SQIFF I Do?: The Lodger

The Lodger is an early film from Alfred Hitchcock, in which the notoriously queer-minded filmmaker gives a subversive critique of married coupledom - a trope which would infuse his later US work. A serial killer known as ‘The Avenger’ is loose in London and a mysterious lodger, played by Ivor Novello, becomes a suspect. His landlords’ daughter, Daisy, is courting a policeman, Joe, but is drawn to the enigmatic stranger. Daisy’s doubts about marrying Joe are conveyed through typical Hitchcock metaphors such as handcuffs whilst her attraction to Novello’s very queer character serves as a comment on the expansiveness of desire beyond heteronormative relationships.

The film is silent with intertitles, so is accessible for people who are deaf or hard or hearing.

Part of BFI LOVE, in partnership with Plusnet
bfi.org.uk/love

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