Man In The Attic (1953)

• Director
  • Hugo Fregonese
• Writers
  • Robert Presnell Jr.(screenplay)
  • Barré Lyndon(screenplay)
  • Marie Belloc Lowndes(based on "The Lodger" by)
• Stars
  • Jack Palance
  • Constance Smith
  • Byron Palmer

  Man in the Attic is a sweat-stained remake of the oft-filmed Mary Belloc Lowndes suspense story The Lodger. Jack Palance plays a mild, secretive pathologist who rents an attic apartment in the heart of London. Palance falls in love with dancer Constance Smith, daughter of the landlady, but she doesn't seem interested. Meanwhile, several unsolved murders of women have been committed on the fogbound London streets--and all of the victims are showgirls. Unlike Hitchcock's 1926 version of The Lodger, the most likely suspect is indeed the "Jack the Ripper" character hunted by the police. The only surprise in Man in the Attic is that the London bobbies didn't arrest Jack Palance on sight long before the movie started.