Imagine if the the chap renting out your spare room was in fact a lunatic serial killer.
That's the senario here, but the chap in question (Laird Cregar) is non other than Jack the Ripper himself.
Great acting from Cregar, George Sanders, Merle Oberon, Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Skeleton Knaggs make this spine-tingling storyline so believable.
Tense and taunt script and clever direction from John Brahm make this an atmospheric slice of Hollywood history.
Three other versions (including a silent one by Hitchcock himself) have been made.