The Spiral Staircase (1946)
Directed by Robert Siodmak · Cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca
Approved83 min64 frames
HorrorMysteryThriller
Conflicts that freeze your emotions! Suspense that takes your breath!
Stills, screencaps & shots from The Spiral Staircase
16 of 64 frames — the full set is searchable by lighting, lens, shot size, color and mood with a free account.
The Spiral Staircase — official trailer
What is The Spiral Staircase about?
On a stormy night, the mute servant to an ailing matriarch is stalked by a serial killer.
The Spiral Staircase is a 1946 American psychological horror film directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Dorothy McGuire, George Brent, and Ethel Barrymore. Set over the course of one evening, the film follows a mute young woman in an early-20th century Vermont town who is stalked and terrorized in a rural mansion by a serial killer targeting women with disabilities. Kent Smith, Rhonda Fleming, Gordon Oliver and Elsa Lanchester appear in supporting roles. It was adapted for the screen by Mel Dinelli from the novel Some Must Watch (1933) by Ethel Lina White.
Second paragraph from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Where can you watch The Spiral Staircase?
US availability for The Spiral Staircase (1946). Data by JustWatch, listings on TMDB. Availability changes — check the provider for current listings.
Who stars in The Spiral Staircase?
Who made The Spiral Staircase?
What does the cinematography of The Spiral Staircase look like?
Across 63 sampled frames, The Spiral Staircase builds its coverage from medium shots (57% of the sample), with close-ups (16%) carrying much of the rest. Cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca keeps 73% of it in soft, low-key light. 75% of the frames play at night or in the failing light of dusk. Vintage glass shapes the frame. Focus stays shallow in 59% of the frames, isolating subjects from their surroundings. The production design places the film in the 1940s.
What is the color palette of The Spiral Staircase?
The dominant colors across the sampled frames of The Spiral Staircase (1946) are #040404, #2f2f2e, #8b8b8b, #494848, #707070, #b2b2b2 — measured from the per-frame color data FrameThrower extracts for every film.
#040404#2f2f2e#8b8b8b#494848#707070#b2b2b2
See the full The Spiral Staircase colour palette — every hex with its share, plus warmth, saturation and luminance.
A reference database for filmmakers
FrameThrower is a fully machine-searchable film database and visual reference library — all 64 frames of The Spiral Staircase (1946), and 5,000+ films besides, indexed frame by frame and readable by AI. Search it in plain language, from a reference image, or by colour; call it from an API, an MCP server or an SDK. It's the reference layer for making the next movie.
Techniques in this film
More films by Robert Siodmak
More Horror films
Cast, trailer and streaming data from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.