The Eye is Watching: On Robert Siodmak's "The Spiral Staircase"

My exploration of the films of Robert Siodmak continues, and, dare I say, his best films have been the ones that aren't readily available for mass market consumption. Yes, "The Killers" (1946) and "Criss Cross" (1949) are film noir staples, but films such as his late career effort "Escape From East Berlin" (1962) and the mid 40's "Phantom Lady" (1944) have been revelatory viewings for me. And now comes "The Spiral Staircase"..... a film so boldly envisioned in its proto-giallo terrors and so confident in its visual scheme that I want to shout to the rooftops about a Siodmak retrospective that deserves to be seen by.... anyone.

In "The Spiral Staircase", someone is murdering invalid women in Northeastern town and the police are stumped. In its opening moments, we're privy to one of these murders as a woman is attacked in her upstairs room, being hunted by someone hiding in her dresser. In the perfect encapsulation of voyeurism and maniacal impulse, the killer is glimpsed by his eye (that soon encompasses the entire screen) right before her murder. It's no surprise the 'close-up eyeball' is that of Siodmak himself.... a cameo that probably made Hitchcock effusively jealous.

But after this introductory moment of terror, "The Spiral Staircase" narrows its focus on a sprawling mansion on the outskirts of town where the family who lives there- plus its servants- are stuck as a ferocious thunderstorm blows outside. The ailing matriarch (Ethel Barrymore), her sons (George Brent and Gordon Oliver) and, most innocently, the nurse's assistant Helen played wonderfully by Dorothy McGuire. The stakes are raised further as Helen is a mute woman, traumatized by experiences earlier in her life, which makes her a prime target for the killer who, as we've seen previously, stalked her towards the large mansion in a scene of masterful light and shadow staging that feels like required mise-en-scene for any horror filmmaker wanting to startle with the introduction of a monstrous serial killer.

From this humble set-up, "The Spiral Staircase" proceeds to raise red herrings, observe as a killer stalks those in the house, and becomes the obvious blueprint for decades of giallo and haunted house whodunits. The fact that Helen is mute also establishes the film as an early purveyor of the trauma-induced heroine whose screams are left to the audience.

Coming midway through Siodmak's extremely proficient 1940's output that saw him draft some of the most influential noirs and thrillers of its period, "The Spiral Staircase" continues to reveal his mastery of camera angle, lighting, and inherent joy of withholding. Siodmak is a filmmaker obviously indebted to the off-screen menace, whether it's the hands of a killer in "Phantom Lady" (1944) or the gaze of a killer who only sees the infallibility of a person in their staircase mirror reflection in this film. For the mid-40's this is heady terror, matched only by the atmospheric, metaphoric underpinnings of someone like Jacques Tourneur. And when we do find out who the killer is, "The Spiral Staircase" swings at some metaphoric allusions of its own.... putting to bed notions of generational toxicity and giving voices back to those who seem to deserve it most.