Name: The Circular Staircase
Released: 1915
Cast: Guy Oliver, Eugenie Besserer, Stella Razeto, Edith Johnson, William Howard

Cast & Crew

Film Details

Release Date

Sep 20, 1915

Premiere Information

not available

Production Company

Selig Polyscope Co.; Selig Red Seal Plays

Distribution Company

V-L-S-E, Inc.

Country

United States

Screenplay Information

Based on the novel The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart (Indianapolis, 1908).

Technical Specs

Sound

Silent

Color

Black and White

Film Length

5 reels

Synopsis

Halsey Innes and his sister Gertrude visit their Aunt Ray, who has leased banker Paul Armstrong's home for the summer, and Jack Bailey, Gertrude's fiancé, joins them. After Aunt Ray finds the banker's son Arnold, dead at the foot of the circular staircase, suspicion falls on Jack, Arnold's business enemy who disappeared that night. Louise Armstrong, who was traveling with her father, is found hiding and dazed. After housekeeper Mrs. Watson develops blood poisoning from cuts received, she says, falling down the stairs, news arrives that the Armstrong bank, from which securities have been stolen, has failed, and that Armstrong has died. Before Mrs. Watson expires, she confesses shooting Arnold, who beat her with a golf club. After Aunt Ray accidentally locks herself in a secret room and encounters Paul Armstrong, her screams alert Alex, a new gardener, and Detective Jamieson, who pursue Armstrong. At the top of the stairs, he slips to his death. After Alex, really Jack in disguise, finds the securities in the secret room, Gertrude embraces him, while Louise and Halsey hug.