Ethel Barrymore, The Spiral Staircase
One of my favorite movies (not just favorite classic horror movies, but favorite movies, period) is the spell-binding 1946 horror film The Spiral Staircase (directed by Robert Siodmak). While it is categorized as a horror movie, I’d call it more of a suspense, but we’ll just go with “horror” since we’re this close to Halloween.
The movie stars one of my absolute favorites, Ethel Barrymore, Dorothy McGuire, George Brent, Rhonda Fleming, Gordon Oliver, Elsa Lanchester (SUBLIME as ever), Sara Allgood, and Kent Smith.
The cast is absolutely flawless in a film that’s suspenseful, extraordinarily directed, entertaining, well-written, and downright spellbinding. If you’ve never seen this one, I really hope you’ll check it out this Halloween season. It isn’t necessarily “scary” and won’t give even the biggest scaredy cat (ME!) nightmares. It’s just an outstanding film, period.
You can find The Spiral Staircase on dvd or Blu-ray (Amazon link).