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Summary: I have a fear of open spaces!
Review: A house can be your worst nightmare. Just ask Helen Capel the mute who resides in an overwhelming creepy and underlit mansion that a serial killer may strike next! Helen must muster all her courage and and some how over power and out wit her killer because she doesn't have the ability to yell for help due to the fact that she can't scream!! This film prays on the fear we all have of being left alone at home. We all laugh at horror films when the victim goes and checks the rumblings they may have just heard but when we are all home alone don't we do the same thing. Nobodody wants to be murdered but to be murdered in the confounds of your own home is hair raising torture.The film moves so slow that you actually want the violence of murder to take place maybe then the lightining outside and shadows of the mansion will lift and the tension in your heart will subside! The ending is just perfect and suits the film to a tee! The film uses fear in the most natural setting; just think about it, someone could be home with you and you could not even know it until they jump from out of the closet and strangle you! The scene with the killer watching his next victim from a hole in the closet is just as startling and claustrophobic as one can get. Buy this movie and watch it with the lights out and unplug the phone because if it were to ring you might have a heart attack!
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Summary: Spiral Staircase: Perfect Title for Possibly Best Film Ever
Review: As a professional reviewer, there is certain territory you don't tread, and (as a matter of proper etiquette and principle) . . . Some things you just never say. However, anyone who doesn't consider "The Spiral Staircase" one of the greatest films and titles of all time is simply off their ever living rocker. Intriguing characters, mysterious atmosphere, well concocted suspense, fairy tale romance, senseless murder, beautiful women, handsome and debonair gentlemen (any of which may be the cold blooded killer amongst us), strange and tantalizing tidbits, and even a few tricks and surprises isn't even the half of it. Don't delay. Add this DVD to your collection immediately, and enjoy it with immense gratification in the early morning hours or just before midnight. It works best with a crackling fire and stormy weather, especially considering that a shockingly porky version of the "Bride of Frankenstein" shows up with quite a different side, and much more of it (enough to make a barbacued or at least warm ham sandwich).
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Summary: CLASSIC GOTHIC CHILLER.....
Review: Famous 1946 version of Ethel Lina White's "Some Must Watch" about a deranged killer preying on young women with physical infirmities because they aren't "perfect". Set in the early 1900's, Helen(Dorothy McGuire) is a mute servant girl working in a spooky old house caring for a crotchety invalid(Ethel Barrymore) whose two sons are dysfunctional misfits. Everyone worries that Helen will be the next victim and they are so right for the killer is a lot closer than they think. Fine cast of character actors populate this engrossing chiller that must have scared the poop out of 40's audiences. McGuire is perfect as Helen and Barrymore is regally majestic as the old lady. Spooky music and camera shots of the killer's eyes just before he pounces keep things properly creepy. Most enjoyable and a delight for vintage movie buffs. Great presentation by Anchor bay on DVD. A keeper.
Rating:
Summary: CLASSIC GOTHIC CHILLER.....
Review: Famous 1946 version of Ethel Lina White's "Some Must Watch" about a deranged killer preying on young women with physical infirmities because they aren't "perfect". Set in the early 1900's, Helen(Dorothy McGuire) is a mute servant girl working in a spooky old house caring for a crotchety invalid(Ethel Barrymore) whose two sons are dysfunctional misfits. Everyone worries that Helen will be the next victim and they are so right for the killer is a lot closer than they think. Fine cast of character actors populate this engrossing chiller that must have scared the poop out of 40's audiences. McGuire is perfect as Helen and Barrymore is regally majestic as the old lady. Spooky music and camera shots of the killer's eyes just before he pounces keep things properly creepy. Most enjoyable and a delight for vintage movie buffs. Great presentation by Anchor bay on DVD. A keeper.
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Summary: Another Siodmak Classic
Review: I am huge Robert Siodmak fan and beg each and every one of you to buy this DVD so they will release the rest of his movies on DVD. This is classic film and no one will disappointed with it. You should also check out other classic Siodmak movies (The Killers, Criss Cross, The Dark Mirror, Son of Dracula, Phantom Lady just to name a few) to see this inovative director's beautiful work. But, right now, buy this DVD and cross your fingers and hope they start releasing the rest of Robert Siodmak's great films on DVD.
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Summary: VERTIGO
Review: I've enjoyed a lot director Robert Siodmak's THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE, not for its too evident whodunit plot but rather for its gothic atmosphere. Almost entirely filmed in a gloomy mansion during a stormy night, THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE offers in 90 minutes a delicious anthology of frightening scenes to the movie lover.The cast of THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE is also a source of countless pleasures : Elsa Lanchester, the unforgettable Bride of Frankenstein, is terrific as the brandy-attracted maid, Ethel Barrymore, lying most of the time in bed, steals the show each time she appears on the screen and Kent Smith plays perfectly a disillusioned dandy. I don't expect too much from this kind of movie that provides only an epidermic pleasure ; films like THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE remind us of the beginnings of cinema, of eerie shadows on a wall. Superb copy with, alas, only a theatrical trailer as bonus feature. A Hollyfreud DVD.
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Summary: old fashioned thriller is eerie, tense and well acted.
Review: One of the most creepy and effective thrillers from the immediate post war era. The movie is in many respects a precursor to modern serial killer/stalker movies and used scare tactics that still remain in use more than 50 years later. The focus of the film is on a household where a cranky old grandmother is bedridden and waiting to die, being looked after by a mute nurse who is the serial killers obvious next target as he clearly goes after victims with afflictions in his attempt to restore perfection and beauty to a tainted world. The director manages to conjure up an effective feeling of dread and claustrophobia - this is a long, long way from William Castle's amiable ghost frolic The House on Haunted Hill which played more like a farce than a thriller. The film is a little reminiscent of another classic serial killer outing made much later in England, Peeping Tom and was clearly way ahead of its time when it came out in 1946. The cast headed by Dorothy McGuire and George Brent but watch out especially for one of the screen's immortal icons, Elsa Lanchester who will forever be remembered as The Bride of Frankenstein. The Spiral Staircase is a superior thriller, may be a touch over wrought by today's standards, but effective, tense and fairly creepy. Perhaps, along with M, the great great granddaddy of the modern serial killer thriller. Far superior to the horrid remake that was dished up in 1975.
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Summary: Disturbing Gothic noir
Review: Robert Siodmak was a wonderful director of the film noir ,perhaps the result of his grounding in silent German Expressionist cinema and he brings that era's trademark use of unusual camera angles and skewed sets to bear on his direction of this splendid slice of turn of the centurt Gothic .
It is set in a small New England community where a serial killer is on the loose , his victims being women he deems to be in some way "imperfect " physically .They are either disfigured or have some impediment .
His particular target during the movie is a mute girl ,Helen , played brilliantly by the radiant Dorothy Maguire and it builds to a tense climax in a creepy old house with a thunderstorm raging outside .
The source material is utterly conventional but the insight and edginess of Siodmak's direction sets it apart from the run of the mill movie of its type and ensures we are dealing with a minor classic here .The direction is seen at its best in the brilliant opening sequence in which a crowd gathers for a show in the local theatre and the camers pans from the cosy community gathering for a night of escapism to a room above the theatre where a young disabled woman is undressing before falling victim to the killer .
Colourless performance by George Brent but the other peformances compensate .Above all however this a directors movie and the mastery of the genre displayed by Siodamk makes this a real treat .
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Summary: "Scream" not!
Review: Robert Siodmak's "The Spiral Staircase" is one of my all-time favorite thrillers. It was adapted from the book "Some Must Watch" by the prolific Ethel Lina White. 2 of White's books had been made into films by Alfred Hitchcock. "The Wheel Spins" became "The Lady Vanishes", and "Before the Fact" became "Suspicion". "The Spiral Staircase" deals with a pretty creepy premise: An unknown killer has been murdering women with "afflictions". (One victim was disfigured, another feeble-minded, another lame). Helen, a young mute servant girl working in a gloomy old mansion, is the killer's next intended victim. The killer is in the house with her, but who is it? Siodmak, a master of film noir, holds your attention for approximately 85 minutes, and never lets go. All of the classic elements are here: Old gloomy house, thunderstorm, chiaroscuro lighting, eerie musical score, colorful performances. The sets, by the way, are leftovers from Orson Welles' "The Magnificent Ambersons", the music score by Roy Webb, who had composed other goose-pimplers such as "The Cat People", "I Walked With a Zombie", "The Body Snatcher" and Hitchcock's "Notorious". Dr. Samuel J. Hoffman on the Theremin is featured on this score, providing added goosebumps. And the cast! Pretty Dorothy McGuire is excellent as the endangered Helen, in a house peopled by the likes of the very grand Ethel Barrymore, the wooden George Brent, marvelous character actors Elsa Lanchester, Rhys Williams and Sara Allgood, handsome Kent Smith and Gordon Oliver, and lovely Rhonda Fleming. Ellen Corby is in the film too, in a bit part-watch for her! Robert Siodmak was an excellent "B" movie director, having made masterpieces on relatively small budgets. His other films include "The Killers", "Phantom Lady", "Son of Dracula", the camp classic "Cobra Woman", "Criss Cross", and the Burt Lancaster romp "The Crimson Pirate". So, in this age of over-inflated budgets, it's a wonder and honor to see these well-made films from an era of almost non-existent special effects, modest budgets, and great actors. The picture and sound quality on this DVD are excellent-very clean and crisp, so you can really appreciate the gloomy Victorian sets and eerie musical score. There are practically no extras on the disc-just the theatrical trailer, but who's complaining? So, lock your doors and windows, because you never know who's watching you, and maybe even look under the bed, just to be on the safe side, and watch "The Spiral Staircase"-you will be thoroughly, enjoyably chilled!
Rating:
Summary: bone chilling
Review: Someone is going around killing handicapped citizens in this suspenseful thriller, and anyone else who gets in their way. Dorothy McGuire gives a stellar performance in this movie. In fact, many in show business say this was her best performance ever. Other superb actors and actresses include, George Brent, Ethel Barrymore, Kent Smith, Rhonda Fleming, Gordon Oliver, Elsa Lanchester, and Sara Allgood. One of my favorite scenes is where Dorothy McGuire ( who, by the way plays a mute servant) is walking home through the woods when she hears noises and senses someone or something is following her. Will she become the killer's next victim? I won't say, heh heh heh. You'll need to get the movie and see for yourself. While this film isn't as graphic as many films are today, I wouldn't recommend it for viewers under age 14. This is a great film to watch at night, but definitely not alone.
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