Boy Who Gave Flowers to Baby Jane in Beginning of Movie
A neat story but style besides many plot holes to exist taken very seriously,
"What E'er Happened to Aunt Alice?" is certainly a guilty pleasure in the tradition of such films every bit "What Always Happened to Baby Jane?", "Who Slew Auntie Roo?" and "Hush, Hush, Sugariness Charlotte". All iii 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 amusement.
The picture show begins with Clare Marrable (Geraldine Page) bashing her retainer over the head and burying her in her yard. Considering she lives in the middle of the Arizona desert, it's non surprising she'south not been caught. You presently learn that nasty Clare has made a habit of this sort of thing--she kills off her servants and steals their savings. While yous cannot get rich that way, Clare deals in volume--and patently she is out to add to her growing collection of bodies in the yard. The adjacent one, it seems, is Mrs. Dimmock (Ruth Gordon)--though you aren't terribly sure who is actually hunting who.
The flick has quite a scrap going for it. Geraldine Page's functioning is ridiculously florid and over-the-tiptop---and her scene stealing actually adds to the fun. The plot is as well really cool. However, the motion picture 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 picture, it is VERY entertaining...in a depression-brow sort of way.
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Trying to get good help
Poor Geraldine Folio has been left penniless by her late husband who left her the house and a huge stamp drove. The dearest went out of that marriage years ago and her being left with zilch, just debts has really put a crimp in her plans to alive good in her sunset years.
So she hits on a program to hire housekeepers with some assets and impale them for aforementioned. She succeeds with Mildred Dunnock, only that also leaves Dunnock'southward friend, Ruth Gordon with a mystery to find out What Always Happened To Aunt Alice?
Though there are a number of supporting roles Whatsoever Happened To Aunt Alice is a 2 woman prove with Geraldine Folio and Ruth Gordon dividing up the scenery equally so they could chow down. But this kind of black comedy really calls for information technology.
If your gustation runs to black comedy this is your kind of movie. And I do dearest the fact that it turns out in the end Page is not quite so penniless subsequently all. Practiced thing because she'll need a good lawyer.
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A slightly lesser follow-up
Warning: Spoilers
WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE? is the unofficial follow-up to the Robert Aldrich two-fer WHATEVER HAPPENED TO Babe JANE? and HUSH, HUSH...SWEET CHARLOTTE. Oddly, it feels a flake more dated than either of those films, probably because it's in colour rather than classy black and white. The quality of the script isn't quite up in that location either; this is predictable and a little drawn out, although the premise is even so irresistable. Geraldine Folio makes for a thoroughly despicable villainess from the outset, while Ruth Gordon is unusually bandage as the heroine of the hour and excels in the role. The film is a slow burner that builds to an expected but satisfying twist climax; overall, it reminded me of an extended COLUMBO episode.
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Talk about the battle of two titans.
Warning: Spoilers
Wow, Geraldine Page and Ruth Gordon in i movie, along with briefly Mildred Natwick. It'southward a Broadway history lover'due south dream every bit these three great ladies stand for well over 100 years combined of terrific Broadway performances, and probably close to 150 on screen. Page was a regular critic's pet in her movie performances of the sixty'due south (nominated for three Oscar's), and Gordon (a 3 time nominee as a screenplay writer) won on her second nomination for acting the very aforementioned year this came out. Dunnock, seen briefly as the companion that Page murders early in the pic, was a critic's darling every bit well, the original wife both on phase and screen in "Death of a Salesman".
This is a college notch up on the tag of hag horror, the oftentimes tacky moniker for the serial of films that came out starting with "What Always Happened to Baby Jane?" and connected well into the 1970's, pretty much never ending as long as actresses of a certain reputation considered to human activity past their heyday. Page is a recent widow whose hubby left her nothing, and so she knocks off a series of companions for their savings and stocks.
Forth comes Ruth Gordon, direct forwards and no nonsense, and it becomes very clear that she knows something. When the abased house adjacent door is taken over by pretty Rosemary Forsyth, her son and the mongrel canis familiaris they've adopted, Page is furious, going out of her way to endeavor to kill the dog who keeps earthworks where she has buried the bodies. This leads to a tense confrontation between the ii women and the last showdown which involves Gordon's nephew, Robert Fuller.
Certainly there have been good hag horror follow-up's and bad ones, and this is one that is infrequent. Folio is certainly far from passing her prime, merely she was always a graphic symbol actress and able to play roles older than herself. She is subtle in a way that Davis, Crawford, Stanwyck, De Havilland, Winters and Swanson could never hope to exist. Gordon is delightfully sly, and does non at all echo the eccentric characters of "Inside Daisy Clover" and "Rosemary'southward Baby". She is closer to the character performances she played in the 1940's in such films equally "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" and "Edge of Darkness".
While definitely striving for the mod 60's expect, this never goes overboard in being too much. The colors are subtle, and the editing isn't at all psychedelic. The film just goes for tension rather than military camp, and succeeds on every level. If others of the genre had strived for more reality than grand guignol and turning their veteran ladies into living and animate monsters, and so they might have a more than serious adoration today like this rather than be regarded equally army camp classics.
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Creepy Woman
After the death of her husband, the widow Clare Marrable (Geraldine Page) finds he has lost his fortune in bad investments and receives just a briefcase with a rusted dagger, a butterfly drove and a stamp drove. Completely cleaved, Clare moves to Tucson, Arizona where her unknown nephew George Lawson (Peter Brandon) gives an isolated house in the desert for her to live. Clare poses every bit if she has investments and kills her lonely housekeepers to steal their money. So she buries their bodies in her garden and plants pine trees on their graves. After killing the housekeeper Miss Edna Tinsley (Mildred Dunnock), Clare receives the awarding of the mysterious Alice Dimmock (Ruth Gordon) that snoops effectually her house to investigate the disappearance of Tinsley helped by Mike Darrah (Robert Fuller). Meanwhile George leases an empty cottage in front of Clare's firm to gild his friend Harriet Vaughn (Rosemary Forsyth) and her x year-former son. What volition Clare do?
"What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?" is a suspenseful film with a creepy woman. The evil Clare Marrable is one of the scariest serial-killer in the cinema history and Geraldine Page has a top-notch performance, supported by a great cast equanimous past the veteran actresses Ruth Gordon and Mildred Dunnock. The ironic conclusion is perfect to the story. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "A Mansão dos Desaparecidos" ("The Mansion of the Missing Ones")
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A fun tardily 60's evil hag horror outing
Warning: Spoilers
Shrewd, resourceful and formidable old battleaxe Claire Marrable (superbly played to the icy hilt by Geraldine Folio) loses both her husband and her affluent lifestyle. Ms. Marrable moves to Arizona, starts a pine tree garden, and begins bumping off her elderly housekeepers for their life savings so she can continue living high on the hog. Ms. Marrable meets her match in her new housekeeper Alice Dimmock (a terrific functioning by the wondrous Ruth Gordon), a cheery, smart and resilient niggling firecracker who suspects that something is awry. Director Lee H. Katzin and screenwriter Theodore Apstein expertly create a deliciously sinister atmosphere, relate the engrossing story at a steady step, and top everything off with a wickedly funny sense of pitch-blackness humor. This film further benefits from fine interim from an fantabulous cast: Page really sinks her teeth into her juicy evil onetime bat role, Gordon projects her usual winningly spunky charm as the endearingly feisty Ms. Dimmock, plus there are sturdy supporting contributions from Rosemary Forsyth as sweet young widow neighbour Harriet Vaughn, Robert Fuller equally the dashing Mike Darrah, Mildred Dunnock as the timid Edna Tinsley, Joan Huntington as Ms. Marrable'due south bitchy niece Julia Lawson, and Peter Brandon as Julia's conniving stockbroker married man George. The very ending offers one doozy of a marvelously ironic surprise plot twist while the arid desert setting adds to the overall creepy tone. Joseph Biroc's lush, vibrant cinematography makes great occasional elegant use of fades and dissolves. Gerald Fried'southward moody, shivery, string-laden score as well hits the spooky spot. Best of all, it'southward a total treat to lookout man Folio and Gordon bounce off each other every bit they appoint in a deadly game of wit and wills. A hugely enjoyable fright feature.
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Sicko.
Warning: Spoilers
I've begun to regret that "Whatever Happened to Infant Jane?" was e'er made. Two over-the-hill stars and some cheap sets and a lot of psychological horror must accept fabricated a fortune otherwise at that place wouldn't be then many rip offs.
I missed the first 15 minutes or so only don't think it matters much. This is pretty ill. It's my own opinion, and I'chiliad pretty perverted myself -- debauched even -- if you ask my so-chosen friends and my compress, Dr. Wilbur C. Veruckt. I promise you, Neb, y'all've seen the last of my checks. And don't think I don't know what'southward hanging in your cupboard.
Is in that location anything more depressing than seeing two ladies who might, most generously, exist divers equally middle aged trying to kill each other past bopping each other over the head with pocketbooks and telephones? No. There is nothing more depressing.
Geraldine Page, stage star, I gather has buried the torso of her housemaid in the garden to provide fertilizer. An old friend of the housemaid, Ruth Gordon, applies for the position without revealing her identity. This is a big fault on Gordon'south part, a fatal 1 as it turns out.
The adjacent door neighbor is Rosemary Forsythe, pretty just too tall for me. Nosotros're talking women's basketball hither. She and her son get somehow involved in the fertilizer concern because they've adopted a dog who is attracted to Page's garden, drawn presumably by the smell of cadaverine and the prospect of basic. A loose blond roams the periphery of the story and has nothing to do with it. A deep-voiced beau is around too, exhibiting a talent that belongs on the small screen.
The musical score is made up of electronically enhanced orchestral sounds that are dissonant, scratchy, distracting, and bluntly irritating. The setting is a rather nice Spanish-manner house in the Sonoran desert on the outskirts of Tucson, now probably swallowed up in urban sprawl, but no use is made of the location.
If you savor seeing some snotty ill-groomed chatelaine sitting in a wheelchair flinging insults at her humble housemaid and nurse in what she, the mistress, seems to regard equally high-falutin' speech, so this is your movie. Women are much better than men at humiliating and degrading others. Men have a tendency to simply backhand those they dislike.
I kept waiting for Page to come up upwards with some actually lethal insult -- "Hence, horrible villain, or I'll spurn thine eyes like assurance before me; I'll unhair thy head, Thousand shalt be whipp'd with wire, and stew'd'in brine, smarting in lingering pickle." It might take fit the character but the lines never appeared. The writer must take been a dull and muddied-mettled rascal.
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A thrilling and suspenseful motion-picture show with great performances from veteran actresses
An intriguing film with enough of twists and turns , dealing with an aging widow : Geraldine Page who carries out dark and sinister activities with grave consequences . As a poor , eccentric widow develops an awful addiction to inherit states from sometime women by stealing their savings . Meanwhile , an elderly adult female : Ruth Gordon takes a chore in hopes of solving a mystery . Whatever happened to Aunt Alice was more terrifying than what happened to Infant Jane ! . The only bear witness is a growing number of copse by the bulldoze ! . Yous'll know ..when the horror starts to grow ! .What makes her garden abound ...wouldn't you similar to know !
This is a horrific tale with high body-count , violence , thrills , chills , plot twists and portentous interpretations . It packs an adequate cinematography by Joseph Biroc , as well as moving musical score past Gerarld Fried . Principal and back up bandage are frankly peak-notch . Equally Geraldine Page is terrific as the suspect widow who hires maids and hides a deadly secret which she will do annihilation to keep cached . She is excellently accompanied by the always swell Ruth Gordon -of Harold and Maude fame- as Mrs Dimmock acting there just as odd , along with the beautiful Rosemary Forsyth , Robert Fuller and especial advent past Mildred Dunnock . This film belongs to a sub-genre developed in the Sixties and Seventies , dealing with deranged widows or unsettling spinsters , eye-age women who often commit grisly killings , whose chief representatives were Robert Aldrich with his big hit "What ever happened to Baby Jane ?" Stars Bette Davis , Joan Crawford, "Hush ...Hush Sweet Charlotte" stars Olivia De Havilland , Bette Davis and Curtis Harrington with "Whoever slew Auntiee Roo ?" Stars Shelley Winters , "What's the thing with Helen ?" Stars Debbie Reynolds , Shelley Winters , "The Killing Kind" with Ann Sothern and "Games" with Simone Signoret .
The motility moving picture well produced by Robert Aldrich was competently directed by Lee H Katzin and direction assistant Bernard Girard , providing a tense and competetent filmmaking . Rating : seven/x notable . Well worth watching . Essential and fundamental seeing for the awesome interpretations of the magnificent actresses .
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Whatever Happened to Bette Davis?
Alert: Spoilers
'Whatever Happened To Aunt Alice?' is the tertiary film in Robert Aldrich's thou guignol 'hagsploitation' trilogy, the previous ii films being camp classic 'Whatever Happened to Infant Jane?' (1962) and Southern gothic murder mystery 'Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte' (1964). These commencement two films benefitted immensely from Hollywood legend Bette Davis' enthusiastic performances, with peachy support from her talented co-stars (Joan Crawford in Baby Jane, and Olivia de Havilland in Sweet Charlotte). Geraldine Folio takes the lead in Aunt Alice, and, while not quite the same caliber as Davis, she nonetheless puts in a commendably unhinged turn as Mrs. Marrable, a widow who is left virtually penniless by her husband, and and then makes ends come across by killing her housekeepers and stealing their savings (burying the unfortunate ladies in her desert garden).
While Folio admirably goes all out to friction match Davis in terms of craziness, and very nearly succeeds, she is ultimately let downwardly by a rather simplistic story that lacks the intrigue and outrageous melodrama of Aldrich's earlier efforts. In curt, it's non as much fun.
The picture show starts off in fine style, with widow Mrs. Marrable only becoming distraught after her married man's will is read: he leaves her the contents of his briefcase -- a dagger, his butterfly collection, and a stamp album. With some savings in her account, she packs up her bags and heads for the desert, the next fourth dimension we meet her being as she does away with the latest of her employees, Miss Tinsley (Mildred Dunnock). They say that the insane can possess superhuman strength, and Mrs. Marrable proves this past picking upward a hefty bedrock and bludgeoning her victim over the caput, not once simply twice. She then buries the body under a pino tree.
Now in demand of a some other housekeeper, she interviews Mrs. Dimmock (Ruth Gordon) and gives her the task. What she doesn't realise is that her new home help was friends with Miss. Tinsley and is investigating her pal'south disappearance. What follows is a game of cat and mouse with plenty of delicious night one-act, but one that fails to fully commit to the macabre mood established in the opening scenes. Mrs. Dimmock's inevitable demise is suitably brutal (although, allow's be honest, she kinda asked for information technology by stupidly turning her back on her psycho boss), simply the picture show wimps out on killing inquisitive dog Chloe (who likes to sniff effectually the garden) and allows Mrs. Marrable's neighbours, Harriet Vaughn (Rosemary Forsyth) and her son Jim (Michael Barbera), an easy escape from well-nigh certain decease. If the dog had died, and the Vaughns had roasted in their home, the moving-picture show would have the necessary ghoulish 'kicking' to brand information technology only as memorable as its predecessors, fifty-fifty without the presence of Ms. Davis.
6/10, although the slap-up twist concerning the stamp anthology almost earnt information technology another indicate.
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It has no idea what tone to aim for, and the brackish colour gives it a cheap feel...
Housekeepers plow up missing subsequently going to work for financially-strapped Arizona widow Geraldine Page; Ruth Gordon, a companion to one of the missing ladies, applies for the position in gild to exercise some snooping. Pairing permanently-loony Page with feisty Gordon might've resulted in a darkly comic masterpiece of suspense--just "Alice" isn't it. Without giving too much abroad, I can just say that Gordon is given the shaft in such a way that I recollect the screenwriter was every bit crazy equally Page. The film sets upward a decent premise, but the tone seems off from the start: is this supposed to be a no-holds-barred thriller or is meant to be a little campy? I only found information technology ugly, and the desert locales aren't well captured (maybe it was the dingy color?). Folio isn't actually in graphic symbol here (not that there'southward much of 1), she'southward just relying on shtick. As for Gordon, she comes on loaded for bear, but the filmmakers accept no idea what to do with her and the viewer's expectations are dashed. Any hopes of screen fireworks from these dueling divas fizzles out due to the crude, bones writing. It'southward a star-pairing which proves to be a wasted affair. ** from ****
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Yeah!
Alert: Spoilers
Based on The Forbidden Garden by Ursula Curtiss, this movie was produced past Robert Aldrich, America's finest purveyor of hagsploitation. Afterward all, this is the aforementioned man who made What Ever Happened to Infant Jane? and Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte.
This time, your crazy older women are played past Geraldine Page and Ruth Gordon, despite Folio only being 43 at the fourth dimension of filming.
Claire Marrable (Folio) is the widow of a prominent businessman who died in debt, giving her just a briefcase and his collections of collywobbles and stamps in death. Upon moving to Tucson to exist closer to her nephew George, Claire begins her career of serially killing housekeepers.
Soon, she begins a cold war with both her newest housekeeper Alice Dimmock (Gordon) and Harriet Vaughn, a much younger widow. Peter Bonerz, who was Dr. Jerry on the original Bob Newhart Bear witness is in this, as well.
Lee H. Katzin - who directed the first episodes of Man from Atlantis and Automan - replaced Bernard Girard (Dead Rut on a Merry-Become-Round) as the director of this movie subsequently only ane month of filming.
At one betoken, Aldrich announced that he would make a third What Ever Happened to... film. What Ever Happened to Dear Elva?, based on the novel Goodbye, Love Elva by Elizabeth Fenwick, was planned but never fabricated.
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Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice? Pure Fun for the Rest of Usa ***1/2
A definite film of the macabre again proving that there was no i like Geraldine Page for these neurotic, savage parts.
In this ane, Ruth Gordon takes a job every bit a maid in Page's home under false pretenses. Information technology seems that Gordon had a disagreement with her long time domestic, played by Mildred Dunnock. In a huff, Dunnock walked out and went to work for Page.
Seems that Page has quite a history. Once she finds out that her maids take no family, she does them in quite neatly.
Throughout the moving picture you constantly are hearing Page yelling Mrs. Dimmock to maid Gordon, equally she begins to suspect that Gordon is no usual maid.
The film takes place in the desert of Arizona which seems to identify a peculiar and constructive aureola to the film.
The ending is an absolute knockout.
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Stamp Out Housekeepers
After the funeral of her husband, coin-hungry Geraldine Page (as Clare Marrable) is left with a rusty dagger, stamp anthology, butterfly collection and some worthless oil holdings. The center-aged widow moves to Arizona and begins to hire housekeepers - similar mild-mannered Mildred Dunnock (as Edna Tinsley) and secretive Ruth Gordon (as Alice Dimmock), planning to kill them while stealing their savings. Folio intends to coffin the ladies under pino trees, merely Ms. Gordon has other plans. Despite Page'due south pointed need for privacy, curious Rosemary Forsyth (as Harriet Vaughn) and nephew Michael Barbera (as Jim Vaughn) move into the cottage next door. All this attracts handsome Robert Fuller (as Mike Darrah). Prissy watching Page, Gordon and the domestic dog "Chloe" boxing it out; even so, a different line-up of casualties would have made it even nicer.
****** What E'er Happened to Aunt Alice? (7/23/69) Lee H. Katzin ~ Geraldine Page, Ruth Gordon, Rosemary Forsyth, Robert Fuller
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Hags in overdrive!
1 of the most fun and ingenious temporary trends in horror movie theater 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 boxing-axes. Director/producer Robert Aldrich should be considered the founding father of this tendency and, even though in that location were several obscure merely incredibly entertaining imitations (run across below for more than only a handful of recommendations), his "Whatever happened to Babe Jane" and "Hush Hush, Sweet Charlotte" are however the just ones that stand equally classic efforts present. Aldrich was also responsible for "Any happened to Aunt Alice", albeit as a producer instead of a director, and perhaps that's the sole reason why information technology isn't a classic every bit well. Or maybe not at all, because "Aunt Alice" is totally different than "Baby Jane" and "Sweetness Charlotte" fifty-fifty though sure sources refer to it as the closing office of the trilogy. Geraldine Page amazes every bit Mrs. Claire Marrable, a totally bonkers widow whose industrialist hubby left her nothing but financial debts and a lousy quondam stamp collection. Since she doesn't want to give up her luxurious and fancy life-style, she decides to slay a serial of poor erstwhile housekeepers for their savings. Not a very profitable business, if yous ask me, because how rich can y'all possibly get from the coin of a bunch of grannies that take to make clean houses to survive? But anyway, Mrs. Marrable buries the bodies under pine trees in her Arizona desert garden and gets abroad with it. That is, until Mrs. "aunt" Alice Dimmock applies for the vacant housekeeper position. Dimmock (the equally impressive Ruth Gordon) has a subconscious agenda, as she underground wants to notice out what happened to her friend Edna Tinsley who mysteriously vanished after working for Mr. Marrable. The big divergence with the other Aldrich hag-classics (and simultaneously the main default of this detail film) is that everything solely depends on the dazzling performances of the leading ladies, whereas the other two besides feature a sinister atmosphere, dark firm settings and black & white cinematography, convoluted plot twists and macabre set pieces. The script doesn't comprise whatever real surprises (except a reasonably adept ane at the very end) and L.H. Katzin'due south direction lacks confidence and vision. In spite of some noteworthy sequences, the picture 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 apparently 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 military camp flicks like "Strait-Jacket" and "Berserk". Hammer Studios too produced the shamefully underrated "Dice! Die, My Darling" starring an amazing Tallulah Bankhead. Shelley Winters besides became a famous hag thanks to the double feature "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?" and "What's the Matter with Helen". Final but not least I likewise warmly recommend a couple of uniquely eccentric titles similar "The Creature in the Cellar", "Frightmare", "Homebodies" and "You'll Like my Mother". Happy hunting!
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Another in the Loony Diva Serial
It's cat and mouse with two of the New York stage's premier divas. Clare (Fitzgerald) lures lonely housekeepers to her small desert manor where she bludgeons them, turning their remains into tree food for her precious garden. Problem is she hires Aunt Alice (Gordon) thinking she's some other like shooting fish in a barrel casualty, except she's not.
Producer-managing director Bob Aldrich, ane of Hollywood's near underrated filmmakers, struck something of a gold mine by recycling crumbling divas into a serial of Grand Guingolds, every bit in Whatever Happened to Infant Jane (1962) et. al. This entry comes well-nigh the tail end of the series, and is fairly suspenseful, equally Fitzgerald mugs information technology up equally a sadistic loony barely able to comprise her homicidal glee. On the other hand, Gordon deadpans it every bit the diminutive impostor eager to get to the bottom of the strange goings on. Together, they're the whole prove, except for a number of moody air current-blown tree shots reminding united states of america of what's underneath. There'southward a tenuous romance thrown in to salve the macabre, I suppose.
I thing for sure, the flick didn't cost much to produce. There're basically just two settings-- the desert plot with the two houses, and the interiors where most of the action takes identify. So, yous demand to be a fan of aging divas conspiring against each other, because in that location's not much else to look at. All in all, it's a showcase, especially for Fitzgerald who looks similar she's non only emoting simply having fun, too.
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"How does your garden grow?" might take been a better title...
Lots of mordant sense of humour and a clever plot twist at the stop are sufficient reason for watching WHAT Ever HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE?, merely when a cast includes GERALDINE PAGE, RUTH GORDON and MILDRED DUNNOCK and promises to be a suspenseful film along the lines of Infant JANE and HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE, y'all owe information technology to yourself to watch it.
It works not so much because the story (an eerie one, to be sure) is and then original, only because the cat-and-mouse aspect of the story which has Geraldine Page and Ruth Gordon as adversaries in a household fraught with suspicion (of murder), is what hooks the most interest in this vastly entertaining piffling shocker.
However, information technology's a tranquillity 1, building its suspense slowly as nosotros come to realize just how manipulative and cunning Folio'south character is. She's a woman, believing her husband has left her penniless, who moves to Arizona where she will be near her nephew. But she'south intent on hiring lonely housekeepers and murdering them to steal their savings. (Non unlike some real-life events depicted in a gruesome Television documentary recently). Later disposing of her victims she buries them in her garden and plants another tree to mark the spot. Information technology seems they flourish nicely, hence my suggestion to a higher place for a improve title.
Gordon pretends to apply for a job subsequently the concluding housekeeper has gone missing and is actually doing some detective work on her own. Information technology'southward her scenes with Folio that make the whole film so satisfying.
Information technology's not a bang-up horror movie merely it does have its moments, cheers mostly to GERALDINE PAGE who does a marvelous job at showing u.s. all the tics and nuances of a very eccentric woman who ways to get her way, no matter what she has to do. It'south a ruthless, cunning part and Folio makes the most of it.
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Scariest matter about this is the poster!
Alarm: Spoilers
Calire Marrable (Geraldine Page) is left with nothing after her husband dies. She then gain to take in women every bit housekeepers, has them invest their savings in the stock market, kills them, plants them in her garden and lives off their winnings (or something similar that). Alice Dimmock (Ruth Gordon) comes to work for her...but she'due south really looking to detect out what happened to her friend who Marrable had killed before...
A "Baby Jane" rip off. It's not terrible but information technology'south non scary. Information technology moves dull and the script is kind of vague. Page is great, really chewing the scenery, only she (and that silly express joy of hers) get real annoying after a while. Gordon (a smashing actress) is given nothing to practise! But once I wanted to encounter her interruption loose but the script wouldn't allow it. The killings are tame and bloodless and Page's character is and so incredibly unlikable you could care less by the end. In that location's also a HUGE plot loophole at the end and a actually silly twist ending.
So, it'south (sort of) worth seeing for Folio just goose egg else. This can be missed.
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Don't Mess with Ms. Page's Garden
What a riot! Geraldine Page plays a widow left destitute by her husband, who lives off the savings of maids she hires and and then kills. Along comes Ruth Gordon, posing equally a maid simply actually investigating the disappearance of her lady "companion," and we, the audience, get to sit dorsum and watch her salt-of-the-earth demeanor bounce off of Folio's histrionic diva.
Is information technology fifty-fifty possible to exist bored past a Page operation? This script is far below her, she knows it, and decides to go for it, playing the role as about off-the-wall equally you could get without descending into straight army camp. She and Gordon are so talented, and then compulsively watchable, that you actually care what happens in this 2nd-rate rip-off of other macabre crazy women films like "What Ever Happened to Infant Jane?" and "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte." Robert Aldrich, the director of both of those films, serves as producer on this 1, so possibly information technology'south non exactly ripping off if you're stealing from yourself.
And it's a got a groovy score by Gerald Fried (random trivia: he would be nominated for a Best Original Score Oscar in 1975 for the documentary "Birds Do It, Bees Do It') that makes i wonder what he was smoking when he composed information technology. Information technology sounds like something from a moving-picture show about Castilian bullfighters.
Course: B+
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Creative Gardening...
Alert: Spoilers
Afterward discovering that her belatedly husband has left her penniless, the bitter Mrs. Marrable (Geraldine Page) starts hiring, fleecing, and murdering elderly female housekeepers. She then buries them, planting a commemorative tree over each grave. This becomes a very successful venture. Then, Mrs. Dimmock (Ruth Gordon) arrives to fill up the latest employment vacancy. Mrs. Marrable may have just met her friction match!
WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE? is a macabre tale of suspense, seasoned lightly with night humor. Both Ms. Page and Ms. Gordon play their roles to the hilt, especially Page, who truly seems like she would apply someone as human fertilizer! Great fun...
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Sorry, but I don't really care what happened to Aunt Alice...
Warning: Spoilers
I went into this picture show with fairly high expectations given all that I'd heard about it, but the simple fact is that What Always Happened to Aunt Alice did little for me. Given the fact that the title is an obvious rip-off of Robert Altman's 1962 motion-picture show What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, I was expecting this to be more of a one-act, merely despite the fact that information technology'due south extremely army camp; in that location'due south not a bang-up deal of 'fun' to be had with information technology. At that place were a lot of horror films released during the sixties that featured a strong female lead, and while many of them (Altman'due south picture and Lady in a Muzzle spring to listen instantly) were very proficient, this one is surprisingly lacking. The plot follows a adult female who loses her fortune after the death of her hubby. She decides to start taking in housekeepers and and so dispatching them in guild to steal their savings and rectify her financial situation, merely subsequently ridding herself of her latest housekeeper; she doesn't realise that the new applicant, an Alice Dimmock, was a friend of the old housekeeper and has taken the chore with the intention of investigating the mysterious disappearance.
Managing director Lee H. Katzin doesn't do a very practiced job of creating atmosphere, and the motion-picture show feels like it should be really exist a comedy. The plot is very thin, and despite attempts to majority it out with a number of sub-plots, the film still feels like it needs a little more affect than information technology has. The motion picture relies on its female leads; Geraldine Paige and Ruth Gordon, too much and despite the fact that both give dainty performances, neither 1 has enough to completely conduct the film. The determination to film it in color was a bad 1 every bit well - it gives the film a really cheap feel and I don't doubt that information technology would take been a hell of a lot better in black and white! The story flows quite slowly overall, and this is something of a nuisance every bit the attempts to build interest with plots involving a dog and a few other things don't provide enough of a distraction when the film starts to drag. It's all pretty tame until the function towards the end when the ii leads finally have their boxing...but fifty-fifty that is disappointing and while the twist at the terminate may delight some, I was left rather unfulfilled. Overall, What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice was a huge disappointment for me and therefore I don't recommend it!
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It Takes Courage Too Kill
Warning: Spoilers
This is a solid macabre film most the ultimate way to brand a living by killing. Geraldine Page is creepy equally the woman who is left poor by her husband'south death simply manages to become past past killing housekeepers and stealing their life savings. Ruth Gordon plays the housekeeper who gets wise as she is looking for a friend of hers who was the prior maid.
While Gerald Fried did some good music, his original music in this one sometimes distracts from the motion-picture show, particularly some of the string sequences. Fried did adept music on TV in Mannix, and Emergency. Speaking of Emergency, Robert Fuller plays Mike Darrah whose Aunt Alice (Ruth Gordon) is the current maid. Fuller was later a star on Emergency.
There are some indications of corruption of a dog in the PRE-PETA era film.
The film is clever merely suffers when you compare it with some of the other films done in this genre. Hush Hush Sweetness Charlotte and Whatever Happened to Babe Jane are more than powerful than this one. Still the motion-picture show has some proficient points considering of all the talent in the cast.
Peter Bonerz is in back up and he would later keep to The Bob Newhart Evidence and lots of other television shows. Rosemary Forsyth is in support also. This movie makes the police force look like they are way behind until the finish of the movie when they have finally put the plot together. The film is a mild diversion.
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Geraldine Page is in her total-fledged evil form!
As claimed past the championship, this kitsch murder spree is a pastiche of that delectable Betty Davis and Joan Crawford camp classic WHAT Ever HAPPENED TO Infant JANE? (1962), in fact, it is produced by the same director/producer Robert Aldrich later the said picture show and a follow-upward HUSH… HUSH, Sweetness CHARLOTTE (1964), then it loosely constitutes a trilogy where the plot pits two aging women, one expert, one evil against each other, only this time, the ane sits in the managing director chair is the TV journeyman Lee H. Katzin, who replaced Bernard Girard later 4-weeks of filming.
In Tuscon, Arizona, an uppity widow Claire Marrable (Page) lives in a business firm in the desert, she has been bequeathed by her belatedly husband with zip only a briefcase contains the stamps he had collected. To make ends run across and maintain a well-off forepart, 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 ane, 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. Nevertheless, Aunt Alice has her ain ulterior motive, soon suspicion arouses and a cat-fight has been brewing merely to exit ane of them animate.
The script is inconsistent in shaping upward 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 every bit 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 campsite from her start scene until the very concluding i (honed up by Gerard Fried'south overblown score), as if she was fully aware of the shoddy fodder at her disposal and decided to tirelessly ginger information technology upwardly with unreserved histrionics to portray Claire'due south tortured mind, her poisoned thought most "backbone to kill" and her absolute selfishness, and information technology is wonderfully ravishing, she is the one who unmarried-handedly rescues this widow-exploited lurid fiction from beingness left into oblivion. Ruth Gordon, at the heel of her Oscar-winning victory in Polanski'southward ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968), is less memorable in playing an upright role, but little does 1 know, after rooting for her from the onset, one might overlook that in that location will be a different denouement for her. Truly evil can never win in the long run, but en route to its doom, it might as well take some good souls for company, that is rightfully acceptable nether the context, which contrives to due east a boon in this patchy murder follies afterwards all.
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"You've had such rotten luck with your housekeepers Aunt Claire."
Warning: Spoilers
Claire Marrable (Geraldine Page) is shocked to learn that her late husband has left her with nothing but debts. How is she to live in the fashion she'southward grown accustomed? To solve her problem, she comes upwards with a fiendish plot. What if she were to hire a servant/companion with a small-scale life savings, dupe her out of the money, and then kill her? Well, that'due south exactly what Claire does. She disposes of the bodies nether pine trees growing in her garden. All is going well for Claire until Alice Dimmock (Ruth Gordon) shows up at her door looking for a job. Claire doesn't realize information technology but the nosey Alice is no ordinary employee. Can Alice discover Claire'south secret earlier some other pine tree is planted?
What a wonderful movie! In curt, What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? is a deliciously twisted tale of greed and murder filled with plenty of suspense, existent atmosphere, rock solid acting, witty writing, and some of the darkest humor put on picture. It's a real winner from showtime to finish. And while I'1000 sure I could keep and on praising the film, it's the acting that sets it apart from similar movies. To call Geraldine Page's performance vivid would be a gross understatement. The gleeful menace in her voice and on her face as she goes about psychologically torturing (and killing) those meet sees equally beneath her is amazing to watch. And if her presence wasn't enough, forth comes Ruth Gordon. She'due south feisty, fun, and every bit the equal of Folio in her role as the titular Aunt Alice. Watching these 2 spar when all the film's secrets take been revealed is one of those moments I won't presently forget. These are the screen moments that keep me searching out new movies.
Nobody asked, but if I had to come up with 1 flaw, I suppose it would be the supporting cast. None of the other actors does annihilation to stand out. But how could they? Compared with Page and Gordon . . . well, there'southward really no comparison.
Finally, from the exterior some twoscore years after the movie was fabricated, I'd bet the actors had a nail making What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? I tin can just imagine Page and Gordon having a good long laugh subsequently shooting some of their scenes together. Then again, maybe it'southward just me. All I know is that I had a neat time watching them work together. An viii/10 seems nigh right to me.
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Folio's acting saves this movie
Information technology takes quite some try to get used to the grainy visuals and the (initially) confusing storytelling of this movie, but Geraldine Page's performance eventually puts it across: it'due south (the performance, non the film, unfortunately) scary, uncompromising and totally disarming. Some suspenseful scenes hither, but nothing terribly memorable.... (**1/2)
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Whispering Pines in the Desert
Claire Marrable has just lost her husband, her fortune, and her rich and refined way of life. What is a spoiled, wealthy, egotistical adult female to do? Why pack upwards and motility to Arizona to be near your nephew, and brainstorm killing housekeepers/live-in companions for their life savings of class. Aunt Claire seemingly has a dark-green thumb as she transplants her housekeepers to the basis and plants a pine tree over them. As we come across in the first function of the film, there are at to the lowest degree 3 pino trees before nosotros see the start woman bashed in the head with a rock and so planted. We then encounter another housekeeper, Edna Tinsley, killed in similar fashion with a shovel. At present, five pino trees in the desert. Enter Mrs. Dimmock, a woman in disguise as a housekeeper out to notice out what happened to her long-time friend Edna. This cat and mouse relationship between Claire and Mrs. Dimmock serves equally the basis of the film. This film was produced by Robert Aldrich, who was responsible for bringing us films like Any Happened to Babe Jane? and Hush..Hush, Sweet Charlotte. Aldrich made films that had older female protagonists popular in the sixties by giving these starring roles to ladies that were a fleck aged and considered passe. Geraldine Page stars in this picture every bit Aunt Claire, and if you had any doubts well-nigh her talent as an actress prior to seeing this motion picture, no doubts should have remained afterward. Page is simply stunning. She has an aura and amuse nearly her. She has a wonderfully sadistic and maniacal laugh. She has an ability to take dialogue which would not work for any one else and make information technology sound meaningful. Her portrayal of this wicked, cruel, greedy woman is one of the best I have seen for roles of this ilk. Aiding Ms. Page is Ruth Gordon. Ms. Gordon gives a very good performance equally Mrs. Dimmock out to find the truth no matter what the cost might be. Gordon and Page human action and interact very well together, and information technology is their human relationship which really makes this film work. The rest of the cast is okay and the direction is okay, but everything is brought upwards a notch by the two outstanding performances of these 2 incredible actresses. After seeing this flick twice in two days, I am still stunned at the magnificent functioning given by Geraldine Folio. WOW!
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Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065206/reviews
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