MOVIE · 1946

The Spiral Staircase

DramaHorrorMysteryThriller83 min

On a stormy night in an early-20th-century Vermont town, a mute servant in a remote mansion realizes a serial killer is moving closer to the house. Dorothy McGuire is the isolated young woman at the center, trapped inside with a household of relatives, visitors, and staff whose motives are hard to read. Ethel Barrymore's ailing matriarch presides over the home, while George Brent and Kent Smith are among the men circling the crisis. The story unfolds almost entirely over one night, turning the mansion’s shadowed rooms, closed doors, and the staircase itself into part of the threat.