Alfred Hitchcock one of them (Raymond Burr) has murdered his wife. Stewart eventually manages to convince his policeman buddy (Wendell Corey) and his girlfriend (Kelly). As with "Lifeboat" and "Rope", the principal characters are depicted in confined or cramped quarters, in this case Stewart's studio apartment. Hitchcock uses close-ups of Stewart's face to show his character's reactions, "from the comic voyeurism directed at his neighbours to his helpless terror watching Kelly and Burr in the villain's apartment". From 1955 to 1965, Hitchcock was the host of the television series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". With his droll delivery, gallows humour and iconic image, the
Alfred Hitchcock that of the heterosexual male protagonist. "The female characters in his films reflected the same qualities over and over again," Roger Ebert wrote in 1996. "They were blonde. They were icy and remote. They were imprisoned in costumes that subtly combined fashion with fetishism. They mesmerised the men, who often had physical or psychological handicaps. Sooner or later, every Hitchcock woman was humiliated." The victims in "The Lodger" are all blondes. In "The 39 Steps" (1935), Madeleine Carroll is put in handcuffs. Ingrid Bergman, whom Hitchcock directed three times ("Spellbound" (1945), "Notorious" (1946), and "Under Capricorn" (1949)), is dark blonde.