The Spiral Staircase

I was surprised when I learned that "The Spiral Staircase" was a remake of an earlier movie, and that it's been remade since. The movie is actually little that we haven't seen before: disabled - in this case mute - woman (Jacqueline Bisset) suspects that someone is trying to kill her, she moves in with family, and there's eventually a big showdown. And the ending was pretty anticlimactic; at one point, you can basically tell what's going to happen.

However, there was one thing that I derived from the movie. Christopher Plummer's character in one scene talks about no tolerance for imperfection. We in the 21st century have taken that to the extreme. We want everyone made up so that they all look the same, we go for style over substance, and more. Then again, I'm probably reading too far into the movie, as it was most likely intended as a straight thriller (although it doesn't really thrill).

Anyway, it's a mediocre way to pass time. Also starring Elaine Stritch and John Philip Law (the "Barbarella" angel).

The original The Spiral Staircase, made in 1945 in black and white by director Robert Siodmak, was one of the finest killer-on-the-loose-in-a-spooky-mansion films of all-time. This 1975 remake is a very poor attempt to update and remake the original. There is less tension this time around, as director Peter Collinson allows things to proceed at a sluggish pace. Even the performances are weaker, despite the fact that this film has a comparatively star-studded cast for its era.

Helen Mallory (Jacqueline Bisset) has been unable to speak since she witnessed her husband and child being killed in a house fire. Her doctor, Dr Rawley (John Ronane), has tried for several years to help her recover her speech but without success. He is very concerned for Helen's safety, as a serial killer has recently been at work in the city and all the victims share one thing in common – they are all disabled in some way. Helen goes away to her uncle's nearby mansion, which also doubles as an institution for the handicapped. Here she finds herself in the company of her uncle Joe Sherman (Christopher Plummer), his secretary and lover Blanche (Gayle Hunnicut), angry brother Steven Sherman (John Philip Law), a strict nurse (Elaine Stritch), housekeepers Mr and Mrs Oates (Ronald Radd, Sheila Brennan) and the ill, old bed-bound Sherman mother (Mildred Dunnock). A ferocious thunderstorm plunges the house into a power-cut, and before long it becomes apparent that the serial killer who has been preying upon handicapped women is one of those trapped inside the mansion. It is now Helen who finds herself next on the killer's list, unless she can find a way to survive….

This is such a reliable, some might say "archetypal", story that all it needed was some thoughtful lighting and a well-judged sense of pace in order to work. But sadly director Collinson has spent too much time setting up pointless and weird camera angles instead of concentrating on the basics of suspense. If he had gone for the afore-mentioned thoughtful lighting and the better-judged sense of pace, this would have emerged a half-decent remake. The actors seem indifferent towards the material and give performances way below their best. Bisset has the difficulty of contending with a wordless role and is nothing more than average in the part; Plummer looks rightfully bored as the professor; Law snaps and snarls ineffectually as his bad-tempered brother; Dunnock spends most of the film acting drugged as the poorly old mother of the clan. For a good hour or so, very little happens in the film and one invariably finds oneself staring vacantly at the screen, waiting with misplaced optimism for a flash of suspense. Not even the music by David Lindup manages to generate any excitement or atmosphere. When the killings finally begin and Helen goes on the run in the dark passages of the house, trying to escape from her murderous assailant, the sequence is done rather flatly with little in the way of true excitement. If you're planning on watching a version of The Spiral Staircase some time soon, the best advice I can give is that you stick with the vastly superior original!

Kind of a disappointment here from the otherwise interesting Peter Collinson, who's 1974 sleaze-0-rama OPEN SEASON is one of the truly great overlooked cult movies from the 1970s. He even brings along the late John Phillip Law from that movie but chooses to lock him up in the basement during the majority of the film's big shebang sequence, giving him little more to do than pry open a door and take a shower. His role could have been played by anyone.

The movie is a remake of a highly regarded Noir thriller of the same name that better judgment suggests one investigate instead -- I was in this for John Phillip Law, so my disappointment is more on seeing his usually bizarre talents go so wasted. The story revolves around a fetching young woman played by Jaqueline Bisset who goes mute in the face of danger owing to a boringly typical childhood drama. There's a family matriarch who sleeps with a .38 under her pillow, a duplicitous doctor played by Christopher Plummer who may be the key to a series of murders of likewise handicapped but fetching young women, a scruffy amoral police detective who couldn't be more ineffective if he was trying to be, and a bunch of unlikeable types sitting around waiting for a rich elderly to die off so they can claim their piece of the pie.

In other words this is a Scooby-Doo type plot with a couple of murders thrown in to beef it up. The most effective element of the film is the sprawling, ornate mansion that the movie is mostly set within, which does become effectively creepy once the power goes out during an electrical storm with a killer prowling the grounds. Director Collinson composes some interesting shots looking out from under the furniture that sort of reminds one of hiding under stuff as a kid when frightened. There is an intriguing use of color and some imaginative camera angles, but those elements aren't what we watch stuff like this for.

As a made for TV movie (CBS) from the 1970s it's not bad, with a first rate cast, some interesting supporting players, a decent disappearing corpse sequence and a respectably staged lightning storm, but what of it? The movie apparently enjoyed a theatrical release overseas, mostly due to the strength of the names in the cast, and is a comparatively rare film not having found a re-release on DVD just yet, and probably never will. The problem is coming up with elements to recommend it for and other than another obscure, nutty, somewhat sinister John Phillip Law supporting role I can't come up with much. Jaqueline Bisset looks marvelous as usual and the unseen hero saving the day at the end was a pleasant surprise. As a whole however it's just not a very involving or absorbing story, well staged for the budget involved, but then again so is your basic trip to the bus station on YouTube.

So here's another "I don't know ..." kind of movie. If low budget made for TV horror is your bag this should definitely find it's way onto your schedule at some point and used VHS copies are relatively inexpensive & not difficult to acquire (just search for the title on Amazon: it's there in spite of what the IMDb's link box says). With a bag of popcorn on a rainy otherwise boring night it would probably come in handy, and for John Phillip Law devotees you should probably grab a copy now before they all fall to pieces.

4/10

I've only seen one other version of this story--Robert Siodmak's 1946 adaptation--but boy, does this one suffer by comparison. Whereas Siodmak's vision is suspenseful, atmospheric, and shadow-soaked, Collinson doesn't bring much to The Spiral Staircase apart from '70s made-for-TV cliches like crash-zooms and POV shots from the killer's perspective, with dreary cinematography straight out of an early episode of Columbo.

"GASP! Oh, it's only you! You startled me. Say, what are you doing down here? No...don't come any closer! No...no.... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" *gets murdered*

The performances are mediocre. Christopher Plummer is one of those actors who can turn in amazing work when he cares. Here, he doesn't seem to. Jacqueline Bissett is, frankly, quite forgettable in the lead role. When actors don't have dialogue to lean on, they sure had better be charismatic and expressive; as the mute Helen, the wooden Bissett is just not up to the challenge. Mildred Dunnock, as the family matriarch on her deathbed, is probably the strongest member of the cast.

What else is there to say? It's a mess, and not a very interesting one. Helen's backstory, in which her husband and daughter died in a fire, doesn't add up to much, and the flashbacks are so ridiculous they're hard to take seriously. The music is standard. I can't take pride in having guessed the identity of the killer early on, but I think I would have guessed it just as easily even had I not seen the 1946 version. The best idea in the movie is a sequence (I don't remember if this was included in prior versions and haven't read the novel) in which Helen, being stalked through the house by the now-unmasked killer, finds that Mrs. Oates, the housekeeper, is unable to help her--not because she is dead or incapacitated, but merely because she is too drunk to take the events seriously.

In 1945, a suspenseful classic film called "The Spiral Staircase" chilled audiences with its story and atmosphere. Set in the beginning of the 20th. Century, it told the story of the beautiful and mute servant of a wealthy, elderly widow who's threatened by a serial killer of disabled women. Here, the story has been updated to the present, which meant that the filmmakers didn't have to spend money on costumes and sets to reflect the time it took place. The overall plot remains the same, but the flat direction and script causes it to be about as suspenseful as an episode of "Murder She Wrote." There are a few red herrings as we wonder whodunit, but it doesn't make us care. It's not really a bad movie. It features a cast of starts who were big back in the day, so the acting is satisfactory. The mansion where the story takes place is rather baroque and makes a pretty good setting. And the original story remains excellent. The problem isn't that the film itself is terrible, but that given the quality of the source material and the original film, it's a major disappointment.