The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog
A young blonde woman, her golden hair illuminated, screams. She is the seventh victim of a serial killer known as "The Avenger", who targets young blonde women on Tuesday evenings.
That night, Daisy Bunting (June Tripp), a blonde model, is at a fashion show when she and the other showgirls hear the news. The blonde girls are horrified; hiding their hair with dark wigs or hats. Daisy laughs at their fears, and returns home to her parents, Mr and Mrs Bunting, and her policeman sweetheart, Joe (Malcolm Keen); they have been reading about the crime in the newspaper.
A handsome young man (Ivor Novello), bearing a strong resemblance to the description of the murderer, arrives at the house and asks about the room for rent. Mrs. Bunting (Marie Ault) shows him the room, which is decorated with portraits of beautiful young blond women. The man is rather secretive, which puzzles Mrs. Bunting. However he willingly pays her a month's rent in advance, and asks only for a little to eat. Mrs. Bunting is surprised to see that the lodger is turning all the portraits around to face the wall -- he politely requests that they be removed. Daisy comes in to remove the portraits, and an attraction begins to form between Daisy and the lodger. The women return downstairs, where they hear the lodger's heavy footsteps as he paces the floor.
The relationship between Daisy and the reclusive lodger gradually becomes serious, and Joe, newly assigned to the Avenger case, begins to resent this. The following Tuesday, Mrs. Bunting is awoken late at night by the lodger leaving the house. She attempts to search his room, but a small cabinet is locked tight. In the morning, another blonde girl is found dead, just around the corner.
The police observe that the murders are moving towards the Buntings' neighbourhood. Mrs. Bunting tells her husband that she believes the lodger is the Avenger, and the two try to prevent Daisy spending time with him. The next Tuesday night, Daisy and the lodger sneak away for a late-night date. Joe tracks them down and confronts them; Daisy breaks up with Joe. Joe begins to piece together the events of the previous weeks, and convinces himself that the lodger is indeed the murdering Avenger.
With a warrant in hand, and two fellow officers in tow, Joe returns to search the lodger's room. They find a leather bag containing a gun, a map plotting the location of the Avenger's murders, newspaper clippings about the attacks, and a photograph of a beautiful blonde woman. Joe recognizes this woman as the Avenger's first victim. The lodger is arrested, despite Daisy's protests, but he manages to run off into the night. Daisy goes out and finds him, handcuffed, coatless, and shivering. He explains that the woman in the photograph was his sister, a beautiful debutante murdered by the Avenger at a dance she had attended; he had vowed to his dying mother that he would bring the killer to justice.
Daisy takes the lodger to a pub and gives him brandy to warm him, hiding his handcuffs with a cloak. The locals, suspicious of the pair, pursue them, quickly gathering numbers until they are a veritable lynch mob. The lodger is surrounded and beaten, while Daisy and Joe, who have just heard the news from headquarters that the real Avenger has been caught, try in vain to defend him. When all seems lost, a paperboy interrupts with the news that the real Avenger has been arrested. The mob releases the lodger, who falls into Daisy's waiting arms. Some time later the lodger is shown to have fully recovered from his injuries and he and Daisy are happily living together as a couple.
romantic, murder, flashback