Watch Shadows on the Stairs For Free

Good movie but grossly overrated

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This B movie looks much better than most because it was made by Warner Brothers and had a higher budget and better production values than many other Bs. Now this does NOT mean it's a particularly great B...it wasn't. The problem is that despite looking very polished, the script isn't especially strong and too many of the characters (particularly the women) were shrill and tended to become overwrought at the drop of a hat.The film is set in a rooming house in London. Almost everyone there seems to have some big secret or secrets and it all seems a bit unreal because of this. One morning, most of the folks are not in their rooms and a body is found. What follows is an overacted but mostly by the books whodunnit...that is, until the very strange and difficult to predict ending.Overall, this is a passable B movie but nothing more. I didn't particularly love the twist at the end and a few of the characters were downright annoying.

Overlooked B-Movie Director Ross Lederman Made Over 100 Films and Ended His Prolific Career in Television. He Had It. An Ability to Make a Low-Budget Movie Interesting with Creative Pizazz and a Steady, Sometimes Flourishing, Hand.This One is About Characters. A Lot of Characters with Varying Personalities Living in a Boarding House in London (actually WB back lot) and the Bodies are Being Stacked Here and There and the Audience is Asked..."Who Done It?"Entertaining and Interesting for its Short Running Time of Just Over an Hour. There is a Twist Ending that No One Will See Coming and it's a Pleasure Being Fooled, If You Let It. A Good Cast with Some Recognizable Character Actors Make this an Above Average Mystery Movie with a Light Touch.Note...America had not entered WWII at the time and this was a shout out to our overseas cousins, who were. It Even Shows an admiration for British Colonialism, concerning India (that now seems embarrassing).

I was surprised to see the Warner Brothers/First National name attached to this film; their many movies of the era often presented a social ill as a backdrop to a story headlined by one of their main contract players. "Shadows on the Stairs" seems to have been done with just entertainment value in mind, and it works, up to a point. Had the story finished as the mystery it set out to be I would have been much more satisfied. However the "twist" ending only insures that it never actually occurred, which leaves one feeling somehow cheated.With that off my chest, I'll agree that there were some interesting characters and a curious set up designed to keep the viewer off balance. The opening scene in particular had a Charlie Chan feel to it, complete with dark alleys and a dock scene involving some type of contraband. The denture challenged Miss Snell (Mary Field) and the comical constable (Charles Irwin) provided laughs both intentional and otherwise.The two questions viewers will ask themselves along the way are "What's in the box?" and "Who's under the shawl?". At film's end they are both a moot point of course, but that still leaves one question. Why would the key of any occupant at the Armitage boarding house be able to open all of the rooms?

With a cast like this, a B-movie mystery just can't miss. But first you must skip over the juvenile leads, both male and female, and look beyond them to the talented, polished and very-experienced supporting cast.Frieda Inescort, past her girlish good-looks stage, gives an outstanding performance as the duplicitous, cheating landlady of the boarding house where the murder takes place. Turhan Bey, then a young actor of considerable skill with an already notable acting history, plays another ethnic role-- the sort in which he was most typecast- that of the mysterious "easterner" --turban and all.Veteran actors Paul Cavanagh and Miles Mander round out this superb cast. You may recognize both from many 1940's supporting roles; Mander was also a director of early silents.Beware of nay-sayers who are always trying to compare films of this era with today's output-- Phrases like "it does (or doesn't) show it's age" or "it does (or doesn't) hold up today" are meaningless when viewing films of this genre. In fact, such comparisons are boring and tedious.This is a fun low budget effort, with an able cast, a crazy plot-line (why not?), and a few hysterical scenes (like the boarder who won't talk to the police because she's lost her false teeth).Recommended. Don't miss it.