TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

SteinMo What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Leofwine_draca MAN IN THE ATTIC is a version of the famous Hitchcock silent film, THE LODGER. A youthful-looking (and nearly unrecognisable from later on in his career) Jack Palance plays a mysterious researcher who takes boardings in a family home at the same time as the Jack the Ripper murders. Before long they begin to suspect that he might well be the Ripper himself...This is one of those cosy murder mysteries shot on a studio backlot in Los Angeles masquerading as East End London in the late 19th century. It's not particularly realistic, but there's some fun to be had from listening to the actors putting on English accents (Palance included) and enough fog-enshrouded streets to make this an atmospheric little production. The dialogue tends towards the insipid, although the main actors put in some not-bad character work.Unfortunately MAN IN THE ATTIC is also something of a potboiler, with a slow pacing (even for the era). All of the murders are kept off-screen and things only get genuinely exciting during the last ten minutes. Still, as a period-era police procedural this isn't bad at all; throw in Robert Ryan and you'd have yourself a film noir. The full-blooded 1959 version of JACK THE RIPPER is a much better interpretation of the story.

dwpollar 1st watched 6/26/2014 -- 5 out of 10(Dir-Hugo Fregonese): Interesting but calculated mystery revolving around the British "Jack the Ripper" legend. This movie version of the story involves a mysterious pathologist played by a young Jack Palance who is setup early on as a possible suspect in the ripper's murders. This is not necessarily done thru the screenplay but rather by the way the movie is directed. From the first scene, the Ripper is the focus as two policeman escort home a drunk older lady only to see her murdered. Palance's character then arrives on the scene looking for a room with an attic to perform his experiments -- supposedly. Palance has the ability to be charming yet sometimes scary and menacing and shows his screen presence in this early film. Palance is not the problem with this movie -- the problem is that it sets his character up too early and rides him as a mysterious unknown with Frances Baviar(from Andy Griffith's TV show) as the landlord exclaiming her belief in his guilt early on. It's fun to see Aunt Bee before she became this TV show character, but other than this oddity the movie doesn't provide much mystery or allure. The cast is fine and there isn't any over-acting it's just not a good screenplay. I guess if you want to see these TV stars in earlier roles it's not a wasted viewing but other than that it doesn't offer much. It's kind of alarming that a man that actually did a lot of real killing to women in England has gotten so much attention and movie credo's but I guess that's just the way of our world....the movie doesn't help us understand anything different about this character and doesn't make for a worthwhile experience unfortunately.

Brim_and_Brood This is the only version of "The Lodger" films that I have seen, and having not read the original story, I found the premise rather interesting. Jack Palance is the star here as the brooding Mr Slade with his nearly sinister demeanour keeping us suspicious for most of the film. While his emotional outbursts initially feel out of character, by the end of the film it is clear he is unbalanced and emotionally immature, and tormented enough to submerge himself into a river and not resurface.Frances Bavier and Rhys Williams work well as the Harleys, and their husband/wife banter is nice to watch. Byron Palmer as the Inspector did a passable job. The poorest acting was by Tita Phillips as the maid.While Constance Smith's performance as Lily Bonner was good, the absurdly out-of-place, overly long, poorly performed, and amateurish cancan sequences really do harm her character and the film in general. They were nearly painful to watch.The chase sequence at the end, with horse and cart navigating bends at high speed and a broken cart wheel, was an unexpected and entertaining climax.While not perfect, some bits are excellent while others are the opposite, it is certainly worth watching. It is available for free in the public domain, and a reasonable quality version can be downloaded from the Internet Archive.

rixrex Not a very unique nor special film in any way, and very typical early 1950s Hollywood fare with a back-lot version of London, and plenty of French can-can style dancing for titillation.Not boring either, and Jack Palance is fine as the mysterious lodger who may or may not be Jack the Ripper. But he's done better, and is not a good enough reason to pick up this film. In fact, the only particularly good reason to pick it up is if you wish to collect all varieties of Jack the Ripper films available, or if you want the double-feature Midnight Movie release of it because it also has the superior thriller, A Blueprint for Murder.