Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 12-March-06
Spoiler Rating: Medium

The Spiral Staircase (1946)

I hope that in this era of "Saw" and "Hostel" people can still appreciate the value of a good old-fashioned creepfest like "The Spiral Staircase." This movie employs a classic setup wherein a group of questionable characters and one helpless maiden congregate in a remote mansion with a killer on the loose. The time is the beginning of the last century, when cellars were lit by candlelight and the world at large was about to lose its innocence. The plot raises goose bumps with thunder, lightning, shadows, and portents that somebody won't make it through to morning. Edgar Allan Poe would be proud.

In fact, the story originated with Ethel Lina White, who also wrote the book that spawned Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes." The psychological drama of "The Spiral Staircase" centers on the fact that the young heroine, Helen (Dorothy McGuire), has been mute since she witnessed her parents' death a few years before. Not only does this heighten her defenselessness in the face of attack, it also makes her a target, since the three women who were recently strangled in her town were all handicapped in some way. This nasty twist lends a shade of true evil to the eeriness, which lurks in the wings after an opening shot of the murderer's eye in the back of a victim's closet.

At the advice of a strapping doctor who holds her in high regard (Kent Smith), Helen retreats to the house where she works as a companion to an eccentric, bedridden matriarch (Ethel Barrymore). But she soon realizes it's not the safest or most comforting place to be, what with the old lady's constant predictions of doom, the suspicious clashes between the scholarly older son (George Brent) and knavish younger son (Gordon Oliver), the complicating presence of a pretty secretary (Rhonda Fleming), and the low-class bluntness of the cook and coachman (Elsa Lanchester, Rhys Williams). The movie joins Helen in wondering how these people are related to the crimes, who keeps opening a second-floor window, where the patient's ether has disappeared to, and, most importantly, whether she'll be up to the task of saving herself when the time comes.

Without delivering any major scares, "The Spiral Staircase" provides a steady supply of tension that contrasts Helen's vulnerability with the gothic threats around her. It's a great rental to accompany a bowl of popcorn and mug of cocoa on a dark and stormy night.

Copyright © 2006 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.