Director: Robert Siodmak
Producer: Dore Schary
Screenwriter: Mel Dinelli
Cinematography: Nicholas Musuraca
Music: Roy Webb
Studio: RKO 1946
Main Acting: Dorothy MacGuire and George Brent
Maybe the finest example of the kind of film that is best viewed late at night with a dark thunderstorm raging outside. The Spiral Staircase is not exactly a pure noir, but happens to successfully merge many of the hallmarks of the genre with that of the gothic melodrama and the old spooky house story. Robert Siodmak, who directed the picture, is definitely best known for making a clutch of film noirs during his 40-something-year-long career. Perhaps this tidbit of information leads me to consider this more of a film noir than horror. Nevertheless, comparing The Spiral Staircase with the Siodmak movies made precisely before and after, it seems to support my idea that it is a continuation visually and style-wise of what the director was focusing on and concerned with at this point in his profession. (more…)