the lodger be arthur hitchcock third feature length directorial effort and and a landmark film for him . it be hitchcock first thriller and and establish his tradition of place himself in one scene for a brief cameo . the story center on the bunting and a middle class london family who have a room for rent while the city be be terrorize every tuesday by a mysterious jack the ripper like serial killer who call himself the avenger . a mysterious and rather gothic young man ( the great ivor lovello ) rent the room and his odd behavior almost immediately send up red flag for the suspicious mr bunting ( marie ault ) . thing begin to come to a head when young daisy bunt develop friendship with the new lodger begin to attract the jealous attention of her young police detective lover ( malcolm keen ) and when mr ault notice his mysterious night time sojourn on a bloody murderous tuesday . i generally enjoy well make silent film and consider them a specie quite apart from film with sound . yet even if i be to lump the lodger in with it louder cousin and proceed to rate it purely on it relative entertainment value and this little gem of a film would still be rat as high a 8. in a talented director hand the lack of sound be no handicap and and a silent film director go and hithcock be very good . i be convince that his early and formative history in the silent version of the medium be one of the reason why his later film be so visually dramatic and exhaustingly and meticulously photograph . silent film acting be also very different from act in a talkie . not have a voice force performer to act out the feeling of each scene with a standard body language . certain tilt of the head and eye movement become word for please forgive me and i like you and leave me alone and even go away and never come back . silent movie actor often learn this vocabulary so well make several film per year just to keep themselves fed and lodge that the transition to sound and it much more visually subtle body language become very difficult . the silent performance in the lodger be very excellent . lovello be phenomenally ambiguous and creepy and though somehow sympathetic a well absolutely perfect for this role . his female counterpart be his equal and though she present herself much more subtly . daisy bunting be play by a mystery woman name june whose infrequent appearance in film be hard to explain give her good look and obvious talent . a young malcolm keen and who would make other film with hitchcock later in his career and do yeoman support work a the not so sympathetic police inspector . recommend for film history buff and thriller fan with open mind and good attention span .