- In July, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will be presenting the series “Dark Mirrors: The Films Noir of Robert Siodmak,” consisting of 10 crime dramas of the 1940s directed by the Oscar-nominated German-born filmmaker. Titles include Phantom Lady, The Killers, and The Spiral Staircase.
LACMA’s Robert Siodmak film series to include 10 noir classics and near-classics of the 1940s
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) film series “Dark Mirrors: The Films Noir of Robert Siodmak,” to be held between July 8–23, will screen 10 black-and-white crime dramas the German filmmaker directed in Hollywood – mostly at Universal – from 1944 to 1950. (See further below LACMA’s complete Robert Siodmak movie schedule.)
Although not as well remembered as a “genre” filmmaker like John Ford or Alfred Hitchcock, or as a film noir master like John Huston (The Maltese Falcon), Jacques Tourneur (Cat People, Out of the Past), Billy Wilder (Double Indemnity), or Howard Hawks (The Big Sleep), Robert Siodmak excelled in telling dark, disturbing stories about deviant, deadly individuals.
In fact, titles like Phantom Lady, The Spiral Staircase, The Dark Mirror, and Cry of the City are among the most compelling releases of the 1940s – regardless of genre.
Perhaps not all that surprisingly – very few noirs and very few Universal releases were shortlisted for the Best Picture and/or Best Director Academy Awards in the 1940s – Siodmak would end up receiving only one single Best Director nomination: For the downbeat 1946 noir The Killers (bypassed in the Best Picture category), starring Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, and Edmond O’Brien, and which LACMA will be presenting on July 9.
From Nazi Germany to Hollywood
Like many other German Jews and/or intellectuals, Robert Siodmak (born on Aug. 8, 1900, in Dresden) was forced into exile following the rise of the Nazi party.
After several yeas in France – where he directed, among others, Albert Préjean and Danielle Darrieux in the light musical La Crise est finie (“The Crisis Is Over”) – Siodmak began his Hollywood career in 1941, making B movies at Paramount, 20th Century Fox, and Republic (e.g., My Heart Belongs to Daddy, Someone to Remember).
By 1943 – and Son of Dracula – he had settled at Universal.
Phantom Lady
The moody noir Phantom Lady (1944), screening on July 8, catapulted Siodmak to Universal’s A list. Adapted by Bernard C. Schoenfeld from Cornell Woolrich’s 1942 novel, the narrative traces the efforts of dedicated secretary Ella Raines as she fights to prove that her handsome boss (Alan Curtis) did not murder his wife.
Among its many pluses, Phantom Lady boasts what may well be the most effective performance of Ella Raines’ relatively brief Hollywood career,* top-notch cinematography by Elwood Bredell, Aurora Miranda (Carmen Miranda’s sister) as a fiery singer with a peculiar taste in hats, and Elisha Cook Jr. going berserk as a sexually charged drummer.
* Ella Raines’ two other collaborations with Robert Siodmak, both 1945 releases, were The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (screening on July 15) and The Suspect (July 22).
The Spiral Staircase
In the 1946 RKO release The Spiral Staircase (1946), a LACMA presentation on July 15, former Warner Bros. contract actor George Brent (Living on Velvet, Jezebel) shows that perhaps his old studio wasted his talents by casting him as the handsome, broad-shouldered, and generally humdrum object of desire to the likes of Kay Francis, Ruth Chatterton, Loretta Young, Barbara Stanwyck, and Bette Davis.
In The Spiral Staircase, however, it’s not Brent’s manly physique that matters but his eyes. Also making excellent use of her eyes and overall facial expression is Dorothy McGuire, as her melodious voice isn’t heard throughout the film: She plays a (psychologically induced) mute woman who may be the next target of a serial killer terrorizing rural Vermont in the early 1900s.
However unfairly, neither Brent nor McGuire were shortlisted for the Oscars that year, but stage veteran Ethel Barrymore – who plays Brent’s bedridden mother and McGuire’s charge – was, in the Best Supporting Actress category. (Barrymore ultimately lost to Anne Baxter for The Razor’s Edge; she had previously won for None But the Lonely Heart, 1944.)
The Dark Mirror & The Suspect
LACMA’s July 22 double bill features several excellent performances:
- In The Dark Mirror (1946), you get two exceptional Olivia de Havilland star turns – as twin sisters – for the price of one. Now, could one of the twins be an insane murderess? If so, which one? Psychiatrist Lew Ayres tries to figure it all out before more corpses turn up.
- In The Suspect (1945), a superb Charles Laughton – caught between lovely stenographer Ella Raines and shrewish wife Rosalind Ivan – commits what looks like the perfect crime. But how perfect can a perfect crime (or crimes) be when you’re a man of rock-solid ethics?
Immediately below is the list of LACMA’s Robert Siodmak movie program.
“Dark Mirrors: The Films Noir of Robert Siodmak” schedule
Friday, July 8
Phantom Lady (1944 | 88 min.)
Scr: Bernard C. Schoenfeld; dir: Robert Siodmak.
Cast: Ella Raines, Franchot Tone, Alan Curtis, Aurora Miranda, Thomas Gomez, Elisha Cook Jr.
Christmas Holiday (1944 | 93 min.)
Scr: Herman J. Mankiewicz; dir: Robert Siodmak.
Cast: Deanna Durbin, Gene Kelly, Richard Whorf, Dean Harens, Gladys George, Gale Sondergaard, David Bruce.
35mm print courtesy the Library of Congress.Saturday, July 9
The Killers (1946 | 105 min.)
Scr: Anthony Veiller; dir: Robert Siodmak.
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien, Albert Dekker, Sam Levene.
Cry of the City (1948 | 96 min.)
Scr: Richard Murphy; dir: Robert Siodmak.
Cast: Victor Mature, Richard Conte, Shelley Winters, Fred Clark, Debra Paget.
New 35mm print courtesy Twentieth Century Fox.Friday, July 15
The Spiral Staircase (1945 | 83 min.)
Scr: Mel Dinelli; dir: Robert Siodmak.
Cast: Dorothy McGuire, George Brent, Ethel Barrymore, Kent Smith, Rhonda Fleming, Gordon Oliver, Elsa Lanchester.
Restored 35mm print courtesy the Walt Disney Company.
The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945 | 82 min.)
Scr: Keith Winter, Stephen Longstreet; dir: Robert Siodmak.
Cast: George Sanders, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ella Raines, Sara Allgood.
35mm print courtesy UCLA Film and Television Archive.Saturday, July 16
Criss Cross (1948 | 87 min.)
Scr: Daniel Fuchs; dir: Robert Siodmak.
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Yvonne De Carlo, Dan Duryea, Stephen McNally.
The File on Thelma Jordon (1950 | 100 min.)
Scr: Ketti Frings; dir: Robert Siodmak.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Wendell Corey, Joan Tetzel, Stanley Ridges, Jane Novak.Friday, July 22
The Dark Mirror (1946 | 85 min.)
Scr: Nunnally Johnson; dir: Robert Siodmak.
Cast: Olivia de Havilland, Lew Ayres, Thomas Mitchell, Richard Long.
Restored 35mm print courtesy UCLA Film and Television Archive.
The Suspect (1945 | 84 min.)
Scr: Arthur T. Horman, Bertram Millhauser; dir: Robert Siodmak.
Cast: Charles Laughton, Ella Raines, Dean Harens, Stanley Ridges, Rosalind Ivan, Henry Daniell, Molly Lamont.
35mm print courtesy Universal Archive.
“Robert Siodmak Film Series” notes/references
Los Angeles County Museum of Art website.
“Robert Siodmak Film Series: 10 Classic 1940s Noirs” last updated in December 2024.