The Spiral Staircase (1945)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Robert Siodmak

Writers:

Ethel Lina White (novel)
Mel Dinelli (writer)

Release Date:

December 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

A serial killer (circa 1916) is targeting women with 'afflictions'; one night during a thunderstorm, mute Helen feels menaced...

Plot Keywords:

Mute | Mansion | Murder | Serial Killer | Professor

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Dorothy McGuire	...	Helen Capel
George Brent	...	Professor Warren
Ethel Barrymore	...	Mrs. Warren
Kent Smith	...	Dr. Parry
Rhonda Fleming	...	Blanche
Gordon Oliver	...	Steve Warren
Elsa Lanchester	...	Mrs. Oates
Sara Allgood	...	Nurse Barker
Rhys Williams	...	Mr. Oates
James Bell	...	Constable

Also Known As:

Silence of Helen McCord (USA) (working title)
Some Must Watch (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Iceland:12 | UK:A (original rating) (1946) | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG (re-rating) (2004) | USA:Unrated

Company:

Dore Schary Productions

Trivia:

The silent film within the film that the audience watches at the beginning is The Sands of Dee (1912), directed by D.W. Griffith.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Helen lights the candle in a candle holder in the kitchen, she holds it on the bottom with her left hand, blocking the breeze with her right hand. The next shot is of her leaving the kitchen, still blocking with her right hand but now hold the candle stick near the top of holder instead of the bottom. She starts down the spiral staircase and as she rounds the first turn, she's once again holding the candle holder on the bottom.

Quotes:

Constable: She's dead!
Dr. Parry: Well, in that case, Constable, I certainly can't do her any harm.

Movie Connections:

Features The Kiss (1914)

Soundtrack:

Waltz Op. 34 No. 2 in A minor

One emerged from the film feeling as exhausted by terror as McGuire had been...

The extra vulnerability of the handicapped has been a magnet to attract some fine directors of suspense…

The fulcrum of Robert Siodmak's 'The Spiral Staircase' was the fact that the beautiful and expressive Dorothy McGuire was dumb – deprived of her speech by shock… Her terror when death stalked had to be wordless, and it was all the more potent… She could not communicate, she could not plead or call for help…

It was New England in 1906, and she was employed by the bedridden mistress (Ethel Barrymore) of an old mansion (decorated in Victorian style). On the girl's day off, a disabled girl was found murdered in the little town. It was the third such murder… In each case the victim had been physically handicapped – and, as we learned later, the murderer killed because he could not tolerate imperfection…

There was a chilling start to the suspense as Dorothy McGuire walked home through a stormy night, rattling a twig against railings… In a lightning flash we saw – but she did not – the silhouette of a man watching her… On into the house and, as she paused on a landing, we saw the feet of the man on another landing… waiting. And then, in a close-up of his eye, we saw her face reflected – an imperfect face…

On this level the tension was maintained in visual terms, through the murder of another girl in the house and the mute's discovery of the body, and her belief that she knows the murderer… She tricks him into a room and locks him in… but, as she is to find, she has locked up the wrong man…

Ethel Barrymore received the film's only Academy Award nomination, as Best Supporting Actress… McGuire would have to wait another year to be nominated as Best Actress, for her great role in Elia Kazan's emotional 'Gentleman's Agreement', 1947.