Week 1: The Lodger

One of my favorite scenes from The Lodger is when the landlady takes the lodger into his rented room (13:12). Hitchcock has numerous close-up frames of the lodger's face that show that he is disturbed by the portraits of all the blonde women in the room. It gives an obvious clue that the lodger is not to be trusted and might possibly be The Avenger because of the hair color of all the portraits. He is also quick to close the window when a newsboy is yelling about The Avenger and a sinister look on his face is seen when he closes the window which made me to believe that he is somehow linked to the murders.  It also shows some kind of guilt when he turns the portraits around, when the landlady opens the door and catches him in the act he is not even looking at the portrait while he is turning it around, he has to look away as if the images disgust him.

Hitchcock also uses music clues to reveal more about the plot than dialogue would be able to do on its own. Prior to the lodger's entrance, the music was very playful when Daisy and her family were hanging out in the house (10:15) but when the lodger knocks on the door (11:08), the lively music suddenly dies down and more dramatic music beginnings as soon as we see the hidden face of this mysterious man. The music also changes depending on the interaction between the characters. When Daisy and the lodger start to build a relationship, lively music starts playing (18:11) that shows the lodger is not completely evil and it makes the scenes between them feel more playful. It made me start rooting for the lodger and Daisy to get together. While the music added to the tension of the fading relationship of Daisy and Joe, the detective. The music playing when Daisy and Joe where interacting sounded strained to me, as if it was difficult for the music to keep on playing.
Hitchcock uses great transitions to move along the plot in the movie. For example, when the body of 7^th murder victim is discovered we see a reporter speaking on the telephone which transitions into a busy news room. Immediately after that scene, we again see The Avenger’s phrase of “To-Night Golden Curls” that allows Hitchcock to introduce one of the main characters, Daisy, by having all the girls in the scene take off blond wigs.  
I also noticed that Hitchcock used the contrast of dark and light colors to portray the aura of the characters. In many scenes, the lodger wears dark clothing and also extra accessories like a scarf to "hide" himself while Daisy is dressed in light colors that make her seem very angelic or innocent (7:38 and 38:11).