Who Slew Auntie Roo? (1971)

On the surface, Who Slew Auntie Roo? is fairly typical of its kind. From the start we meet poor Mrs. Ruth Forrester (Shelley Winters), who has just about every reason to be content, despite being a widow: mainly lots of money and a palatial mansion. Tragically, though, she's singularly obsessed with her long-missing daughter, Katharine, whom she's convinced is dead, even though a body was never found by the police, and whose fate she blames only herself for. This guilt-fueled fixation means she's an easy and constant mark for her amoral and at-least-slightly unhinged butler Albie (Michael Gothard) and a local psychic Mr. Benton (Ralph Richardson), who encourages her to believe that Katharine's spirit is always nearby - but not near enough to communicate with her mother to a point where there's a chance she'll find peace (and hence no longer need Mr. Burton's services). Despite this and the impenetrable mystery still surrounding Katharine Forrester's disappearance, the other residents of the English town Ruth lives in seem to just treat her like a mild eccentric, probably because every Christmas Eve she invites ten children from the nearby orphanage to her mansion, where she lavishly treats them to a few days of presents, food, fun, and exuberant maternal affection. This year a brother-and-sister duo, Christopher (Mark Lester) and Katy (Chloe Franks), who are left off the list of guests because of their penchant for running away and other odd behavior, secretly stowaway on the car ride to the mansion, but are warmly welcomed by Mrs. Forrester regardless.

Soon enough, Christopher, who falls firmly under the category of "too clever for his own good", makes the horrific discovery that the orphans' cheerful and benevolent benefactor has always known exactly where her daughter - or rather her daughter's thoroughly decayed corpse - is; she's in a coffin sealed up in a secret room, where Mrs. Forrester goes to visit every night as if she were still alive. Worse, Mrs. Forrester quickly takes a strong liking to Katy, even becoming convinced that she's the reincarnation of Katharine and, just as the children are scheduled to return to the orphanage, going so far as to practically kidnap her. Christopher, handicapped by a real-life instance of being the boy who cried wolf, sets out alone to rescue Katy, believing whole-heartedly that he's the Gretel to Katy's Hansel and Mrs. Forrester's wicked, cannibalistic witch.

Part of what makes the film break loose from all the standard genre trappings is the presence of Shelley Winters. Although not as instantly recognizable as Bette Davis or Joan Crawford, Shelley Winters was still a star in her own right and succeeds in hitting the expected Sunset Boulevard-esque notes without devolving into hysterical scenery-chewing. It helps too that the script is clever enough to toy around with the question of who the film's victim really is. Arguably it takes the point too far outside the realm of subtlety by the end, but it does make for an interesting if telegraphed climax.

Even with the occasional glimpses of sheer creativity, the film still feels somewhat unfinished. This is especially true for the backstory hinted at but never filled in by the script. The obvious questions are never answered: what really happened to Katharine, and what is the cause of the guilt that pushes Mrs. Forrester right into the territory of insanity? It is fine - in fact, usually a plus - when a movie leaves certain details to the audience's imagination and in this case it does work to the advantage of the character of Mrs. Forrester; revealing that Katharine's death was deliberate or accidental would have destroyed much of the moral ambiguity surrounding the character. But there is enough background information revealed, particularly the hints surrounding Albie's sadistic attitude toward children and the past of the late Mr. Forrester (for instance, is the scene where Katy is nearly killed by a "prop guillotine" that wasn't a prop after all meant to be an indication as to what happened to Katharine?), that seems like it should be building up to something. In the overview it feels less like a deliberate artistic choice and more like the result of bone-deep script cuts.

Boiled down to one quick and dirty judgment, my opinion on Who Slew Auntie Roo? is that it's like a half-hour episode of a horror anthology stretched out to feature film length. There's not enough backstory and plot to make the film feel substantial while the fairy tale revisionist twist really does feel like it would work much better in a shorter time frame. For all that, the movie rarely becomes boring, and there are worse vehicles for someone with Shelley Winters' often-overlooked talents.