The Lodger is as others have already said Hitchcock first suspense movie. Though I have not seen movies from him before this pictures.<br /><br />THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!!!!! The plot outline is as following; 7 Girls with curly blond hair have been killed all on Tuesday nights. A suspicious looking man rents a room in an apartment from a family. The family: a mother, father and a daughter with curly blond a hair (Daisy). The lover of the daughter is a policeman. The daughter of the house is getting attracted to the Lodger. When mother notices that the lodger leaves on a Tuesday night the parents try to stop the affair. Daisy doesn't listen to the advise and leaves with the lodger on a Tuesday night. When the policeman suspects the lodger of the killings he searches his room and finds a gun, the map with the murders on it and a picture of a girl with curly blonde hair. He's arrested but manages to escape and Daisy follows him. He then tells Daisy the real story behind it. Soon the whole neighborhood is following the handcuffed Lodger. The policeman then heares the real murderer is caught red-handed and the real story comes out. Only now the lodger has to be saved from the crowd who still think that he did it. <br /><br />It really is a wonderful piece of silent cinema. And already a perfect example of the cleverness of Hitchcock. He already uses so many techniques for building up the suspense. He also manages to let the images speak. There is so much to see in the mise-en-scene, the effects and the editing. The story is very easy to follow and everything is made very clear when there is no sound. <br /><br />Sound is really important and makes the story a lot easier to follow. As I have seen both Hitchcock's silent and talkie version of Blackmail, you can really see the difference. The acting has to be really expressive in a silent flic. So everything becomes clear about what they think. In talkies such things can be told with sound. In an earlier comment I read that the lodger was a bit overacting. I don't think that he overacted to the standards that were used in those days. He had to act that way to make clear his mental state. Other examples can be found in the mise-en-scene. For example the fog when he first enters, the flickering light as if something is going to happen etc. <br /><br />This really is a clever and intelligent movie made by the master of suspense. I didn't expect it to be that good when I was going to see it but it really blew me away that he already was so inventing in building up suspense.<br /><br />A MUST SEE!!