NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Thehibikiew Not even bad in a good way

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

bsfraser2003 I hadn't seen this at all, until very recently on YouTube, and boy was I hooked! I found it a delicious black comedy in every sense of the word. Geraldine Page (a fine actress) very clearly enjoying herself here camping it up as the snooty and obnoxious Mrs Marrible. Geraldine was in good company with Ruth Gordon playing Mrs Dimmock. A very entertaining film, despite its dubious production values. I'd even go as far as to say that I was surprised to find out that this little gem was the supporting feature to the MAIN film, when theatrically released! See it, you will enjoy it!

lasttimeisaw As claimed by the title, this kitsch murder spree is a pastiche of that delectable Betty Davis and Joan Crawford camp classic WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962), in fact, it is produced by the same director/producer Robert Aldrich after the said film and a follow-up HUSH… HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE (1964), so it loosely constitutes a trilogy where the plot pits two aging women, one good, one evil against each other, only this time, the one sits in the director chair is the TV journeyman Lee H. Katzin, who replaced Bernard Girard after four-weeks of filming.In Tuscon, Arizona, an uppity widow Claire Marrable (Page) lives in a house in the desert, she has been bequeathed by her late husband with nothing but a briefcase contains the stamps he had collected. To make ends meet and maintain a well-off front, she bloodily murders her housekeepers, buries them under the pine trees in her garden, in order to take possession of their life-long savings. The gentle Miss Edna Tinsley (Dunnock) is her latest victim. Time to hire a new one, here comes Ms. Dimmock (Gordon), aka. aunt Alice, who is also a widow with no one else in the world, which makes her an easy target. But as time goes by, Claire unexpectedly finds a whiff of compatibility with her. Yet, Aunt Alice has her own ulterior motive, soon suspicion arouses and a cat-fight has been brewing only to leave one of them breathing.The script is inconsistent in shaping up a plausible story (the ending with that deus ex machina is rather lame) and the subplot of a matinée-idol looking Mike Darrah (Fuller), who is the only one could rightfully refer to Ms. Dimmock as aunt Alice, courting a young widow Harriet Vaughn (Forsyth), who lives in a cottage nearby Claire with her son Jim (Barbera), strikes as tedious and out of place.Geraldine Page is in her full-fledged evil form, deliciously camp from her first scene until the very last one (honed up by Gerard Fried's overblown score), as if she was fully aware of the shoddy fodder at her disposal and decided to tirelessly ginger it up with unreserved histrionics to portray Claire's tortured mind, her poisoned thought about "courage to kill" and her absolute selfishness, and it is wonderfully ravishing, she is the one who single-handedly rescues this widow-exploited pulp fiction from being left into oblivion. Ruth Gordon, at the heel of her Oscar-winning victory in Polanski's ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968), is less memorable in playing an upright role, but little does one know, after rooting for her from the onset, one might overlook that there will be a different denouement for her. Truly evil can never win in the long run, but en route to its doom, it might also take some good souls for company, that is rightfully acceptable under the context, which contrives to e a boon in this patchy murder follies after all.

Coventry One of the most fun and ingenious temporary trends in horror cinema history undoubtedly were the "horror hag" movies from approximately the mid-sixties until the early seventies. These were bizarre drama/shock flicks starring elderly and most respectable dames in demented roles, such as insane murderers or mad-raving battle-axes. Director/producer Robert Aldrich should be considered the founding father of this trend and, even though there were several obscure but incredibly entertaining imitations (see below for more than just a handful of recommendations), his "Whatever happened to Baby Jane" and "Hush Hush, Sweet Charlotte" are still the only ones that stand as classic efforts nowadays. Aldrich was also responsible for "Whatever happened to Aunt Alice", albeit as a producer instead of a director, and perhaps that's the sole reason why it isn't a classic as well. Or perhaps not at all, because "Aunt Alice" is totally different than "Baby Jane" and "Sweet Charlotte" even though certain sources refer to it as the closing part of the trilogy. Geraldine Page amazes as Mrs. Claire Marrable, a totally bonkers widow whose industrialist husband left her nothing but financial debts and a lousy old stamp collection. Since she doesn't want to give up her luxurious and fancy life-style, she decides to slay a series of poor old housekeepers for their savings. Not a very profitable business, if you ask me, because how rich can you possibly get from the money of a bunch of grannies that have to clean houses to survive? But anyway, Mrs. Marrable buries the bodies under pine trees in her Arizona desert garden and gets away with it. That is, until Mrs. "aunt" Alice Dimmock applies for the vacant housekeeper position. Dimmock (the equally impressive Ruth Gordon) has a hidden agenda, as she undercover wants to find out what happened to her friend Edna Tinsley who mysteriously vanished after working for Mr. Marrable. The big difference with the other Aldrich hag-classics (and simultaneously the main default of this particular film) is that everything solely depends on the dazzling performances of the leading ladies, whereas the other two also feature a sinister atmosphere, dark house settings and black & white cinematography, convoluted plot twists and macabre set pieces. The script doesn't contain any real surprises (except a reasonably good one at the very end) and L.H. Katzin's direction lacks confidence and vision. In spite of some noteworthy sequences, the film honestly isn't that great and only worth seeing for Page and Gordon.As promised, here are some recommendations in case you're interested – and you really should be – in seeing more "horror hag" movies. Following the immense success of "Whatever happened to Baby Jane" and "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte", the lead actresses obviously became typecast a number of times. Bette Davis appeared in Hammer's "The Nanny", while Joan Crawford went much further over-the-top in delicious camp flicks like "Strait-Jacket" and "Berserk". Hammer Studios also produced the shamefully underrated "Die! Die, My Darling" starring an amazing Tallulah Bankhead. Shelley Winters also became a famous hag thanks to the double feature "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?" and "What's the Matter with Helen". Last but not least I also warmly recommend a couple of uniquely eccentric titles like "The Beast in the Cellar", "Frightmare", "Homebodies" and "You'll Like my Mother". Happy hunting!

MartinHafer "What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?" is certainly a guilty pleasure in the tradition of such films as "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?", "Who Slew Auntie Roo?" and "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte". All three were old lady thrillers--an odd genre in the 1960s and early 70s that featured old women doing VERY bad things. And, as I said, they are all guilty pleasures--films that were never meant to be deep and intellectual--just kitschy entertainment.The film begins with Clare Marrable (Geraldine Page) bashing her servant over the head and burying her in her yard. Considering she lives in the middle of the Arizona desert, it's not surprising she's not been caught. You soon learn that nasty Clare has made a habit of this sort of thing--she kills off her servants and steals their savings. While you cannot get rich that way, Clare deals in volume--and obviously she is out to add to her growing collection of bodies in the yard. The next one, it seems, is Mrs. Dimmock (Ruth Gordon)--though you aren't terribly sure who is actually hunting who.The film has quite a bit going for it. Geraldine Page's performance is ridiculously florid and over-the-top---and her scene stealing actually adds to the fun. The plot is also really cool. However, the film also has TONS of plot holes--tons. They are especially apparent during the huge (and very violent) confrontation scene between Page and Gordon---and the scene was VERY awkward and ridiculous. Overall, while certainly not a great film, it is VERY entertaining...in a low-brow sort of way.