The Spiral Staircase (1946)
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The Spiral Staircase Movie Review
The Spiral Staircase is a 1946 psychological horror mystery film directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Dorothy McGuire. It’s a very effective early slasher.
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“Murderer, you killed them. You killed them all“
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Helen, a speech-impaired caregiver, is implored by her bedridden mistress to leave her mansion filled with anti-social individuals when a series of murders occur in the neighborhood. Much has been said about this movie’s genre. This is in my opinion above all else a Gothic mystery as the Gothic tones are accentuated throughout. But it also functions as a horror with some clear slasher elements and all slashers may in a way owe something to this granddaddy of the genre.
The main problem with the movie is its predictability. I got who the killer was from the get-go, which definitely impacted my enjoyment of the story overall. I wished for a more effective and unexpected twist at the end. The ending was still emotionally powerful, though, and ultimately quite memorable with the last shot being fantastic.
Dorothy McGuire was absolutely fantastic in the role of Helen, who is a mute woman. Through her character, the movie touches on a couple of things. It can be a feminist message about silencing women or it can be all about her character being hopeless in this house. Some also draw the connection between her character and silent movies and how sound took over them. needless to say, the movie is thematically quite intriguing and ambiguous.
But going back to the actress in question, McGuire was phenomenal and she is definitely one of the most underrated actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood. She was snubbed by the Academy for her amazing work here and just that final scene where she could finally speak should have garnered her a nomination.
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Ethel Barrymore was nominated instead and she was predictably great here in a typical role for her. The men are not as memorable as the women here, but George Brent is the best and most interesting of the bunch. The Spiral Staircase also benefits from gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, some strikingly menacing shots and in particular a great usage of creepy eyes to heighten the horror mood. I just wished that there were more of these terrific genre sequences as too often the movie was overly talkative and slowly paced. But the score, directing and acting performances are uniformly strong in this minor horror classic.
The Spiral Staircase is a minor classic of the horror genre that acts as the progenitor to the slasher subgenre. This is a very intriguing Gothic mystery with gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, a terrific menacing mood and some striking horror scenes beautifully executed. The movie is slowly paced and its twist ending was highly predictable, but other than that this was a stellar genre flick that benefits from a particularly outstanding Dorothy McGuire performance in a very well written main role.
My Rating – 4
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