Blu-ray, DVD Release: The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: June 27, 2017
Price: DVD $17.14, Blu-ray $24.06
Studio: Criterion

With his third feature film, 1927’s The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, Alfred Hitchcock (The 39 Steps, Psycho) took a major step toward greatness and made what he would come to consider his true directorial debut.

This haunting silent thriller tells the tale of a mysterious young man (matinee idol Ivor Novello) who takes up residence at a London boardinghouse, just as a killer who preys on blonde women, known as the Avenger, descends upon the city.

The film is animated by the palpable energy of a young stylist at play, decisively establishing the director’s formal and thematic obsessions.

In this edition, The Lodger is accompanied by Downhill, another 1927 silent exploration of Hitchcock’s “wrong man” trope, also headlined by Novello and making for a double feature that reveals the great master of the macabre as he was just coming into his own.

Criterion’s editions of the classic silent film, seen here in a tinted and Black & white presentation, contain the following features:

* 2K digital restoration, with a new score by composer Neil Brand, performed by the Orchestra of Saint Paul’s
* Downhill, director Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 feature film starring Ivor Novello, in a 2K digital restoration with a new piano score by Brand
* New interview with film scholar William Rothman on Hitchcock’s visual signatures
* New video essay by art historian Steven Jacobs about Hitchcock’s use of architecture
* Excerpts from audio interviews with Hitchcock by filmmakers François Truffaut (1962) and Peter Bogdanovich (1963)
* Radio adaptation of The Lodger from 1940, directed by Hitchcock
* New interview with Brand on composing for silent film
* Essays on The Lodger and Downhill by critic Philip Kemp