The Lodger

Originally Aired: February 14, 1948

In Suspense #284, "The Lodger," Robert Montgomery stars in this chilling adaptation of Marie Belloc Lowndes's novel set in 1888 London during the reign of terror known as Jack the Ripper. Ellen and Robert Bunting, a struggling middle-aged couple living in the Whitechapel district, desperately need a lodger to make ends meet. As they discuss the latest gruesome murder by the killer the newspapers call "The Avenger," a mysterious stranger arrives at their door seeking rooms. The man who calls himself Mr. Sleuth seems peculiar from the start, with his nervous manner, his protective attitude toward his mysterious bag, and his insistence on absolute quiet and privacy for his scientific studies.

Ellen Bunting finds herself both relieved to have a paying tenant and increasingly unsettled by the strange lodger's behavior. Mr. Sleuth's cryptic references to precious and dangerous contents in his bag, his obsessive quoting of Scripture, and his arrival on the very night of another murder create an atmosphere of mounting dread. As the lodger settles into the rooms upstairs, Ellen must wonder whether she has found the answer to her financial prayers or invited something far more sinister into her home.