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What's the Matter with Helen? / Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?

What's the Matter with Helen? / Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Shelly Winters Goes Bananas (x2)!
Review: Shelly Winters is great at playing unhinged characters. In WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN?, she teams up with Debbie Reynolds in a tale about two mothers of convicted killers who move to california in order to escape the publicity and threats against them. Helen (Winters) begins to slowly unravel, revealing the true psychotic within. Haunted by the death of her husband, she becomes increasingly dangerous to herself and others, especially Adelle (Reynolds), who may or may not survive. There are some snappy dance routines (highlighting Debbie Reynolds' talent and cuteness) scattered throughout. Watch for Dennis Weaver (Duel) as Adelle's love interest.-WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO?- has Shelly Winters as Roo, the rich widow of a famous magician. She lost her daughter Katherine in an accident and has trusted in a phony medium (Ralph Richardson) for years, paying him a small fortune so he can "contact" Katherine. Well, it's all a big scam of course, helping to push Roo over the edge. Some children from a local orphanage visit "Auntie Roo" every christmas. This year, one of the little girls resembles Roo's daughter, causing the bats in her belfry to really start a flappin'! She kidnaps the girl and her brother Christopher (Mark "Oliver" Lester), keeping them locked in her secret attic (did I mention that she keeps her mummified daughter up there too?). The rest is cat and mouse as the children try to escape Roo's insanity. In the kids' minds, they are living out "Hansel and Gretel", with Roo as the perfectly wicked witch. If you enjoy movies where Shelly Winters goes crazy, then this double feature can't be beat! Highly recommended...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Two Classics on a Classic Double Bill!!!
Review: The wonderful WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN is an overlooked movie in the WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE genre. Basically the genre that gives you a chance to see aging stars go crazy. In WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN Shelley Winters is a repressed lesbian with fundamentalist mores. She lives with her best friend Adelle who is a dance teacher for little girls with hopes of child stardom. After receiving threatening phone calls from an unknown man Helen goes off the deep end and kills a man who comes to her door on an errand. Adelle helps Helen hide the body and well, it is all downhill for Helen and Adelle from there. Agnes Moorehead is quite believable and demented as the radioevangelist Sister Alma.

WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO is subtley deranged take on the story Hansel and Gretel. Auntie Roo is a film that would never be made today. It's horror is way to undertoned and portraying children as killers would never go over in a PG film these days.
Mark Lester sums it all up when after trapping Shelley Winters in a fire that kills her he says, "Bloody good fire!"
Twisted. Auntie Roo is a wonderful old time flick that played all the time on the afternoon movie when I was a kid, it would never be played these days. It is too old fashioned and probably moves to slow for todays mentally challenged viewers.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: WHO SLEW AUNTIE ROO?
Review: WHO SLEW AUNTIE ROO IS A VERY ENJOYABLE MOVIE. IT IS DEFINETELY NOT A HORROR FILM. IT IS A TWISTED VARIATION ON THE HANSEL AND GRETEL FAIRY TALE.
SO, IF YOU ENJOY THAT STORY, THEN CHECK THIS ONE OUT. IT IS A DIFFERENT STORY, BUT IS SIMILAR ENOUGH TO HANSEL AND GRETEL TO SEE IT'S COMPARISONS.
ONE THING IS FOR SURE- THEY DON'T MAKE MOVIES LIKE THIS ANYMORE!
SHELLEY WINTERS GIVES A GREAT PERFORMANCE IN THIS FILM AS WELL AS IT'S TWO CHILD ACTORS. (MARK LESTER YOU MAY RECOGNIZE FROM OLIVER)

ANYWAY, ENJOY!


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