Das Geheimnis der Wendeltreppe

As a child, the 1946 version of this movie was one of the most terrifying I had ever seen...and I loved scary movies. Years later, it still scared the hell out of me. This re-make is a travesty. I don't know what the director and cinematographer were trying to achieve, but it wasn't The Spiral Staircase. Apologies to Christopher Plummer, Mildred Dunnock and Elaine Stritch for having to endure this drivel. Times must have been bad then and paychecks much needed. If you want to see a brilliant horror film, see the original.

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).

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

Somewhere near the climax of this film, the killer states - and I quote - "I'm sorry, but there's no place for imperfection in this world". Well, if this were true, "The Spiral Staircase" itself never would have seen the light of day. That makes, I guess, the moral of this story: let's all try to be a little more tolerant and nicer to each other. Although another moral could be: if you need to recover from a mental trauma, have someone try to strangle you.

"The Spiral Staircase" is a remake of the sublime 1946 suspense classic with the same name. Or maybe it's a completely separate adaptation of the same source novel by Ethel Lina White, I'm not really sure of that. Fact remains that, of the two films, this 1976 version is definitely the weakest link, and a disappointingly tame 70s thriller altogether. The opening sequences is more than promising, though. A blind but stylish blond woman is rudely executed in a tunnel whilst walking her guidance dog. We hear from the police she's already the fifth victim of a sadist serial killer who exclusively targets disabled women. At this point, I was still anticipating a phenomenal thriller. Why shouldn't I? Everything seemed to be there, including a great cast (Jacqueline Bisset, Christopher Plummer, John Philip Law, Sam Wanamaker, the ravishing Gayle Hunnicutt), a more than talented director (Peter Collinson of "The Italian Job", "Open Season" and "Straight on till Morning"), a shivers-guaranteed premise, terrific settings and conditions (stormy night, big mansion full of suspects) ...

So then, what went wrong? I honestly don't know, in fact. What follows after the good intro is a long and dull hour without any action, suspense or emotion whatsoever. When the bodies do eventually start piling up, the murders are tame, bloodless and working towards a predictable finale.

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.