# Stairs in film **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [December 26, 2016, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636 "2016-12-26T06:27:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636/41 "2016-12-28T02:09:11Z")
It is about the only [scene I remember](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVBzQ0Lon1g) clearly from that show. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636/42 "2016-12-28T02:28:35Z")
[Mommy Dearest](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b1/aa/35/b1aa35702b9246f8cc466c0620253450.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636/43 "2016-12-28T02:40:46Z")
Mary Poppins sliding up the bannister. ---
**Author:** ![Obeseus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbce88/32.png) [@Obeseus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obeseus)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636/44 "2016-12-28T05:42:12Z")
The Spiral Staircase. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Y-hIiCQT848/hqdefault.jpg "The Spiral Staircase (1945) trailer") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-hIiCQT848) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636/45 "2016-12-28T05:54:51Z")
The scene with Barbara Stanwyck’s anklet in _ **Double Indemnity** _, parodied with Priscilla Presley in _ **The Naked Gun** _. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636/46 "2016-12-28T14:18:22Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > 😛 > > There are a lot of stairs in GWTW. Scarlett slapping Prissy, Scarlett falling down the stairs and having a miscarriage, Scarlett coming down the stairs after the Yankee deserter tries to steal from them, the scene where Mammy tells Melanie why Rhett won’t let them have Bonnie’s funeral was filmed as they were walking up the stairs, etc. Scarlett first sees Rhett at the bottom of the staircase she is descending, she kills the Yankee soldier on the staircase, and Rhett carrying Scarlett up the staircase for a whoo-whoo night, the same staircase she falls down that causes her miscarriage, and the final scene where Rhett leaves her on the staircase. And there’s [Up The Down Staircase](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_the_Down_Staircase_(film)). Trivia time: Bel Kaufman, who wrote the book, was the maternal granddaughter of Sholem Aleichem. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636/47 "2016-12-28T14:55:50Z")
[Role of Staircases in Gone With the Wind](http://iwiggleitjustalittlebit.blogspot.com/2008/01/role-of-staircases-in-gone-with-wind.html) ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636/48 "2016-12-28T20:29:20Z")
**the Rocky Horror Picture Show** – Frank’n’Furter uses some sort of super-magno doohickey to zip Dr. Scott up the staircase. Later on, Frank chases Janet (that SLUT!!!) up the stairs as he’s singing “You Better Wise Up Janet Weiss”. Several dramatic staircases are featured prominently in the Warner Brothers short **What’s Opera, Doc?**. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636/49 "2016-12-28T21:42:52Z")
I think there was something about Sarah Jane Smith, or maybe it was Romana taunting daleks from up the stairs. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636/50 "2016-12-29T04:09:30Z")
In the 1951 Alistair Sim version of _A Christmas Carol,_ Scrooge brushes off a debtor asking for an extension for his payment of a loan on the stairs of the Stock Exchange on Christmas Eve. He also dramatically ascends a steep flight of stairs to visit his dying partner Jacob Marley. Years later, reformed and exuberant on Christmas morning, he kisses his flabbergasted housemaid and gives her a raise on the same stairs. D-Day rides his motorcycle up the frat house stairs and Bluto destroys the annoying folk singer’s guitar there in _Animal House_. A young John Murdock glides upstairs in midair as he’s learning to use his psionic powers in _Dark City_. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636/51 "2016-12-29T04:14:43Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > D-Day rides his motorcycle up the frat house stairs and Bluto destroys the annoying folk singer’s guitar there in _Animal House_. That was not just any annoying folk singer, it was Stephen Bishop. A cousin of mine had one of his albums – for the life of me, I cannot figure out why. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636/52 "2016-12-29T05:42:45Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Harry Potter, also known as The Boy Who Lived Under the Stairs. I was going to post _ **Harry Potter** _ - not because of the Dursleys, but the stairs at Hogwarts. They move around all the time - they’re magic stairs!! - but contribute absolutely nothing to the plot. They are basically just a minor irritation. It was as if the film-makers spent all their money on CGI, and only carec how it looked, rather than if it was important to the story… ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636/53 "2016-12-29T06:02:43Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > Suspicion: Cary Grant again, carrying a glass of … milk? poison? up the stairs. > > Time for a Hitchcock film festival, I think. I’m doing a Hitchcock festival right now, and this – Suspicion – was the very first thing that came to my mind ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636/54 "2016-12-29T06:05:07Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I think there was something about Sarah Jane Smith, or maybe it was Romana taunting daleks from up the stairs. You sure that wasn’t Rose, who got very startled when the Dalek suddenly said, “EL. E. VATE” and rose up into the air. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636/55 "2016-12-29T06:19:58Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > You sure that wasn’t Rose, who got very startled when the Dalek suddenly said, “EL. E. VATE” and rose up into the air. From what I see, it looks like it was quite a while back, in the first season of the Lalla Ward Romana. Apparently Dougy wrote the script and Terry Nation was a bit miffed about the obvious flaw there. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636/56 "2016-12-29T16:14:45Z")
I seem to remember a whole lot of musicals with elaborate scenes of show girls draped over huge staircases. The name Busby Berkeley comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![as\_u\_wish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@as\_u\_wish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/as_u_wish)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636/57 "2016-12-29T20:32:04Z")
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels has at least two stair scenes that are significant in the plot. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2016, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636/58 "2016-12-30T03:37:39Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I seem to remember a whole lot of musicals with elaborate scenes of show girls draped over huge staircases. The name Busby Berkeley comes to mind. And Marilyn Monroe: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g\_\_ANxxwKIk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g__ANxxwKIk) ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2016, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636/59 "2016-12-30T04:10:13Z")
In Labyrinth the Goblin King makes the stairs into an Escher nightmare to bewilder Sarah. Kyle Reese is killed on the stairs by the Terminator, but stuffs an IUD in a tread to disable him. The Fugitive is spotted by Tommy Lee Jones on a staircase and they race each other down them. > [@Wallaby](#): > > I was going to post _ **Harry Potter** _ - not because of the Dursleys, but the stairs at Hogwarts. > > They move around all the time - they’re magic stairs!! - but contribute absolutely nothing to the plot. They are basically just a minor irritation. > > It was as if the film-makers spent all their money on CGI, and only carec how it looked, rather than if it was important to the story… It’s because they’re a feature from the books that was too cool to miss out on the films. In the first book they do have a plot role too. The final Battle of Hogwarts also includes a battle on the stairs, and Dumbledore makes Harry hide under the stairs (petrified - as in magically frozen, not scared - in the books) just out of the action in the film) when he confronts Draco on the roof. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2016, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636/60 "2016-12-30T04:41:03Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Kyle Reese is killed on the stairs by the Terminator, but stuffs an IUD in a tread to disable him. I think you mean “IED”. An IUD would have ruined the whole story. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stairs-in-film/775636.md?page=4)