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"A new Hitchcock book has to offer something fresh. Henry Miller’s study of The Lodger certainly does so—on the film itself and on its context in the late 1920s, such a key moment between silent and sound. It goes straight on any shortlist of essential Hitchcock items."—Charles Barr, author of English Hitchcock and the BFI Classic on Vertigo
"This is a landmark endeavor offering context and depth to flesh out scholarly inconsistencies concerning a key film in a career dominating much of contemporary scholarship."—Jan Olsson, Professor Emeritus of Cinema Studies, Stockholm University
"In Miller's extensively researched and valuable study, he vividly captures the world from which The Lodger, the foundational Hitchcockian film, emerged. We deepen our appreciation and understanding of Hitchcock's cinematic mastery by setting the making and afterlife of The Lodger in a complex matrix of sociopolitical conditions, collaborations, and developments in filmmaking."—Sidney Gottlieb, editor of Hitchcock on Hitchcock
List of contents
Preface
Map of London, 1926–1927
1. The Embankment at Midnight
2. The Reputation and the Myth
3. No Old Masters
4. The Autocrat of the Studio
5. To Catch a Thief
6. The First True Hitchcock
7. Stories of the Days to Come
8. Wilshire Palms
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Henry K. Miller is a Sight and Sound critic and editor of The Essential Raymond Durgnat. His research has been published in journals including the Hitchcock Annual and Screen.
Summary
Hitchcock’s previously untold origin story.
Alfred Hitchcock called The Lodger "the first true Hitchcock movie," the one that anticipated all the others. And yet the story of how The Lodger came to be made is shrouded in myth, often repeated and much embellished, even by Hitchcock himself. The First True Hitchcock focuses on the twelve-month period that encompassed The Lodger's production in 1926 and release in 1927, presenting a new picture of this pivotal year in Hitchcock's life and in the wider film world. Using fresh archival discoveries, Henry K. Miller situates Hitchcock's formation as a director against the backdrop of a continent shattered by war and confronted with the looming presence of a new superpower, the United States, and its most visible export—film. The previously untold story of The Lodger's making in the London fog—and attempted remaking in the Los Angeles sun—is the story of how Hitchcock became Hitchcock.
Additional text
"Miller sets the record straight by looking closely at Hitchcock’s influences, as well as the film culture in which he came of age. . . . Packed with cinematic insight, this will hit the spot for film buffs."
