Don't get too caught up in the plot, though. What makes the movie special is style and technique. It followed just on the coattails of the great Val Lewton productions in ushering in a new wave of horror in which atmosphere, cinematography, and psychoanalytical theory were used to create terror rather than the gimmicky makeup and special effects that had dominated the famous monster movies of the silent and early sound era. Though it doesn't really function as horror in the modern sense (more as psychological drama or thriller) It features tropes that later became staples in the genre, but were just being pioneered in the early to mid '40s. It is also one of the earliest films that could be called a "slasher" according to the modern criteria alongside 1943's The Leopard Man, both of them predating Psycho, "The grandaddy of all slashers" by 15 years or more. Other films, like Thirteen women (1932) and Lady of Burlesque (1943) had toyed with slasher-like plots and devices, but The Leopard Man and The Spiral Staircase are possibly the first two to really commit to the style and narrative devices that would really define the sub-genre of slasher as it was reinvented in the 1970s and early '80s. These have become such cliches in the horror and suspense genres that people forget that at one time they were very fresh and inventive. I recognize that slashers aren't considered to be high art by many people outside and even within the horror world, but you have to admire the first of their kind. Most revolutionary of all, it is the earliest film I know of to use killer's point of view, or POV shots, a groundbreaking technique which is mistakenly credited to Black Christmas (1974) and Halloween (1978) three decades later. People like Hitchcock and Lewton/ Jacques Tourneur played around with this around the same time and after with tracking shots and camera angles that suggested a sense of voyeurism, but The Spiral Staircase is the first I've seen to use it in the true and literal sense. This really makes it a landmark film, in this respect surpassing the Lewton/Tourneur collaborations in its originality and contributions to the genre. The early 1940s saw more innovation and changes in the horror/thriller genre than any other era until Psycho (1960), and where style and technique are concerned, The Spiral Staircase is one of the best in the bunch.
As far as other concerns, like actors, don't sell this film short. I've never seen a bad performance by Ethel Barrymore, a brilliant supporting player in films from the famous stage/screen acting dynasty. Arguably The Spiral Staircase isn't her very best performance (she became somewhat typecast in the '40s in curmudgeonly dowager roles), but she's certainly an old pro who adds value to the film. As for her character's actions and motivations, she wouldn't be the first mother to shelter a culpable son, either for personal reasons or to avoid a family scandal (in her social class at the time, certainly not a far-fetched conclusion). The film also has the advantages of the incomparable screen goddess Rhonda Fleming, appearing in glorious black and white before she became the unofficial "Queen of Technicolor" in the 1950s. A superficial concern, maybe, but a little eye-candy never hurt anybody, and Rhonda was a very competent actress in this interesting film that far exceeds her contributions in the quickie swashbucklers that later made her a matinee favorite.
The art direction is great, and the turn-of-the-century sets and costumes are a lot more authentic looking than they were in a lot of period films of the era, like Meet Me in Saint Louis, or King's Row...which tended to overdo puffy shoulders and pompadour hairdos as '40s friendly versions of "period" styles.
As far as the believability of plot goes, I'd like to point out that people at the time weren't as jaded by every gimmicky twist in the book that gradually became obligatory in horror/mystery/thriller films in the following decades.
reply
share