Gingerbread House

A not so great rift on the Hansel & Gretel story. Shelley Winters is a wealthy widow living in the English countryside. She keeps the corpse of her dead daughter in a coffin and sings it to sleep each night. After hosting a Christmas party for the local orphans, Winters kidnaps little Chloe Franks as a replacement daughter. Franks's brother (a post-Oliver! Mark Lester) tries to get her back. Together Lester & Franks try to outwit the "witch." There's not a single thrill in this film, which is surprising because it's directed by the highly creative Curtis Harrington. There's no character motivation behind the slightest things the actors do and, truth be told, Winters is not particularly interesting in her dull role. Ralph Richardson adds a spark or two as a fake medium and Hugh Griffith appears briefly as "the Pigman." The music by Kenneth V. Jones is forgettable and adds very little. The script was worked on Jimmy Sangster, who worked on a lot of the best Hammer films. Gavin Lambert, of all people, is credited as having provided additional dialog.

I guess someone should have told this film's editor. I guess people in 1972 might have lined up to watch a Shelley Winters film billed as a horror, but by the time she performs a Christmastime burlesque show for a roomful of bored orphans, you'll be yawning as well. You have to see it to believe it, she looks like an overstuffed sausage. The skillful, edgy restraint she showed in Night of the Hunter, promising a career delivering top-notch performances, is long gone, replaced by a persistent and troublesome nagging undertone, as though the actress is the one directing the film...another actress who was probably told one too many times how good she was in NOTH and Lolita. This b-movie landed with a thud on my television last night, without having presented a single compelling or memorable scene, concept, performance, or story arc.

Former stage star Auntie Roo (Shelley Winters) is the love of orphans in town come Christmas time as she invites ten lucky kids to come spend the night at her countryside estate on Christmas Eve. Two kids, Chris (Mark Lester) and Katy (Chloe Franks) Combs, who didn't make the cut sneak along to the mansion and soon their host is infatuated with Katy because she reminds her of her own missing daughter, who she has been trying to contact through séances. I'm still getting my Curtis Harrington freak on apparently as I watched this horror-thriller for the first time last night and found it to be fantastic. Reuniting after the equally great WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN (1971), director Harrington and lead Winters sure have the hysterics down in the story that draws its inspiration from Hanzel & Gretel. One of the more surprising things is both of the kid leads are also really good as well and you'll thank yourself for watching OLIVER himself get into a brawl with Winters. The rest of the cast - Ralph Richardson as a psychic, Lionel Jeffries as a policeman, Michael Gothard as the creepy butler - are fantastic too. The film has tons of Xmas spirit and, best of all, Harrington knows how to properly convey that old dark house feel perfectly. Definitely recommended if you haven't seen it.

Despite the hair-raising ads ("It's DEAD time!"), a mild British thriller from American-International Pictures with Shelley Winters camping it up as loony woman mourning her dead daughter, convinced a little orphan girl is her deceased child come back to life. Allegedly conceived as a "Hansel and Gretel" revision, the film has some suspense and sharp editing, also a satisfying wrap-up. Say what you will about Shelley's style of acting, she makes a dandy villainess; going from sugary sweetness to angry paranoia in record time, one begins to fear these kids don't stand a chance. Following on the tail-end of the "Baby Jane" cycle, "Auntie Roo" isn't "respectable" work... however, on the bottom-half of a drive-in double feature, it's enjoyable enough. Curtis Harrington directs in workman-like fashion, and probably deserved a medal after having helmed "What's the Matter With Helen?" with Winters the previous year. ** from ****

This is a well-acted, but thinly plotted addition to the BABY JANE/CHARLOTTE cycle, with Shelley Winters giving an appropriately over-the-top performance as the lonely, crazed woman who lures unsuspecting young children into her creepy old house. Made by horror practitioner Curtis Harrington in England after directing Winters earlier that year in the superb Gothic thriller WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN?, this film is a bit of a letdown in comparison. However, as is usually the case with Harrington, he milks the threadbare material for all it's worth and manages to create a rich, striking, really quite memorable picture that almost ranks as his best ever. Desmond Dickinson's beautiful cinematography is also a nice touch. The film is intended to be a travesty of sorts of the gruesome HANSEL AND GRETEL tale. Though Shelley's campy performance in the title role is the film's main attraction, the movie boasts an equally impressive supporting cast that includes Ralph Richardson as a phony psychic, Hugh Griffith as an eccentric butcher, and Mark Lester and Chloe Franks as the terrorized young children.

Mischievous Christopher (the terrific Mark Lester of "Oliver!" and "Eyewitness" fame) and his sweet little sister Katy (adorable blonde sprite Chloe Franks, who played the daughters of Christopher Lee in "The House That Dripped Blood" and Joan Collins in "Tales from the Crypt") are a couple of orphans living in Great Britian in the 1920's. Christopher convinces Katy that loopy recluse Rosie "Auntie Roo" Forrest (Shelley Winters chewing the scenery with her trademark four-sheets-to-the-wind hambone panache), a former music hall singer who once a year invites a bunch of kids to her huge, crumbling mansion for Christmas diner, is really a witch who plans to fatten Katy up and eat her. Director Curtis Harrington, adapting a fiendishly clever script co-written by veteran Hammer horror film scribe Jimmy ("The Curse of Frankenstein," "The Horror of Dracula") Sangster, whips up a delightfully twisted and darkly amusing Gothic black comedy version of "Hansel and Gretel." The first-rate cast have a ball with their juicy parts: Ralph Richardson as an eccentric charlatan medium, Michael Gothard (the crazed killer in "Scream and Scream Again") as a mean butler, Lionel Jeffries as a friendly, hearty police inspector, Hugh Griffiths as a jolly butcher, and Marianne Stone as a strict orphanage supervisor. Desmond Dickinson's polished cinematography, Kenneth J. Jones' spooky orchestral score, and the marvelously macabre conclusion are all solid and satisfying as well. Good, ghoulish fun.

An entry in that precious genre of late 60s/early 70s horror pyschodramas, Who Slew Auntie Rue? is slightly unusual in that it boasts a period setting(rural England in the early 1920s)and an Old Dark House atmosphere(something that is due for a revival in the horror genre). Shelley Winters stars as the aforementioned Auntie Rue, a seemingly-kindly retired American dancehall girl who is the widow of an English magician. Rue hosts a Christmas party and dinner for the local orphanage. Unbeknown to the locals, Rue harbors a terrible secret: she has gone insane with grief over the death of her daughter, and holds seances to contact her spirit. One of the children at the party, a little girl, reminds Rue of her daughter and the woman believes the child is the reincarnation of her. Rue kidnaps the child, and her brother, played by Mark Lester of "Oliver" fame, attempts to rescue her and is also held hostage, forced to wait on Auntie Rue and perform chores. There is a shocking ending, giving a disturbing insight into the children's(especially the brother's)pyschological states . .. This is from American International, a studio that seems to have cornered the market on such films. Shelley Winters hams it up as the wacko Auntie Rue, flitting up and down the halls and secret passages of her mansion in diaphanous black morning garb, gesticulating like a diva in an Wagnerian opera. There are so many elements recycled from other movies(Pyscho, The Old Dark House)that it's hardly original, but interesting for the period setting and Winter's near campy performance(shrill, neurotic characters seeming to have become her stock in trade at this point in her career). Mark Lester previously starred in another chilling film, "Our Mother's House", about a group of English children living in an dark Victorian house who band together to hide their invalid mother's death from the world, hold seances to confer with their dead mother's spirit, and confront their absentee father who appears unexpectedly and makes some cruel revelations about their supposedly saintly late mother. Not a bad film, but a little on the campy side due to Winter's performance. Interesting study of the children and their perception of a nightmarish situation. Give it a looksee if you come across it on TV or in the Video shop.

Apparently 1971 was a heck of a year for Shelley Winters. She made "What's The Matter With Helen?" and "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?"--two movies where she played characters that were a crayons short of a full box (in other words, she was bonkers). Both are on a single DVD and are a lot of kitschy fun. The film starts with Winters telling her daughter a bedtime story and the scene is quite charming...until the camera pulls back and you see that the child is dead and has been there for a very, very long time! Creepy. You soon see that Winters is indeed daffy and a psychic (Ralph Richardson) comes to the house and they have a séance--Winters is desperately trying to dead daughter. A bit later, a group of orphans are invited to this weird lady's home. Apparently, each Christmas she invites a group of lucky kids to her mansion and showers them with love and presents and food. It looks wonderful. However, you know that Winters is imbalanced--though she acts more like some sort of angel. Two orphans sneak into the carriage with the rest and want to be part of the fun. The nasty lady from the orphanage is appalled (these kids are "bad" in her nasty mind) but Winters insists that they, too, should stay. These two particular kids just happen to be in the wrong place at the right time. The oldest (Mark Lester--who STILL looks like he needs a haircut following his role in "Oliver!") is quite inquisitive and searches throughout the house finding all kinds of creepy props from Winters' deceased husband (a magician) as well as a secret room--Winters' dead daughter's room (though fortunately the corpse is now hidden). As for the little girl, she has the same name as the dead daughter and reminds Winters of her lost child. So, in a move that Lester thinks is akin to the witch in "Hansel & Gretel", Winters steals the little girl and hides her in the hidden room. Why she didn't just adopt the kid, I have no idea. Regardless, Lester returns to the home to find his sister. What's in store for the kids? Is this crazy old lady going to eat them or do them other bodily harm? Or is she just a crazy but harmless lady who is trying to replace her lost child? Will she love them or eat them? Tune in a find out where all this goes in this creepy and atmospheric tale. There is a lot to like in this film. First, the atmosphere is super-creepy. Second, and this is my favorite part, you never are really sure about Winters--is she crazy but harmless and a bit sad or is she a dangerous psycho? This isn't real clear--and makes for a really, really unique viewing experience. Third, the ending is mega-creepy and will make your skin crawl a bit! Overall, an exciting low-brow bit of entertainment that horror fans should adore.

I really do like the idea of a scriptwriter taking a classic story, changing a couple of things, and spinning a modern horror story around it. There have been good examples of this (Little Red Riding Hood and Freeway, for example), some half decent ones (Snow White: A Tale of Terror) and some that miss the mark. This film being a good example of the latter. Whoever Slew Auntie Roo is a seventies horror take on the classic Hansel and Gretel story. The plot focuses on an elderly and insane widow that runs an orphanage. Her daughter died as a child and the widow consoles herself by keeping her remains inside a casket in the attic. She also kidnaps children; but comes a cropper when she kidnaps Katy, and her brother comes looking for her. The main problem with this film is undoubtedly that it lacks interest. The first hour is really boring and even when things start to get interesting, it doesn't get interesting enough to justify the whole film. There's two names in the cast; those belonging to Shelly Winters and Mark Lester. Winters takes the role like an actress that has done this type of film many times before - and basically just goes through the motions. Lester is, of course, best known for his role in Oliver; and he's just as irritating in this film. I do have to admit that the ending is rather good; but this film is not good enough to recommend.

From the opening scene, it is obvious that Rosie Forrest (aka Auntie Roo) is completely insane. She lives alone in a magnificent mansion in 1920s England and will never get over the death of her young daughter. In an attempt to fill this void, Auntie Roo has an annual Christmas party for a few of the best behaved children from the local orphanage. This year, a misbehaving brother and sister stowaway in the trunk of the car and join the party. Auntie Roo starts to believe the girl is her daughter, while the boy is convinced Auntie Roo is a witch. Mayhem ensues. This is a clever, creepy, and amusing subversion of the "Hansel and Gretel" fairytale that puts forth the notion that the wicked witch might not be inherently evil or even malintentioned--just severely insane! Some of the scares are cheesy, a few of the child actors are awful (the lead girl looks and acts like she was sniffing glue during the entire production!), and it is a bit disconcerting to sit through yet another movie where Shelley Winters sings and dances like a freak. But overall, this is an underrated sick little fairytale. My Rating: 7/10