Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972)
Cast: Shelley Winters, Mark Lester, Ralph Richardson, Chloe Franks, Lionel Jeffries
Director: Curtis Harrington
Synopsis: Shelley Winters as a crackpot Mama with several dark secrets in her attic
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

This comes out a winner" Creature Features

Ghoulish" Video Movie Guide

"Sickie" Maltin

"Pleasantly morbid " British Horror of the 70's

 

This seldom-seen little oddity from the early 1970s is essentially a live-action variation on the classic Hansel and Gretel fairy tale, filtered through the lens of British Gothic cinema. Shelley Winters stars as an ageing former vaudeville performer living alone in a sprawling country mansion, surrounded by fading grandeur, dwindling finances and more than a few dark secrets.

Aunt Roo (Winters) is a wealthy American widow whose once-considerable fortune has gradually evaporated, although she continues to maintain the appearance of a lavish lifestyle. To the local community, she is regarded as an eccentric but generous benefactor whose greatest pleasure comes from hosting an extravagant Christmas party each year for the children of a nearby orphanage.

From the opening scenes, however, it is clear that all is far from well. Roo spends her days singing lullabies to the mummified body of her young daughter, Katherine, preserved in a shrine-like attic room following the child's tragic death years earlier. Desperate to communicate with her lost daughter, she regularly attends séances, blissfully unaware that the servants, in league with a delightfully disreputable medium played by Sir Ralph Richardson, are cynically exploiting her grief.

During this year's Christmas festivities, two uninvited orphaned children slip into the celebrations. Rather than turning them away, Aunt Roo welcomes them warmly. One of the youngsters, little Katy, awakens overwhelming maternal instincts within the lonely widow, who gradually begins to see the child as a replacement for her long-dead daughter. Her older brother Christopher (Mark Lester), however, becomes increasingly suspicious of their benefactress and slowly convinces himself that Aunt Roo is nothing less than the wicked witch from Hansel and Gretel, intent on keeping Katy imprisoned until she can be suitably "fattened up."

The film never fully embraces outright horror, but there are sufficient dark undertones to satisfy admirers of Gothic fantasy. Shelley Winters is thoroughly enjoyable, skilfully balancing genuine pathos with flashes of barely controlled madness, while Ralph Richardson steals every scene in which he appears as the alcoholic fake medium. Mark Lester is perhaps rather too polished and public-school for a supposedly streetwise orphan, speaking impeccable English with scarcely a trace of the rough background his character is meant to possess. Chloe Franks, by contrast, is excellent as the sweet-natured Katy, bringing warmth and naturalness to the role.

Director Curtis Harrington maintains interest throughout despite the film's relatively slight premise, and the climactic confrontation, although undeniably melodramatic, fits perfectly within the strange fairy-tale atmosphere that permeates the picture. The Christmas setting, the Gothic mansion and the Dickensian flavour all combine to create a film that occupies a curious middle ground between fantasy, psychological drama and horror.

Those expecting a genuinely frightening horror film may well come away disappointed, for Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? is far more whimsical than terrifying. Yet for viewers who appreciate quirky Gothic oddities such as Die! Die! My Darling! it remains an engaging and often charming curiosity. It may never approach the greatness of that earlier classic—but then, with all due respect to Shelley Winters, she was never quite Tallulah Bankhead.