Good start, but then it gets ruined

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

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.

After a sensational 1930s murder trial sends their sons to prison, middle-aged mothers Debbie Reynolds (as Adelle Bruckner) and Shelley Winters (as Helen Hill) decide to escape the glare of photographers and nosy reporters. They move to Hollywood, California. Possessing an obvious skill in dance, Ms. Reynolds decides she and Ms. Winters should start a school for mothers who think their little girls have what it takes to be the next Shirley Temple. With platinum-dyed hair, Reynolds patterns herself after Jean Harlow. Reynolds inexplicably tells Winters she looks like Marion Davies...Both women reveal more in their past than murderous sons. Winters is the winner when we see a flashback to her plowing mishap. Mystery man Micheal MacLiammoir (as Hamilton Starr) joins the dance school as a voice coach. Reynolds begins seeing wealthy Texan Dennis Weaver (as Lincoln "Linc" Palmer). Winters is jealous. Increasingly loony, she visits religious talk-show host Agnes Moorehead (as Alma). "What's the Matter with Helen?" will be answered. This cycle began with "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962) and Winters went directly into "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?" (1972).****** What's the Matter with Helen? (6/30/71) Curtis Harrington ~ Debbie Reynolds, Shelley Winters, Dennis Weaver, Micheal MacLiammoir

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.

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.