The Spiral Staircase (1946)
Directed by Robert Siodmak

WILLIAM FRIEDKIN SAYS: ''Like many of these films, it's a mystery story as much as anything else. It's about a guy who kills women who have certain afflictions. You don't know until the final scene who this killer is. In that final sequence, [the lead character, a mute played by Dorothy McGuire] comes face to face with him. She, of course, can't tell anyone who the murderer is. It's from the 1940s, but it still holds up.''