''The Spiral Staircase'' is a 1961 American
television film. It is a television adaptation of
Ethel Lina White
Ethel Lina White (2 April 1876 – 13 August 1944) was a British crime writer from Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales. She was best known for her novel ''The Wheel Spins'' (1936), on which the Alfred Hitchcock 1938 film ''The Lady Vanishes'' w ...
's novel ''Some Must Watch'' which was filmed in 1946 as ''
The Spiral Staircase''. It was directed by
Boris Sagal
Boris Sagal (October 18, 1923 – May 22, 1981) was an American television and film director.
Early life and career
Born in Yekaterinoslav, Ukrainian SSR (now known as Dnipro, Ukraine) to a Ukrainian-Jewish family, Sagal immigrated to the United ...
.
Plot summary
Cast
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Elizabeth Montgomery as Helen Warren
*
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893February 27, 1993) was an American actress, director, and screenwriter. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", ...
as Mrs. Warren
*
Gig Young as Stephen Warren
*
Edie Adams as Blanche
*
Eddie Albert as Albert Warren
*
Jeffrey Lynn
Jeffrey Lynn (born Ragnar Godfrey Lind; – November 24, 1995) was an American stage-screen actor and film producer who worked primarily through the Golden Age of Hollywood establishing himself as one of the premier talents of his time. Thr ...
as Doctor Parry
*
Frank McHugh as Constable Williams
Production
The production was the idea of
David Susskind
David Howard Susskind (December 19, 1920 – February 22, 1987) was an American producer of TV, movies, and stage plays and also a TV talk show host. His talk shows were innovative in the genre and addressed timely, controversial topics beyond th ...
who originally wanted
Jane Fonda
Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress, activist, and former fashion model. Recognized as a film icon, Fonda is the recipient of various accolades including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, sev ...
to play the lead.
It was part of a series on NBC called ''Theatre '62''. ''Spiral Staircase'' was to be the first of eight productions of
David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick (May 10, 1902June 22, 1965) was an American film producer, screenwriter and film studio executive who produced ''Gone with the Wind'' (1939) and ''Rebecca'' (1940), both of which earned him an Academy Award for Best Picture.
E ...
movies. Eventually the lead role went to Elizabeth Montgomery and her then-husband Gig Young.
Reception
"It was a routine play but they made it look pretty good", said the ''Los Angeles Times''.
References
External links
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''The Spiral Staircase''at BFI
1961 films
Films directed by Boris Sagal
{{US-tv-film-stub