THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE is one of the best known in the "old dark house" genre. These films typically feature a disparate group of characters who inevitably find themselves alone and trapped within a huge, rambling and spooky old house on the night of a storm, with a killer amongst them. What's notable about this outing is just how stylish it is: the story is nothing special, but the style makes it.
The story features a black-gloved killer (complete with POV shots) who hides in wardrobes and stalks his young, female victims and strangles them. In one of the movie's most infamous shots, the viewer sees a victim from the killer's point of view, and she's missing her mouth; symptomatic of his disturbed mind, and highly eerie with it. 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. That the viewer becomes accustomed to her muteness and, eventually, even forgets about it is testament to her performance. 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. As in a film noir, there's a lot of creeping about in the shadows, and silhouettes of various things and people play a big part. The emphasis on a deranged killer is a neat precursor to the later gialli and slasher films of the '70s and '80s, and there's little padding on the bare bones of the narrative. It's a good 'un.
