Interesteg What makes it different from others?

TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

tlinn35 I watched this realizing it was a "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" knock-off, and that it might offer some campy thrills. It does, but not to the extent that I expected it would, and somehow the whole thing just falls kinda flat. Shelley Winters and Debbie Reynolds are excellent, and the characters are well-realized and interesting. But the film is surprisingly slow: long stretches of dance recitals and plodding dating scenes between Debbie and Dennis Weaver interrupt the building tension far too often, and one could claim that not much happens for the first 50 minutes or so. It feels like a ballsy horror concept that was ultimately neutered, which has some basis in reality: apparently NBC forced the violence to be toned down so that it could eventually air on television. It doesn't approach the greatness of Baby Jane, but fans of the actresses or aficionados of the sub-genre will find it interesting.

bkoganbing As unlikely a pair of co-stars you will ever find, Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Winters, team up for What's The Matter With Helen. It's a film that borrows a lot from Whatever Happened To Baby Jane.Reynolds and Winters play the notorious mothers of a pair of thrill kill teen age homicide perpetrators who murdered the richest woman in their small Ohio town. Almost as much publicity attached itself to them as well as their sons so Reynolds and Winters decide to move to Los Angeles and get a fresh start.As it turns out the insanity runs in the Winters household as Shelley starts behaving real strangely. She's giving Reynolds lots of second thoughts about going into a partnership with her in a dance studio for children all of whose mothers see their little darling as the new Shirley Temple.Reynolds has an interesting if understated role here. She's ambitious all right, she's hoping to get discovered herself. Note the fact that in her kid's dance recital she reserves a most prominent place for her talents as singer and dancer. She also has her hair dyed platinum blond like Jean Harlow and maybe someone will like the idea of a musically talented Harlow for some studio. Representatives of a couple of the studios are at her recital.Also at her recital is Dennis Weaver a rich Texan transplanted to LA with his daughter who is a pupil of Reynolds. These two hit it off, but Winters kind of interferes there as well.The last third of the film is Shelley at her scenery chewing best in a role that calls for it. What happens is a bloodier version of Baby Jane.Fans of the two stars should love this film.

Greatornot Besides being the usual strange, this movie although entertaining was everything and I do not mean that in a good way. The movie was cult,psychological thriller, musical, film noir, horror,spoof. It could have been written by anyone from Alfred Hitchcock to Stanley Kramer to Rodgers and Hammerstein to Stanley Kubrick to Martin Scorcese. Although this movie seemed to cover every genre from A-Z and probably did this intentionally... I believe this detracted from the movie. Sometimes this works but it did not in this film. I managed to make this movie the whole way through. I must say I did it in 'chapters'. I saw this film in 4 sittings. I thought the plot, truly was a good one. I also thought the actors were fine, except for the Shirley Temple wannabe, she was talentless and casting could have been better for her. Maybe it was rushed or they needed her on the cheap to keep in budget because of the other higher priced actors. Incidentally there was good acting from some veteran actors. One major twist in the last 15 minutes that was superb, other parts of the ending were expected. This was a fair film and worth watching but certainly lacked. Maybe best way to explain this. Going to a swank restaurant where everyone is wearing cutoff shorts, ripped t's and sandals and the food is only so so.

bensonmum2 After their sons are sentenced to life in prison, Adelle (Debbie Reynolds) and Helen (Shirley Winters) begin receiving threatening phone calls because someone fells their sons got off easy. The pair decides to move to California to escape the publicity of the trial and to start a new life. They start a dance school that is soon very successful. One of the students has a rich unmarried father with whom Adelle quickly falls in love. In the meantime, Helen is busy raising rabbits and becoming a little too infatuated with an evangelist on the radio. It's only a mater of time before everything falls apart and the women enter a world of madness and murder.I can't help but compare What's the Matter with Helen? to Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?, also starring Shelly Winters. Where that movie seemed almost restrained in its presentation of Auntie Roo's madness, there's nothing holding Helen back in this movie. It may take a good deal of the movie's running time, but once she snaps, Helen is one Bad Mad Mutha. You don't want to mess with her. Winters is so delightfully demented that it was impossible for me not to enjoy her performance. I'm not going to spoil the movie, but the things Helen is capable of are totally over-the-top.As good as Winters is, Reynolds is totally ridiculous in her role as the gold-digging tap dancer. I got the impression that she thought she was in a movie that would get her nominated for some award. This ain't Citizen Kane! Quit acting so serious. Hey, Debbie, don't you realize that you're main purpose is to be a victim of Winters' insanity.I just love these former-female-stars-in-the-twilight-of-their-career horror movies. What's the Matter with Helen? is as fun as any.