The spiral staircase
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The spiral staircase |
| Original title | The spiral staircase |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1945 |
| length | 83 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Robert Siodmak |
| script | Mel Dinelli |
| production | Dore Schary |
| music | Roy Webb |
| camera | Nicholas Musuraca |
| cut |
Harry W. Gerstad , Harry Marker |
| occupation | |
| |
The spiral staircase (The Spiral Staircase) is an American thriller of Robert Siodmak from 1945 with Dorothy McGuire in the lead role. It is based on the novel Helen or Die Wendeltreppe ( Some Must Watch , also: The Spiral Staircase ) by Ethel Lina White , in which the heroine is not mute and has no other disabilities.
action
New England in 1916: There is a serial killer in a small town whose victims are always disabled young women. In an old country estate, mute Helen works for the bedridden widow Mrs. Warren. Also living in the household are: Professor Albert Warren, Mrs. Warren's stepson; and his easy-going half-brother Steve, the birth son of Mrs. Warren; the secretary Blanche; a nurse for Mrs. Warren; and the household couple, Oates. Mrs. Warren is very concerned and urges Helen to leave the house. The young family doctor Dr. Parry, who knows the reason for Helen's loss of voice - as a child, how her parents burned to death - also advises her to take this step and hopes that her dissociative dysphonia could be cured in Boston . Between Dr. Parry and Helen begin a tentative romance, but she is plagued by the fear that she will not be worthy of her muteness because of him.
The house is gradually emptying, leaving only Mrs. Warren and her sons, Helen and Blanche and the housekeeper; The latter gets drunk and falls asleep. While a thunderstorm is raging, Blanche is murdered in the basement at the end of the eponymous spiral staircase. Helen locks up Steve, who she thinks is the killer. Suddenly Helen is facing the professor alone, who reveals himself to be the real culprit. He wants to rid the world of all weaknesses in order to prove his own strength to himself and his deceased father - who had always considered him a weakling. Blanche was murdered by him because the professor was jealous of her relationship with Steve. A fight ensues until Mrs. Warren appears at the top of the stairs with a revolver and shoots the professor. She had long suspected that one of her sons was behind the murders. Mrs. Warren then went weak. Helen goes to the phone, regains her voice and calls Dr. Parry for help.
background
The spiral staircase premiered in the United States in December 1945 and started in Germany on January 5, 1948 .
Ethel Lina White's novel, first published in 1933 as Some Must Watch , was published after the release of the film under the film title The Spiral Staircase .
synchronization
There are two different German dubbing adaptations for this film . The first was created in 1948 in the studios of the Tempelhof film studio in Berlin-Tempelhof . Johannes Lüdke was responsible for the dubbing and directing . The second version was made by Berliner Synchron GmbH, also based in Berlin, in 1964. Fritz A. Koeniger wrote the dialogue book and Klaus von Wahl directed the dubbing . This new version has been shown since then.
| role | actor | Voice actor (version 1948) | Voice actor (version 1964) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helen | Dorothy McGuire | Charlotte cyclist | Liane Croon |
| Professor Warren | George Brent | Harry Giese | Klaus Miedel |
| Mrs. Warren | Ethel Barrymore | Magda Wengiel | Lu Neatly |
| Doctor Parry | Kent Smith | Lothar Blumhagen | |
| Housekeeper Mrs. Oates | Elsa Lanchester | Siegrid Hackenberg | |
| Blanche, secretary | Rhonda Fleming | Bettina Schön | |
| Steve | Gordon Oliver | Eckart Dux | |
| Constable | James Bell | Friedrich W. Building School | |
| Mr. Oates | Rhys Williams | Alexander Welbat | |
| Sister Barker | Sara Allgood | Ursula War |
Reviews
"Masterful psychological thriller, also very intense acting."
“The mute - Dorothy McGuire portrays her adorable - learns to speak again from fear and pain and even makes a phone call. The film thus joins the long chain of violent psychotherapeutic cures that have recently been shown since the ' Last Veil '. [...] But at the end the horrors pile up too much. Anyone who went out to learn how to scare may come home laughing. "
“Extremely effective horror thriller, close to the limit of the bearable. (For adults, with reservations.) "
“The thriller that has already become a classic [...] about the attempted murder of a silent girl in a stately country house. Not only recommended for adult friends of the skillful crime film - there is more to it. "
Awards
For her acting performance, Ethel Barrymore was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
Aftermath
Ethel Lina White's novel has been remade several times, including 1975 with Jacqueline Bisset (German The Secret of the Spiral Staircase ) and in 2000 as a television film with Nicollette Sheridan in the leading roles.
literature
- Ethel Lina White: Some Must Watch. Popular Library, New York 1933 (EA)
- Ethel Lina White: Helen or The Spiral Staircase. German by Marta Jacober. Diogenes, Zurich 1988, 298 pages, ISBN 3-257-21640-8
Web links
- The spiral staircase in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The spiral staircase. In: prisma.de. prisma-Verlag , accessed on September 13, 2017 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ The spiral staircase in the Internet Movie Database .
- ↑ Robert Siodmak, Hans C. Blumenberg (Ed.): Between Berlin and Hollywood. Memories of a great film director. Herbig, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-8004-0892-9 , p. 271.
- ↑ a b The spiral staircase in the lexicon of international film .
- ↑ Thomas Bräutigam: Lexicon of film and television synchronization. More than 2000 films and series with their German voice actors etc. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-289-X , p. 395.
- ↑ Review in Der Spiegel No. 2/1948 of January 10, 1948, accessed on March 19, 2013.
- ↑ 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945 to 1958. Handbook V of the Catholic film criticism, 3rd edition. Verlag Haus Altenberg, Düsseldorf 1963, p. 482.
- ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 461/1964