¿Quién mató a la tía Roo?

From the opening scene, it is obvious that Rosie Forrest (aka Auntie Roo) is completely insane. She lives alone in a magnificent mansion in 1920s England and will never get over the death of her young daughter. In an attempt to fill this void, Auntie Roo has an annual Christmas party for a few of the best behaved children from the local orphanage. This year, a misbehaving brother and sister stowaway in the trunk of the car and join the party. Auntie Roo starts to believe the girl is her daughter, while the boy is convinced Auntie Roo is a witch. Mayhem ensues.

This is a clever, creepy, and amusing subversion of the "Hansel and Gretel" fairytale that puts forth the notion that the wicked witch might not be inherently evil or even malintentioned--just severely insane! Some of the scares are cheesy, a few of the child actors are awful (the lead girl looks and acts like she was sniffing glue during the entire production!), and it is a bit disconcerting to sit through yet another movie where Shelley Winters sings and dances like a freak. But overall, this is an underrated sick little fairytale. My Rating: 7/10

I had the fortunate circumstance to see this double-billed as a very young child with Bava'a Baron Blood. Some of the scenes remained in my mind - particularly the creepy figure of Shelley Winters. I recently set out to see the film again some 30 years later. I remembered more than I thought I had, and the film came back to me in large part. This is not a bad film nor a good film. As another reviewer noted, it is a pleasant, harmless time-waster - for those of us who enjoy "wasting" time on such things. Mark Lester and Chloe Franks play two orphans at an orphanage. Franks has an uncanny resemblance to the dead daughter of the orphanage's greatest patroness and benefactress, Shelley Winters. Winters is so good to the kiddies that every year she invites them to her sumptuous home at Christmas for yuletide fun. She has virtually no interest in Lester but soon has the keenest of hearts for the young Franks as her dead daughter's look-a-like. Well, Lester is a growing teen rebelling, Winters decays into some form of madness, a cast of stalwart British character actors such as Sir Ralph Richardson, Hugh Griffith, and Lionel Jeffries ably aid the story, and that story degenerates/diffuses into some sinister tale not unlike Hansel and Gretel. Well, the movie has a poor story overall - but Winter's fine performance albeit over-the-top to be sure does add emotional depth to it. Director Curtis Harrington is very able behind the camera if not dazzling.

I love Shelley Winters in this film as the demented Auntie Roo, the widow of a British magician. In this film, she plays a haunted troubled woman whose daughter died in a terrible accident. She wants to be a mother again and finds herself drawn to a girl who resembles her own late daughter. There are lot of interesting scenes and Shelley Winters is a scream in this film with her part. You feel sorry for her but despise what she's doing to Katy and Christopher, young British orphans, who end up being Hansel and Gretel in this story. The ending was kind of disturbing and the kids reminded me more of the boy in the Omen film at times. It's a first rate cast with Shelley Winters, Ralph Richardson, Judy Cornwell, and Marianne Stone just to name a few well known British actors in the cast. I would like to see it again especially since I missed the beginning portion of it. I found it terribly entertaining even a good Halloween movie to show.

A great horror movie to watch at Christmas time. It has a creepy old mansion, great child actors. The plot centers around the disappearance of a child years before and some orphans who just happen to end up at the same mansion years later. Shelley Winters is great in this movie. It's really got a classic old british feel to this movie. Definitely a horror holiday classic, creepy, scary and fun to watch.

Shelley Winters is given some rich opportunities here to emote and otherwise tear into the scenery. In the role of Mrs. Forrest, a.k.a. "Auntie Roo", she provides a nice place for orphaned children to spend their Christmas holidays. But incorrigible child Christopher Coombs (Mark Lester) is convinced that she's like the witch in the "Hansel and Gretel" story, and kidnaps kids in order to fatten them up and eat them.

While clearly Mrs. Forrest has gone off the deep end, you do feel sympathy for her. She certainly can't accept or deal with the death of her own child, and she's taken advantage of by a conniving butler (Michael Gothard) and medium (the great Ralph Richardson). Some viewers are sure to be suspicious of the bratty Christopher, and doubt the possibility of Mrs. Forrest being an actual "witch".

Overall, the movie is a fun, if not exemplary, effort for Curtis Harrington, who'd also collaborated with Winters on "What's the Matter with Helen?". They make a good team, in this tale (concocted by David D. Osborn, and scripted by Robert Blees and Hammer scribe Jimmy Sangster) intended as a twisted modern version of "Hansel and Gretel". It establishes a tone right away with its pre-credits sequence, where Mrs. Forrest sings a lullaby to a corpse.

Lester and adorable Chloe Franks are good as the brother and sister targeted by our unbalanced protagonist, with Gothard, Richardson, lovely Judy Cornwell, Lionel Jeffries, Hugh Griffith, and Rosalie Crutchley providing excellent support.

The opening credits sequence comes complete with over the top music by Kenneth V. Jones, adding to the fairy tale feel of the material. And since it takes place during the Christmas holidays, some viewers may want to make it part of their Yuletide viewing tradition.

Seven out of 10.