Golden Curls Tonight! Alfred Hitchcock’s silent masterpiece The Lodger (1927) is often considered the first “Hitchcock” film, from which his future narrative structures and aesthetics are built upon. This film contributed to new and cutting edge cinematic techniques and expanded filmic language in beautiful and dynamic ways. According to Phillip French, writing in The Guardian, Hitchcock borders themes of "the fascination with technique and problem-solving, the obsession with blondes, the fear of authority, and ambivalence towards homosexuality,"[2]

in the Lodger. Based on the novel of the same name by Marie Belloc Lowndes, the film opens with the murder of a young woman by a mysterious serial killer known as “The Avenger". We are then introduced to the Daisy Bunting (June Tripp), a young model, and her family who are struggling to make ends meet while keeping a lodging house. When a mysterious stranger (Ivor Novello) shows up on their doorstep, a series of triangulations and cat/mouse dynamics are put into action. Who really is The Lodger?

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The Buster Keaton two-reel short The Haunted House (1921) will accompany this feature.