The Mountain Eagle and The Lodger

Hitchcock’s lost second film is represented by various stills where we can see how he carefully deglamorized his star Nita Naldi, who was a star from America. In his third film, The Lodger (1926), which made his reputation, Hitchcock carefully handles the queer matinee idol Ivor Novello, experimenting with ways of shooting him that emphasize his sex appeal and his strange way of moving. This film also features one of the first “Hitchcock blondes,” as played by an actress simply known as June. There is also a discussion of gayness in Hitchcock films and what it can mean to have a gay actor in a straight part and a straight actor in a gay part.