choose between an alluring sexual desire for an enigmatic stranger and a safe/conservative romantic interest in Joe. Consider that Daisy’s attraction to the stranger upstairs could be instigated by her cognizance that he may actually be the serial killer.
• The lodger’s conflict between choosing between Daisy and finding his sister’s killer: the lodger is one point of the triangle, while the two choices he has to make represent the other two points on the triangle.
• Daisy also has to choose between two levels that represent two opposite points on a triangle: the mysterious, sexually alluring and dangerous upstairs level, occupied by the lodger, and the downstairs level, occupied by safe, every day matters and characters; Daisy stands as the movie’s only character who can comfortably transition between either level.
WHAT VISUAL FLOURISHES DOES HITCHCOCK EMPLOY TO TRANSFORM AN OTHERWISE STAGE-BOUND MELODRAMA AND CONVENTIONAL MYSTERY NARRATIVE INTO A VISUALLY EXPRESSIVE CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE THAT DOESN’T NEED WORDS TO TELL ITS TALE?
• Shots that reveal how Hitchcock was inspired by German Expressionism, including: use of dramatic shadows and high-contrast lighting; the hand gliding its way down the staircase; the transparent ceiling showing a figure pacing back and forth above; the close-up of the shrieking blonde, with her blonde curls aglow via clever use of backlighting; and the religiously symbolic shots, including a cross shadow on the lodger’s face and his hanging from the gate, the latter suggesting innocent Christ-like suffering.
• “The major achievement of The Lodger, one might say, is its remarkable handling of such difficult themes as guilt, innocence, despair, and romance, and the technical virtuosity with which the young director confidently arranged the cinematic exposition of his narrative. Hitchcock transcended the limitations of the theatrical mannerisms of his principal players, and the abstractness of their motives and counter-motives, by using the eye of the camera to peer deeply into their thoughts and feelings. The Lodger explores moral and emotional ambiguity with a candor that impresses and disturbs audiences today,” McCarron also wrote.
WHAT SHOTS, IMAGES OR VISUAL IDEAS IN “THE LODGER” ARE REPEATED/REVISITED IN LATER HITCHCOCK FILMS?
• The undressing and bathtub scene – a sequence reimagined in Psycho
• The partners bound together, one or both with handcuffs – The 39 Steps
• The long, winding staircase – Notorious and Psycho
• The modeling/fashion show – Vertigo
• Close-up of a screaming female in danger – Psycho and Frenzy
• A lodging gassed with a dark secret – Shadow of a Doubt
• Close-up erotic kiss and extreme close-up of a face pre-kiss – Notorious and To Catch a Thief
• Ballroom dancing sequence that ends in foul play – The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
• Fetishistic obsession with female hair – Vertigo
• Man who could easily have turned out to be the villain but is proved innocent by the end – Suspicion
DO ANY OTHER FILMS REMIND YOU OF THE LODGER?
• M (1931)
• The Invisible Man (1933)
• Gaslight (1940)
• The Lodger (1944)
• Man in the Attic (1953)
