Dumbwaiter Ride: Christopher pulls himself up to Katharine's nursery this way. Through the doors, he sees Aunt Roo singing to Katharine's skeleton. Later, he does this to try to rescue Katy. When Aunt Roo catches him, she cuts the dumbwaiter ropes so he can't escape. Perhaps just as much a character study and tragedy as it is a horror thriller, the seasonal setting also makes “Whoever Slew Auntie Roo” worth short-listing if you’re after something that little bit different for your festive film this Christmas. It would make an interesting double bill with “ The Amazing Mr. Blunden”. By all appearances Shelley is a kindly old widow, an American transplanted to the United Kingdom of the Roaring Twenties and she opens her house once a year to a select group of children from a nearby school. In reality all I can say is she's a woman with issues. She lost her own daughter in a tragic accident and tries to communicate with her through a medium played deliciously by Ralph Richardson. There are a lot of things to like about the picture including the atmosphere that director Harrington builds. I really thought the setting was perfect and the director really used it to build up a creepy atmosphere. There's almost a dream-like quality to it and this really helps the film. It's almost as if you're watching a kid's dream turn into a nightmare and this is the film's strongest point. The cinematography is another great thing about the picture as is the nice music score, which fits the film perfectly. His inner monologue recites the Brothers Grimm tale of Hansel and Gretel, which he apparently took as a true story that cautioned him to be wary of any Woman in an apron willing to cook him a hot meal.

Whole-Plot Reference: To " Hansel and Gretel." Christopher notices the similarities, which causes him to incorrectly assume Aunt Roo is a cannibal. This would serve as Harrington’s fifth cinematic feature, the film critic turned genre filmmaker reuniting with Winters, one of his two leads from the exceptional 1930s period piece What’s the Matter with Helen?, released only a year prior (Vincent Canby described the actress in demeaning terms by comparing her semblance to that of a reproachful pudding). However, this collaboration suffers greatly from awkward tonal shifts and a curious inability to establish empathy for its child protagonists. Mark Lester, famous for his title turn in the musical Oliver! (1968), and child actress Chloe Franks give, perhaps, the worst performances across Harrington’s seedy filmography, which includes some exceptional work in items needing to be resuscitated from obscurity (such as 1967’s Games). Punk in the Trunk: Katy and Christopher aren't invited to Aunt Roo's Christmas party, so they hide in the trunk of the carriage taking the guests. Mark Lester and Chloe Franks are a pair of misbehaving kids from the school who are brother and sister. They don't get invited to Shelley's place but stowaway in the trunk of the car that brings the others. That's when Shelley fixates on young Chloe who reminds her of her daughter. She kidnaps Chloe and Lester takes it upon himself to rescue her.

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Things take a turn for the serious as Roo’s world begins to fall apart, and she fixates on the children as being her salvation. (“You children don’t want to leave here! You have a home now! Forever!”) classic, the unspeakably great Planes, Trains & Automobiles. So grab a glass of wine or even some premature eggnog, and join us as we dive into an unmissable Thanksgiving/holiday favorite on this episode of NO NOTES. Who Slew Auntie Roo?". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Archived from the original on 13 July 2020. Rant over. But it still stands that from a hoaxer, to a conniving butler, to a murderous schizophrenic child, Auntie Roo is the victim here. What You Are in the Dark: the supposed-protagonist's actions at the film's climax, which retroactively flips the entire script on its head.

In England, in the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the American millionaire Mrs. Forrest (Shelley Winters) welcomes ten orphans from the local orphanage to spend the Christmas night with her. Mrs. Forrest misses her daughter Katherine, who died in a silly accident, and is exploited by the charlatan Mr. Benton (Ralph Richardson), her butler and her housekeeper in fake séances. When the sibling orphans Christopher Coombs (Mark Lester) and Katy Coombs (Chloe Franks) are not selected to go to the party, they sneak out to Mrs. Forrest's home and she welcomes them. She feels a great attraction for Katy, who resembles Katherine, but Christopher suspects that the widow is a witch.

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Shelley Winters, Mark Lester, Chloe Franks, Ralph Richardson, Lionel Jeffries, Hugh Griffith, Rosalie Crutchley, Pat Heywood, Judy Cornwell, Michael Gothard, Jacqueline Cowper, Richard Beaumont, Charlotte Sayce, Marianne Stone Miss Henley: I apologize for him. He's a congenital liar with a rather overactive imagination. Christopher, you'll be very severely punished when you return. Sindelar, Dave (31 December 2015). "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1971)". FantasticMovieMusings.com. Dave Sindelar . Retrieved 8 July 2018.

Auntie Roo prepares a dinner for the coming New Year while Christopher assists her by gathering firewood. In the process, he steals the key to the nursery room and lets Katy out. During their escape, they steal Auntie Roo's jewelry and stuff it inside an old teddy bear that once belonged to Katharine. Christopher and Katy fight their way out of Auntie Roo's mansion. Once outside, they place the firewood at the door and set it on fire.This leads them to Colonel Forrest’s magic equipment, and Christopher wastes no time at all in scaring his sister shitless and then very nearly guillotining her head off. Just in case there’s anything left in her bowels, Albie the butler then joins in and chases them both off… into something equally terrifying, as Aunty Roo is ruining the Xmas atmos with that perennial child-pleaser, a Gilbert and Sullivan recital.

Auntie Roo is crazy. The opening scenes leave little to the imagination as to her mental state. The movie begins with Auntie Roo singing a lullaby to a little girl. As she finishes her song, the camera goes to a close-up of the child sleeping in bed. But there is no child. Only the mummified remains of what was once Auntie Roo's daughter. Many viewers delight in name-calling 'Aunt Roo' as 'nuts''crazy''evil' etc., but many fail to see the sad and pathetic side to this unfortunate character. A woman is singing a lullaby to her daughter, suddenly revealed – crash zoom! – as a desiccated corpse (an excellent jump-scare, better done here than in many more well-regarded horrors). Who is this mad woman, who believes this mummified child is still alive? Why it’s none other than Mrs Forrest (Shelley Winters), the American widow living in the big house who every year invites children from the local orphanage to spend Christmas with her, that’s who (or, if yopu prefer, Roo). Harrington was going to direct Wuthering Heights in England for AIP but did this instead after Shelley Winters requested him. Shelley Winters had worked with Harrington on What's the Matter with Helen? and asked for him on this movie "because of his ability with actors. I thought he would be wonderful." [5] Harrington says it was not a project "I personally wanted particularly to do." [1] The first part is as delightful as the cakes,the sweets ,the lollipops and the gingerbread men which the good lady serves to the orphans she welcomes for her Christmas party in her Gothic desirable mansion.This mysterious woman,with a racy past ,was married to a magician (remarkable scene when the two children venture into the old house full of magic props where once more,we are told that children are not necessarily devoid of cruelty.While the evil nature serves the character, Albie is so overwhelmingly avaricious and vile that he jumps the shark. Heartthrob Dennis Fischer (1 January 1991). Horror Film Directors, 1931-1990. McFarland. p.511. ISBN 978-0-89950-609-8. Harrington, Curtis (2013). Nice Guys Don't Work in Hollywood: The Adventures of An Aesthete in the Movie Business. Drag City. Another great thing is the performance by Winters. Ever since WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? we got all sorts of films with older female stars getting to play nutty characters. Often times the actresses would either underplay them or go way over-the-top but Winters doesn't do either here and that's why the film works. You never quite know if this character is a loony nut or if she's just a sad old woman who misses her dead child. You never really know what her intentions are with these kids. This mystery as works so well because of the way Winters plays the role and she deserves a lot of credit. The film obviously loses steam in the last thirty minutes.Winters begins to overact to make up for the poor third of the script which is at once repetitive ,dull and predictable.We do not need Lester's voice over to understand that the children are Hansel and Gretel in the witch's den..As Freud and Bruno Bettelheim showed,fairy tales have an hidden meaning which the children unconsciously comprehend but the demonstration is pretty low brow.