Better Late Then Never

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

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.

I saw this in the theater way back when and liked it. A lowish-budget thriller, it combines the talents of Shelley Winters and Debbie Reynolds and puts forth yet another story in the genre of older ladies' horror shows. The film is made in color and has some interesting numbers as the two ladies run a school for Shirley Temple wannabees in the 1930s. Agnes Moorehead is on hand as a radio evangelist who Shelly listens to. The ladies run the whole show here, and their fans are not let down. The script is fairly engrossing and the production design is very good. I can't imagine any fan of the two leading ladies not enjoying this. The credits list this as a Filmways production. That's right. The company which gave you Mister Ed and The Beverly Hillbillies now bring you Shelly Winters as a maniacal latent lesbian!

Curtis Harrington's "What's the Matter with Helen?" probably looks corny today. Even so, I derived that overall it deals with moral gray areas. Helen comes across as insane according to the clinical definition, but Adelle is insane in another sense: she's hellbent on fame and prestige at any cost. Large numbers of people moved to Hollywood in the hope of making it big but most likely saw their hopes dashed, as seen in "The Day of the Locust". One might call this movie a dark spin on "TDotL".Aside from all that, it was interesting seeing Debbie Reynolds in this sort of movie. I'm used to seeing her in wholesome roles (or knowing her as the mother of a certain actress who played a certain princess in a galaxy far, far away). True, her character is the perky one in contrast to Shelley Winters's disturbed one, but when was the last time that you saw Debbie Reynolds in a movie dealing with murder? Agnes Moorehead's character is also a shocker. I'm used to seeing her as Endora on "Bewitched", but here she's an evangelist (although her character IS kind of a witch). Goody goody indeed.In the end, the movie has sort of a silly feeling, but it's a very enjoyable movie. You might take some time to see it.So yes, DID you ever see a dream walking or hear it talking? PS, I recently got to meet Peggy Walton-Walker by pure chance. She told me that she appeared in an uncredited role in the scene with Agnes Moorehead. She also co-starred in "Pumpkinhead".

There's a lot the matter with Helen and none of it's good. Shelley Winters and Debbie Reynolds play mothers of a pair of Leopold & Loeb like killers who move from the mid-west to Hollywood to escape their past. Reynolds, a starstruck Jean Harlow wannabe, opens a dance studio for children and Winters is her piano player. Soon Winters (as Helen) begins to crack up. It's all very slow going and although there are moments of real creepiness (nasty phone calls, a visit from wino Timothy Carey), the movie is devoid of any real horror. Nevertheless, it's still worthy entertainment. The acting divas are fine and the production values are terrific. A music score by David Raskin, cinematography by Lucien Ballard and Oscar-nominated costumes contribute mightily. With this, A PLACE IN THE SUN and LOLITA to her credit, does anyone do crazy as well as Winters? Directed by Curtis Harrington, a master at this type of not quite A-movie exploitation. In addition to Carey, the oddball supporting cast includes Dennis Weaver, Agnes Moorehead (as a very Aimee Semple McPherson like evangelist), Yvette Vickers and Micheál MacLiammóir (the Irish Orson Welles) as Hamilton Starr, aptly nicknamed hammy.