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In watching Side Street (left) last Friday as part of TCM’s Summer of Darkness, I noticed how cleverly the locations were integrated into this story of an average guy stepping into a web of intrigue out of his control. As a matter of fact, he was such a “regular Joe,” that the character’s name was actually Joe!
The typically convoluted plotline had Joe chasing all over New York looking for a cache of stolen money. Each new clue led him to a specific address in a different part of the city—Central Park West, Belleview Hospital, W. 8th Street, Wall Street, etc. The streets were located all over Manhattan in a variety of neighborhoods, as though the impact of this particular crime was spreading out across the city map, like spilled ink. Side Street was directed by Anthony Mann and shot on location by Joseph Ruttenberg; the locations gave the narrative authenticity.
At almost every location, Joe had to climb a staircase or walk down a corridor to get to his destination. As his ordeal intensified, the staircases became darker and more bizarre looking, revealing the German Expressionist influence on this film noir. The staircases in Side Street reminded me of the expressive power of this motif—a symbol that is often used but little recognized by the average viewer.
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THE CORRIDOR IN THE SHINING IS AN EXTERNAL MANIFESTATION OF DANNY’S INTERNAL VISION/MIND.
The symbolism of stairs, stairwells, and corridors in Hollywood films is part of the visual vocabulary that the German and Austrian directors, cinematographers, and craftsmen introduced into the classic narrative style when they immigrated to Hollywood in the late 1920s and early 1930s. These images not only appear in films noirs but also horror films, melodramas, and the mystery thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock. Lotte Eisner explained the appeal and significance of corridors and staircases in her classic 1952 study of Expressionism, The Haunted Screen.
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POELZIG (KARLOFF) AND WERDEGAST (LUGOSI) IN A POWER PLAY ON THE MODERN STAIRS IN THE BLACK CAT.
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THE DILAPIDATED STAIRS IN THE GERMAN FILM THE STREET SUGGESTS THIS IS A DANGEROUS LOCALE.
On a purely visual level, corridors provided great opportunities for high-contrast lighting, while staircases offered possibilities for some nifty symmetrical and asymmetrical compositions. But, Eisner reiterated the assertions by theater critics and scholars that staircases and corridors also have symbolism.
Like caves or attics, corridors can suggest the canyons of the mind, so to speak. They are a visual clue that the action or an event might be a representation or an exploration of a character’s inner thoughts or memories. Sometimes, this will be a literal representation of a character’s mind; sometimes, the viewer is expected to decode the scene as it might connote something deeper than the surface level.
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IN THE GERMAN FILM PANDORA’S BOX, THE STAIRCASE WITH ITS JAGGED SHADOWS IS A PROJECTION OF THE KILLER’S MIND.
Staircases on a simple level can emphasize psychological or social superiority. For example, the character on the stairs, or on the highest step controls the situation, or wields the most power. But Expressionist filmmakers stretched the motif as far as they could. The use of high-contrast lighting on stairs and stairwells yielded an array of crazy-looking, incoherent, and tangled shapes. Rendered in this way, these stairs and steps looked unsafe, unstable, or threatening. The visual chaos of the shadowy staircase was intended to suggest the disordered mind of an insane, corrupt, or deranged character, or to hint that this location is dangerous and may release pandemonium upon unsuspecting visitors. The artificial, mannered style was also designed to make viewers uncomfortable or visually confused, though I can’t help but wonder if contemporary audiences, who are too accustomed to poor editing and disorienting computer-generated effects, are immune to these subtleties of mise-en-scene.
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VERTIGO: THE HIGH ANGLE ON THE STAIRS IN THE TOWER REFLECTS THE MENTAL AND MORAL CHAOS OF THE CHARACTERS WHILE FORESHADOWING DESTRUCTION.
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THE STAIRCASES IN THE ASYLUM IN SHUTTER ISLAND: THE VISUAL CHAOS AND DISORDER OF THE CORRIDORS, BARS, AND SHADOWS, TELEGRAPH TO THE MENTAL STATE OF THE MAIN CHARACTER TO THE VIEWER. THE CONCLUSION SHOULD NOT BE A SURPRISE TO THOSE WHO KNOW EXPRESSIONISM.
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SPIRALS IN EXPRESSIONISM SIGNIFY CHAOS AND DISORDER, TOO, SO THESE STAIRS IN THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE ARE DOUBLY DANGEROUS.
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THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE BELOW GROUND IN THE BLACK CAT SUGGESTS POELZIG’S MADNESS.
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BURT LANCASTER’S LIFE SPIRALS OUT OF CONTROL IN BRUTE FORCE.
The film stills in this post represent some of my favorite expressive staircases in horror and film noir. I plan to show examples of Expressionist staircases from German and Hollywood movies in my film noir course this fall. If anyone can think of other examples, I would appreciate additional suggestions, especially in noir. Thus far, my readers have been a font of information for which I am truly grateful.