The year after director Curtis (Queen of Blood) Harrington and star Shelley (The Poseidon Adventure) Winters asked the question, “What’s the Matter with Helen?”, they asked “Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?” Unlike that film, and the similarly titled Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte, this isn’t one of those deals where two major leading ladies square off against each other. Winters has the screen all to herself, and does a decent job, all things considered.
Winters plays Auntie Roo, a rich, sad, lonely woman who is devastated by the death of her daughter. So much so that she resorts to nightly seances with a phony drunk medium (Sir Ralph Richardson) to ease her troubled mind. Roo holds an annual charity Christmas party for orphans where she meets the young Katy (Chloe Franks), whom she believes is the reincarnation of her departed daughter. Katy’s storybook-obsessed brother (Mark Lester, from Oliver!) is convinced the old bag is the witch from Hansel and Gretel and is out to fatten up and eat his poor sister.
That set-up kind of sounds convoluted, and it might be, a little. However, Harrington keeps things moving with journeyman efficiency. In fact, there’s so many subplots flying around here and there that it makes it hard to pin down just exactly where the story is going. This works to the movie’s advantage sometimes, although it probably needed a couple of genuine shocks to make it worthwhile. Harrington does a fine job letting the tension marinate. It’s a shame the third act is predictable and lacking suspense.
Winters does a solid job with a difficult part. We at turns feel sorry for Auntie Roo, are annoyed by her, and eventually distrustful of her. She could’ve very easily lapsed into her patented shrewish theatrics, but she is rather restrained, or as restrained as Shelley Winters can get. That is, until the last twenty minutes or so when she finally reveals her true nature. I just wish they took her character’s madness a little further. As it is, it feels like they were holding back during the finale, and as a result, the movie sort of peters out during the homestretch. Shelley does get a nice moment when she chops through a door and peers menacingly from the splinters, which predates The Shining by eight years.
AKA: House Terror. AKA: Who Slew Auntie Roo?
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