THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE (1946) in Golden Age Horror Forum

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THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE (1946)

Author	Comment
Rakshasa		#81	[-]
Oct 19 11 9:58 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	gatester wrote: Rakshasa wrote: TomWeaver999 wrote: I can think of lots of 1930s and early-40s horror movies where the villain kills numerous people. TERROR ABOARD (1933), anybody? The production code began in 1934. Did you put that restriction on this conversation? I was responding to this comment you made: gatester wrote: About the studios being permitted to make psycho killer movies in 1944... Before that they were forbidden. If the studios were into money in 1940 or 1938 how come psycho killer pix were not made? Why 1944? Links To All The Classic Monster Stills I've Posted: http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/30758
gatester		#82	[-]
Oct 19 11 10:17 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I get the impression you want to prove me wrong. its ok but there is no need to. I'm allowed to be right once in a while. those movies are trivial nonsense.
TomWeaver999		#83	[-]
Oct 19 11 10:31 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	<< I get the impression you want to prove me wrong. << I'm just throwing out the titles of some of the movies you may not have considered. But, okay, if all you're trying to say is that your favorite high-body-count horror-type movies are all post-1944, then .... ummm .... well .... Godspeed. But you need to drop your references to a Pre-1944 Hollywood Rule Against High-Body-Count Movies that exists only in your imagination.
HalLane		#84	[-]
Oct 19 11 11:19 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I lost count of how many sword-cane fatalities were racked up by the serial killer in THE MYSTERY OF MR. X, but at early 1934, he must have just beat the code. Didn't Boris keep a head count of victims by melting statues in THE INVISIBLE RAY? Bela helped him keep a running tab of 'burst heart' cases in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN. I read the book version of THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE (called SOME MUST WATCH), but the film is still on my MUST WATCH list.
gatester		#85	[-]
Oct 19 11 11:33 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	nice avatars
HalLane		#86	[-]
Oct 20 11 4:10 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Thank you, gatester. I'd like to see you get one with King Kong's gate in it. Or maybe Moloch from METROPOLIS -- that's kind of a gate.
gatester		#87	[-]
Oct 20 11 6:45 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I wish I knew how to do an avatar. I used to know & went a year without a computer & forgot. I was a member of the san francisco chronicle page: SFGATE - & I adopted the name Gatester. all it means is a member of sfgate. I'm very old, very ill dying I think. When you get close to death nobody taps your shoulder. You just feel it getting closer. That is why I gave away Metropolis. I often send people movies if they want them. why not share? dont take offense to anything I say. no offense is meant. If I like a movie I might talk about it.
HalLane		#88	[-]
Oct 20 11 7:06 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Hang in there gatester, and no offense taken. (If you click on your name and again on the the avatar rectangle when the profile screen comes up, you can select images from your computer's photo archive by hitting 'browse', and then 'upload'. You can even store several and switch them up as the mood strikes)
robertg		#89	[-]
Oct 20 11 12:56 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Isn't NIGHT MUST FALL about a serial killer? That came out several years before 1944--in 1937, I believe. (By the way, this is off-topic, but I just realized that today is Bela Lugosi's 129th birthday!)
Rakshasa		#90	[-]
Oct 20 11 5:05 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	TomWeaver999 wrote: << I get the impression you want to prove me wrong. << I'm just throwing out the titles of some of the movies you may not have considered.... That's all I did as well. Tossed out a title you may not have been aware of. No hidden agendas, honest. Links To All The Classic Monster Stills I've Posted: http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/30758
clore103051		#91	[-]
Oct 21 11 5:14 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Trellinger wrote: Keeping the 1945 Spiral Staircase in mind, I think you may find that Dinelli's other screen works will prove to be a rewarding experience on a re-viewing. With that in mind, let me recommend CAUSE FOR ALARM! to you. Dinelli co-wrote the screenplay for this Loretta Young film in which she pulls out the stops as a housewife out to retrieve a mailed letter that implicates her in the death of her husband.
Monsterpal		#92	[-]
Oct 21 11 5:59 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I'm with you, Clore. CAUSE FOR ALARM is great. Barry Sullivan as Loretta Young's deranged husband and the direction by Tay Garnett are really good, and so is the gorgeous Loretta. BEWARE, MY LOVELY with Ida Lupino and the great Robert Ryan as a psychotic handyman is another good one written by Mel Dinelli, who really had a knack for suspense thrillers. He did excellent work on a lot of them: Lang's HOUSE BY THE RIVER, Max Ophuls's THE RECKLESS MOMENT, John Sturges's JEOPARDY, and his terrific Cornell Woolrich adaptation of THE WINDOW directed by Ted Tetzlaff (I hope I spelled that right.) He wrote an episode of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, too. Gatester, I'm sorry that you're not well. I hope things improve. Welcome to the lively debates here on the CHFB.
clore103051		#93	[-]
Oct 22 11 10:54 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Nice to see another fan of CAUSE FOR ALARM. It's the film that I point to for those who think that Loretta Young was just a clothes horse and not much of an actress. THE HOUSE BY THE RIVER is a great, barely heralded Fritz Lang film that deserves to be seen. Louis Hayward seems to relish his role and while he later claimed that playing such characters kept his audience away, it's truly one of his best performances. The scene where he's trying to retrieve the sack with the corpse in it reminds ms of the one a year later where Robert Walker is trying to retrieve the lighter in the sewer in STRANGERS ON A TRAIN - in both we're just about rooting for the bad guy.
Monsterpal		#94	[-]
Oct 23 11 1:02 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	That scene in HOUSE BY THE RIVER is a bit like the potato truck scene in FRENZY, too. What Loretta goes through to get that letter back is agonizing, and the final irony is just so cool. One of Tay Garnett's best, almost as good as THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE.
clore103051		#95	[-]
Oct 23 11 3:03 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Just Loretta's exchanges with Irving Bacon as the postman are enough to drive one up the wall. Yet he comes through in the end, so I guess it's worth it. Loretta must have liked Garnett, he worked on two different TV series with her at a point where his personal problems had him somewhat desperate for work as he was not getting features any longer.
Monsterpal		#96	[-]
Oct 23 11 6:57 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	He directed quite a lot of TV episodes, didn't he? I think he went on into the seventies. He must have had a fifty year directing career, more or less.
clore103051		#97	[-]
Nov 11 11 2:55 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Monsterpal wrote: He directed quite a lot of TV episodes, didn't he? I think he went on into the seventies. He must have had a fifty year directing career, more or less. I suppose this is a hijacking, but last night I watched Garnett's ONE WAY PASSAGE for the first time in a long time and it does hold up to what I remembered. No serial killers, just two lovers on a rendezvous with death who meet as shipmates and each has a certain fate in store. Having seen Garnett's rather weak TRADE WINDS recently, I was wondering if I should just not tamper with memories of long ago. No, in fact the film plays better now that I can appreciate the subtleties much more. William Powell was his usual charming self - his charming WB self which was a bit more rough-edged that what he would get at MGM and Kay Francis is most appealing. Too bad she's mostly the butt of a joke these days. And I've never seen Aline MacMahon as desirable as she was in here. Let's face it, her name and the word "sensual" don't usually appear in the same sentence. The way that she was brushing that long hair - it must have really been hers. Even Warren Hymer shows to good advantage, a much more complex role than his usual Runyonesque dumb hood. Oh, and just to stay somewhat on-topic... As long as we're talking serial killer movies (and not trying to prove anyone wrong), one of my favorite pre-Code films is THIRTEEN WOMEN which provides us with a rare female serial killer. We don't get to see all thirteen victims, but we get enough in a film that must have been a bit much even before the Code as some sequences were cut before release.
telegonus		#98	[-]
Nov 12 11 3:15 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Follow Me Quietly has a serial killer, and a forbidding mood. Richard Feischer's direction is top notch and even William Lundigan is pretty good in the lead.
cosmicjim		#99	[-]
Dec 9 11 8:52 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	haven't seen it in years, but an aunt of mine was the hairdresser on it-- i referred elsewhere on this forum to her husband, who did movie (onscreen) title lettering and marquee displays for movie debuts in california, among other things.
cosmicjim		#100	[-]
Dec 9 11 8:57 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	...oh, Bluebeard is a serial-killer movie from that era, as well.

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THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE (1946)