The Spiral Staircase

Plot synopsis:
Set in early 20th century New England, the screenplay by Mel Dinelli is about a serial killer who is murdering disabled young women in the community. His next victim apparently is Helen, a mute girl who works as a live-in companion for wealthy, bedridden Mrs. Warren, who urges her to leave the house, as does Dr. Parry, who knows the reason for Helen's loss of speech and hopes to help her get her voice back. Rounding out the household are Mrs. Warren's son and stepson, her verbally-abused nurse, a secretary, a handyman and his wife, a housekeeper with a taste for brandy. It contains some glorious black and white cinematography from a forgotten master, Nicholas Musuraca. A stunning example comes early in the film as Helen walks home at night in the rain. She rattles a stick against some railings when a flash of lightning illuminates a gleaming silhouette of her stalker in the trees. It has been copied many times, most notably in I Know What You Did Last Summer. It's worth seeing the film for that shot alone. The gloomy, decaying mansion where most of the action takes place is wonderfully realised by production designer Albert S. D'Agostino , who also designed Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons. Despite its dated, vaguely Freudian themes, it remains a highly atmospheric film and a very enjoyable thriller.

Tags: insanity, suspenseful, murder

Review:
She's currently fretful because a serial killer is on the loose and he preys on women with afflictions...Based on Ethel White's novel "Some Must Watch," The Spiral Staircase harks back to the days of the "old dark house" thrillers and encompasses a German expressionist sheen.
Siodmak expands his talent and knowing from his work at Universal Pictures (Son Of Dracula/The Suspect), Albert D'Agostino's sets are wondrous period delights and Nicholas Musuraca's deep-focus photography has the ability to make one keep looking over the shoulder to see if something is lurking in the room with us...There's quite a few changes in this adaptation from the novel, notably the setting was in England and Helen was a cripple and not mute.
When a murder occurs in the mansion, Helen does not know who is trustful to help her to call Dr. Parry to rescue her."The Spiral Staircase" is a suspenseful stylish movie, with a magnificent black and white cinematography that follows the German Expressionism and wonderful set decoration in Victorian style.
This film centers around Helen (Dorothy McGuire), a mute house-maid who works for an eccentric woman, Mrs. Warren (Ethel Barrymore), who lives in an old New England mansion with her two grown sons in the early 1900s.
Helen begins to fear that the killer may target her, and her fears become a reality one stormy night as the murderer stalks her within Mrs. Warren's darkened mansion, waiting to strike.I've always enjoyed older black and white movies, and I think it's important to take a look at early cinema to compare it with what modern cinema has evolved to, so I had some sufficient interest in this film.
(Hint: this pays off later in the movie.) When it's made known that a killer is making his rounds murdering afflicted women, the owner of the mansion fears for the mute woman's life - and after a string of more murders occur they realize she's next.RKO's picture was far ahead of its time.
After murdering three unfortunate young women the murderer zeros in on young Helen Capel, Dorothy McGuire, a mute young women who works as a maid for the old and bed-ridden Mrs.Warren, Ethel Barrymore, at her estate outside of town.You begin to realize that the killer is in a way imperfect himself and by trying to eliminate those he deems imperfect is making up for his own imperfections.
Dorothy McGurie in one of her best roles as the mute and pretty Helen is stalked all through the movie by the killer in the shadows of the Warren Mansion and in the woods around it.
Ethal Barrymore is also very effective as the sick and bed-ridden Mrs. Warren who has some idea who the killer is and wants Helen to leave the house as soon as possible in order not to end up being his next victim.
Adding in the excellent leading performance by Dorothy McGuire makes it a top-notch picture.From the very beginning, the suspense begins to build, while at the same time McGuire's character Helen immediately attracts and holds the audience's concern and sympathy.
It's 1916 and a rash of women being killed who are 'imperfect' in the eyes of the killer whomever it is have both Dr. Kent Smith and bedridden dowager Ethel Barrymore concerned for the life of Dorothy McGuire, a beautiful, but mute servant girl in her house.There's not much mystery to this film, it's not hard to guess the identity of the perpetrator, given the limited number in the cast.
The centerpiece of course being The Spiral Staircase.Two years before a deaf mute act won Jane Wyman an Academy Award, a lot of people, me included, felt Dorothy McGuire should have at least gotten a nomination for her role.
She lost in the finals to Anne Baxter for The Razor's Edge.George Brent, Gordon Oliver, Rhys Williams, Rhonda Fleming, and Elsa Lanchester round out a good cast in one of the best atmospheric thrillers ever put on film..
The whodunit aspect of the storyline is played up strongly, with some red herrings thrown into the mix, although it's pretty easy for a modern viewer to guess the identity of the murderer.THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE features some decent performances, particularly from Dorothy McGuire, playing (unusually) a leading role as a mute.
Elsewhere in the cast, there's a barnstorming turn from grand old dame Ethel Barrymore who rules the roost from her deathbed, and a nicely comic performance from the BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN herself, Elsa Lanchester, as a drunk cook.In the end, the film works because of the visual flourishes.
"Spiral Staircase" was the horror masterpiece Robert Siodmak had always threatened to make.In 1939,"Pièges" his last French movie and his finest in that country-remade by Douglas Sirk as "lured" introduced the unusual places,the eerie atmosphere (Von Stroheim's house).In 1944,"Phantom Lady" from the great William Irish introduced the psychokiller.In 1946, "the Dark Mirror " would continue the Freudian vein ,which "Spiral staircase" had begun.It was not the first time a film had displayed Freudian accents.At the time,all the thrillers directors (Fritz Lang,Alfred HItchcock) had their movie dealing with psychoanalysis.Of course it's dated now.Almost all these catharsis revealed something buried in infancy/childhood.Even the "serious" works such as"snake pit" were no exceptions.The black and white cinematography is stunning,dazzling ,making the whole film a feast for the eye.If Siodmak takes the easy way out for his killer's identity,all that surrounds him is splendid indeed: Dorothy McGuire,in a theater ,watching a silent movie (she is a mute girl),while horrible things happen in a room upstairs ,things not alike the conclusion of the movie and a sinister omen of events to come;the (Gothic,of course)mansion where scared people flattens themselves after dark;the park where the whispering trees generate fear;the cellar where the pages of a book become an impending menace;this extraordinary dreamlike sequence where MacGuire sees her wedding and this voice which keeps on repeating "Say:I do!" ;the staircase,the central place of the story where the plot is resolved ."Spiral staircase" is essential viewing for anyone interested in thrillers .Remake by Peter Collinson in 1975 with Jacqueline Bisset.Like this ?Try these: -the three other Siodmak movies I mention.-"Mute witness" Anthony Waller 1994.
Helen Capel (Dorothy McQuire) , a mute attending to the needs of a crotchety dowager, Mrs. Warren (Ethel Barrymore) in a Victorian mansion more than fits a victim profile so she is closely monitored by Warren's professor son (George Brent) who hopes one day to once again give voice to Helen.
Will Helen be next?Using the bare bone outline of a stereotypical Gothic horror suspense, film practitioners Robert Siodmak and Nick Musaraca turn The Spiral Staircase into a master class of atmospheric terror as they deftly create through form a disturbing whodunit packed with one tense moment after another.
Cast wise McQuire does a fine job of conveying her feelings without words while, Barrymore, Brent , Gordon Oliver and Rhonda Fleming play it deceptively ambiguous in their roles with character actors Sarah Allgood, Elsa Lanchester and Rhys Williams offering broad relief while remaining suspects.The Spiral Staircase may use all the tropes that can be found in the haunted house catalog of movie-making but under the capable hands of this cast and crew it embraces the stereotype and beats the odds..
Beautiful mute Helen Carpel suspects that she is being stalked outside the home of her employers, but with so many other conflicts within the home, it is unclear where she is safer.Opening with a very clever shot that leads us into the serial killer watching and then killing his victim this film had my attention from the very start.
The brothers that hate one another, the emotional scars that run through Helen, the crowing old woman, the comic touches and many other aspects (not even to mention the idea of a German director making a film about a serial killer targeting those that are "imperfect") all make the middle section engaging even if it does lack the tension and style of the start and the end.Speaking of which, the film looks great  light and shadow are used well, with the sets particularly well lit to produce some great shapes and shadows.
I agree with the few discerning negative user comments and I had not seen this film before.Generally I like 1940s films but this was an exception as I found it all rather naive.Firstly, knowing the cast of actors it does not take a genius to identify the murderer almost from the beginning judged by the repeated shot of his single menacing eye.You know it is a man (a careless shot of him wearing trousers is seen and it is a male eye), so all you have to do is logically assess all the male actors' characters and see which one fits the bill.Secondly, I imagine Hitchcock could have produced far more suspense, which was sadly lacking.Thirdly, Dorothy Macguire's character slightly irritated me with all her melodramatic rushing around.If she was mute, she would have had a notepad and pen with her at all times to communicate.Fourthly, it seemed just a filmed stage play as virtually all the action takes place in a Gothic mansion (in a studio).Hitchcock would have included more location shots and built up the suspense better.Much overrated in my humble opinion..
Dorothy McGuire plays Helen, a mute servant working in the household of old & sickly Mrs. Warren(played by Ethel Barrymore) who lives with her two sons(played by George Brent & Gordon Oliver).
Maguire is a mute looking after bed ridden matriarch Barrymore in her rambling gothic mansion whilst there is a killer on the loose strangling anyone with a disability.Classic gothic thriller in a house full of wild characters.
Dorothy Mcguire is a mute young woman in "The Spiral Staircase," a 1946 film also starring Ethel Barrymore, George Brent, Elsa Lanchester, Gordon Oliver, Rhonda Fleming, and Kent Smith.
I personally thought the killer was rather obvious but it didn't spoil my enjoyment at all.Mcguire, whom I saw on stage in the '70s, was a wonderful actress who was brought to Hollywood originally to recreate her Broadway success, "Claudia." Her role in "The Spiral Staircase" is a far cry from the lightness of the child bride in "Claudia" - she is pretty, courageous yet vulnerable, and a young girl in the throes of love.
The performers do very nicely with their roles: Dorothy McGuire, young & vulnerable as the girl who hasn't spoken since witnessing her parents' horrific deaths; Kent Smith as the gallant doctor who wants to protect her; George Brent & Gordon Oliver as the two half-brothers of the household, mistrustful & envious of each other's position; wonderful old Ethel Barrymore, the dying matriarch, acid-tongued & suspicious of nearly everyone; Sara Allgood as her nurse, resentful of her mistreatment; Rhonda Fleming, the beautiful secretary, who may arouse passions once too often; Elsa Lanchester & Rhys Williams as the domestics, she an alcoholic and he bitter and withdrawn.
A mute servant girl (Dorothy McGuire) takes care of a sick and old but aggressive woman (Ethel Barrymore) in a big, dark and creepy mansion.
Though his subsequent noirs Criss Cross and The Killers are thrillingly stylish and enjoyable, with The Spiral Staircase, Robert Siodmak's attention is too disproportionately rooted in demonstrative Expressionist visuals---brooding shadow, ominously suggestive settings, the rumble and cracking of thunder, the flickering candlelight, the creaking door and the gusts of wind from out of nowhere---to give any cohesion or gravitas to the story or his unwaveringly wooden actors.Ethel Barrymore, playing the bed-ridden matriarch of the boring George Brent and Kent Smith, is interesting, albeit her role as a crabby invalid is barely worthy of her extensive talents.
So many critics think that an actor or actress merely taking on a mute role secures their performance as "stunning," "priceless," "impressive." I found McGuire's emoting to be way too overly demonstrative, I sensed no conviction in any of her dramatic moments and I frankly became increasingly spent by the continual unmotivated collapses, sobs and tense clutching of handkerchiefs.Set in a small New England town in the early 1900s, for no apparent reason, Mel Dinelli's anachronistic adaptation of what I imagine is a decent Ethel Lina White novel is about a spree killer who is murdering "afflicted" young women in the village, also quite arbitrarily it continues even now to seem.
An excellent thriller about a mute girl (Dorothy McGuire) who is the next victim of a serial killer intent on strangling women with disabilities.
The word, naturally enough, is "Hitchcockian," a term that might be fairly applied to such wonderful entertainments as "Gaslight" (both the 1940 and '44 versions), "Charade," "The Prize" and "Arabesque." But of all the pictures that have been honored with the adjective "Hitchcockian" over the years, none, it seems to me, is more deserving than the 1946 RKO film "The Spiral Staircase," and indeed, after 40 years' worth of repeated watches, I have come to deem the picture the greatest horror outing of the 1940s...at least, that wasn't a product of Universal Studios or producer Val Lewton.Featuring impeccable direction by Robert Siodmak (his close-up shots of the maniac's eyeballs in the film are legendary), who would go on to direct the noir classics "The Killers" and "The Dark Mirror" that same year; sumptuous set design; and spectacularly gorgeous B&W cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca, who would eventually work on no fewer than five of those Val Lewton horror films, the picture is a genuine classic, beloved by millions.
A neo-Gothic suspense thriller starring Dorothy McGuire, giving an almost Oscar-caliber performance despite the fact that she only has three or four lines of dialogue, and abetted by a remarkable supporting cast that is just aces (George Brent, Ethel Barrymore, Kent Smith, Elsa Lanchester, Rhonda Fleming et al.), the picture has been one of this viewer's personal Top 100 favorites for decades now, and I have long wanted to read its source novel, Welsh author Ethel Lina White's "Some Must Watch." And fortunately, thanks to the fine folks at Arcturus Publishing, a reasonably priced edition can be easily procured today; "fortunately," I say, seeing that the original hardcover seems to now be completely unobtainable, even on the usually dependable Bookfinder website, and the fact that even the 1946 movie tie-in paperback can be a dicey proposition.White, I should perhaps mention, was a new author for me.
******** The Spiral Staircase (12/45) Robert Siodmak ~ Dorothy McGuire, George Brent, Ethel Barrymore.
This movie distinguishes itself with the way the murders are filmed.The position of the hands and the leering eye give this film a different look.Also, this picture is dominated by Dorothy McGuire as the mute heroine.It is also worth mentioning that the previously invalid Ethel Barrymore character plays a key role in the climax,which takes place on "The Spiral Staircase" of the title.
It also has great performances by Dorothy McGuire, though she doesn't speak throughout the whole movie, Ethel Barrymore{an elderly,invalid woman,who's very perceptive and knows that Helen should leave the house immediately}, and George Brent as the professor.
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).
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..
The film has a fairly simple plot; in turn of the century New England, a serial killer is targeting women with various physical impairments and sets his sights on Helen, (Dorothy McGuire) a woman who has been mute since a traumatic moment in her childhood.
Its German expressionist style, fluid camera movements and slanted camera angles create an ominous atmosphere which becomes even more threatening in the sequences which are either shot from the murderer's point of view or where close-ups of the killer's eye are seen and the whole effect is then strengthened further by a creepy score in which the eerie sound of the theremin is prominent."The Spiral Staircase" is set in a small New England town in the early part of the 20th century.
Of course, this meek and troubled Helen (with Dorothy McGuire perfectly cast) is not about to die in front of us--in fact, at the end she comes to life, in a way, by regaining her voice, thanks to the goodness of a young handsome doctor, Kent Smith.If you'd rather just buy into a classic manipulation of mood and familiar suspense movie fears you're all set, because that's what this delivers.
Soon afterwards we're introduced to the film's central character, the young Dorothy Malone, playing a mute housemaid to the bedridden matriarch of a massive old mansion which has as its centrepiece, as if you couldn't guess, a spiral staircase.
The Spiral Staircase continues my fascination with the work of a director who today is barely known and yet was a master.The Spiral Staircase, made in the same year as The Killers, should be studied in film school as perfect example of how to create a haunting, oppressive atmosphere in horror movies.The movie's heroine is Helen, a mute maid who works for Mrs. Warren, an invalid rich woman.