Horror fans may find this item of interest. As directed by under-rated cult favourite Curtis Harrington ("Night Tide", 'Devil Dog: Hound of Hell'), it never goes quite all the way into outright terror, but is disturbing nevertheless. It's written by Henry Farrell, who'd concocted an earlier story that was the basis for "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Winters star as Adelle and Helen, two women who flee unhappy lives during the Great Depression (their sons were convicted of a brutal murder) to open a dance school in Hollywood. Things go fine for a while, as Adelle is romanced by a nice-guy rich Texan (the amiable Dennis Weaver), but feelings of guilt start weighing rather heavily on Helen.
The story doesn't always stay quite on track, with musical numbers for Debbies' students as well as herself, but Harrington does have a masterful way with period recreation and Gothic atmosphere, and he does get effective performances out of his two leads. Reynolds is affecting, and Winters is actually fairly restrained at first, as Harrington allows her bit by bit to start going to town on the scenery. The excellent cast also includes other familiar faces like Micheal MacLiammoir ("The Kremlin Letter"), in his last film role, Agnes Moorehead ('Bewitched'), Helene Winston ("A Boy and His Dog"), Peggy Rea ('The Dukes of Hazzard'), Logan Ramsey ("Walking Tall"), Yvette Vickers ("Attack of the 50 Foot Woman"), Robbi Morgan ("Friday the 13th" - 1980), Timothy Carey ("The Worlds' Greatest Sinner"), and Pamelyn Ferdin ("The Toolbox Murders" - 1978).
The macabre visuals certainly are something to behold, but the studio would have done better to not put them on the poster. Ultimately, the films' greatest strength lies in its attempts to visualize the nightmarish landscape of Helens' paranoid mind. Time and again Adelle has to watch out for her obsessive friend, and even when she thinks she's done with her, she finds that she can't shake their bond that easily. The whole thing does contain a palpable feeling of tragedy and sorrow, and overall "What's the Matter with Helen?" is fairly memorable, one of the final entries in that genre crassly referred to by some buffs as "hag horror".
Seven out of 10.
The story doesn't always stay quite on track, with musical numbers for Debbies' students as well as herself, but Harrington does have a masterful way with period recreation and Gothic atmosphere, and he does get effective performances out of his two leads. Reynolds is affecting, and Winters is actually fairly restrained at first, as Harrington allows her bit by bit to start going to town on the scenery. The excellent cast also includes other familiar faces like Micheal MacLiammoir ("The Kremlin Letter"), in his last film role, Agnes Moorehead ('Bewitched'), Helene Winston ("A Boy and His Dog"), Peggy Rea ('The Dukes of Hazzard'), Logan Ramsey ("Walking Tall"), Yvette Vickers ("Attack of the 50 Foot Woman"), Robbi Morgan ("Friday the 13th" - 1980), Timothy Carey ("The Worlds' Greatest Sinner"), and Pamelyn Ferdin ("The Toolbox Murders" - 1978).
The macabre visuals certainly are something to behold, but the studio would have done better to not put them on the poster. Ultimately, the films' greatest strength lies in its attempts to visualize the nightmarish landscape of Helens' paranoid mind. Time and again Adelle has to watch out for her obsessive friend, and even when she thinks she's done with her, she finds that she can't shake their bond that easily. The whole thing does contain a palpable feeling of tragedy and sorrow, and overall "What's the Matter with Helen?" is fairly memorable, one of the final entries in that genre crassly referred to by some buffs as "hag horror".
Seven out of 10.