Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...

long, wooden staircase while trying to corner the two orphaned children. The scene
emphasises the complexity of the twisted Powell’s mind both as a psychopath and as a
preacher. Mitchum’s lunatic oscillation between solicitous care and murderous intent is
one of the most powerful achievements of noir cinema.
In conclusion, the “spirality” found in The Spiral Staircase is indeed the most
relevant visual objectification from a metaphorical perspective, more than just a constant
movement of characters moving up and down the staircase. In addition, we can see that the
staircase establishes a class dimension to the film. Helen circulates in that class
“deviation”, in the hinterland between gentility and the house servant: she seems to be the
only one that uses both the front stairs (the grand ones being used by the family) and the
back spiral staircase (only used by the servants and a murderer who needs to move about
unobserved). These spiral stairs indicate that her room is part of the servants’ quarters; and
this apparent physical marginalisation of the governess heroine is then connected to her
social status within the household. Moreover, the location of Helen’s room on the top floor
of the house emphasises her feeling of being confined within a house where she does not
belong. The front and back dimensions of the house operate as separate spatial places, just
as the upper, the ground and the basement levels do in Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960).
In a certain way, just like in Gothic-like mysteries, Helen becomes an enigmatic
figure, carrying medication and food to an old lady shouting at night in her own room,
reminding us of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847). Indeed, the film’s ending, for
example, different from the final shot Dinelli scripted, reinforces this view of mystery and
enigma. Siodmak used a tracking shot inside the house, pulling away from Helen, who has
said something for the first time: “It is I, Helen”, she tells a telephone operator. In this final
shot, we doubt whether Helen is now in Warren space or still in servant space or whether
the spaces have merged into one for her. The camera stays on Helen, still inside this place
where no one, not even the audience, is allowed a way out.
331