Movie Description

Man in the Attic is a 1953 mystery film directed by Hugo Fregonese. It was released in the United States on December 23 by Twentieth Century Fox. The movie, based on the 1913 novel The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes, fictionalizes the Jack the Ripper killings which was previously filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1927, by Maurice Elvey in 1932, by John Brahm in 1944, and subsequently by David Ondaatje in 2009.

The story takes place in London, 1888. On the third night of the Jack the Ripper killings, a man rents out an attic from an older couple in need of extra income. The man (Jack Palance), a research pathologist, begins working on his experiments in the rooms. Helen Harley, the landlady (Frances Bavier), becomes suspicious of the man, especially when her niece Lily Bonner (Constance Smith) shows an interest in him.