Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 8-February-09
Spoiler Rating: Low

The Lodger (1944)

There are several scenes in The Lodger where I had to laugh at a character's obtuseness. The title refers to Jack the Ripper, who, as played by Laird Cregar, might as well sport a "World's #1 Serial Killer" T-shirt with a knife stuck to the fabric in dried blood. As soon as this guy rents rooms in the home of an aging couple (Cedric Hardwicke, Sara Allgood) and their gorgeous niece (Merle Oberon), he evinces every sign of being a sexually conflicted nutcase. Yet nobody seems to notice. Or rather, they excuse his behavior as eccentric until they gradually come round to fear.

The characters' cluelessness notwithstanding, The Lodger is a good movie filled with moody frames and angles from director John Brahm. While acknowledging the widespread terror that the Ripper's killings evoked, it focuses the suspense by changing his targets from prostitutes (as in reality) to actresses and making Oberon the premier example of such. She is a celebrated singer/dancer who maintains a nice girl's reputation by day and a temptress' popularity by night, or whenever she takes the stage. With habitual coquetry, she keeps trying to persuade the lodger to attend one of her racy performances even though he clearly finds showgirls distasteful. In one scene her aunt finds him turning all the portraits of women in his room towards the wall and drooling instead over a Bible. A few days later he gushes over a miniature of his dead brother in a way that can only be described as erotic.

The traditional hero of the piece is a Scotland Yard inspector (George Sanders) who is absorbed by the murders like all London and courts the very actress who is unwittingly cohabitating with their perpetrator. Sanders often plays sneerers and boors, so it is nice to see him look dashing. As for Cregar, he is not entirely to blame for the lodger's lack of subtlety; he exhibits a quiet fervor in situations which themselves speak of madness. On a gloomily interesting side note, Cregar died soon after this movie's release due to a drastic diet that weakened his organs. He was trying to slim down so he could play leading men instead of the comic or creepy roles relegated to actors of large stature.

The Lodger takes liberties with the fate of Jack the Ripper, but that is part of his (or her) enduring appeal: since so little is known about the historical criminal, writers and filmmakers can invent what they want. In this case it is a tale of twisted lust and misguided revenge with a little romance, a lot of leg, and some unintended humor to boot.

Copyright © 2009 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.