A Story of the London Fog

In 1925, Alfred Hitchcock returns home to London from Germany where he shares a train compartment with artist John Sicklen. The artist gifts Hitchcock a book and out of this book the young director finds the source material for his first thriller, The Lodger.

After visiting John Sicklen’s gallery, Hitchcock and his fiancé Alma Reville go into production on The Lodger, hiring John Sicklen as their illustrator. But as a rival director, Graham Cutts, does everything he can to sink Hitchcock’s picture, it quickly becomes obvious to Hitchcock that he must lean on Alma and his illustrator if his film is to survive. Hitchcock goes on the defense as film critic Ivor Montagu is assigned to assist in the finishing of the picture. With the walls closing in at all sides, Hitchcock is ordered to show Montagu the film. The picture’s star Ivor Novello hosts a party at his estate so that Hitchcock and Alma may show Montagu what they have so far. Cutts arrives escorting a beautiful young actress. The artist John Sicklen arrives alone and uninvited. After dinner everyone retires and Hitchcock is awoken in the middle of the night by a glass breaking and a woman’s shriek. He looks out the window and sees Cutts get into his car with the actress and leave. A few days later the actress is found murdered on the streets of London as if Jack the Ripper himself had returned.

Hitchcock, Alma and Montagu continue to shoot The Lodger as their illustrator John Sicklen is nowhere to be seen. The police show up on set and question Hitchcock and all who were present at Novello’s that night. Hitchcock places the suspicion on Cutts with his account of what he saw out his window that night. Cutts grows paranoid and seems haunted by something that happened in the house that night. Something of which Hitchcock only caught a glimpse. Sicklen soon resurfaces and explains to Hitchcock that the police spoke with him and had no leads. Hitchcock finishes his film and plans a showing at Novello’s estate for the press. There he hopes to uncover just what happened that night between Cutts, the young actress and the mysterious artist John Sicklen.