The First True Hitchcock: The Making of a Filmmaker

This untold origins story of the filmmaker excavates the first true Hitchcock film and explores its transatlantic history.

Hitchcock called The Lodger the first true Hitchcock movie, anticipating all the others. And yet, the story of how The Lodger came to be made is shrouded in myth, often repeated and much embellished, including by Hitchcock himself. The truth-revealed in new archival discoveries-is stranger still. The First True Hitchcock follows the twelve-month period encompassing The Lodger’s production in 1926 and general release in 1927, presenting a new picture of this pivotal year in Hitchcock’s life. Henry K. Miller situates The Lodger against the backdrop of a continent shattered by war and confronted with the looming presence of a new superpower, the United States, whose most visible export was film. This 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.