I watched this one - and the film on the flip side of the MGM DVD, WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN (1971) - in tribute to the recent passing of Curtis Harrington; I also just ordered his NIGHT TIDE (1961) and RUBY (1977), both of which contain Audio Commentaries featuring the director. Personally I'm most grateful to the man because, thanks to his efforts, James Whale's long-lost horror classic THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932) was rediscovered - a film which, when I finally caught up with it, jumped straight to my all-time favorite slot!
Anyway, AUNTIE ROO is an AIP horror piece which came at the tail-end of the so-called "Whatever" cycle - which began with WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962) and was noted for giving larger-than-life macabre roles to ageing female Hollywood stars. This one featured Shelley Winters (who also co-starred with Debbie Reynolds in HELEN), who certainly gave the part her all. She was surrounded by accomplished cast members (Ralph Richardson, Lionel Jeffries, Hugh Griffith, Rosalie Crutchley, Michael Gothard and child actors Mark Lester and Chloe Franks) and the behind-the-camera crew was equally imposing (Jimmy Sangster and Gavin Lambert among the screenwriters and cinematographer Desmond Dickinson).
Incidentally, just as Hammer's STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING (1972) took its inspiration from "Peter Pan", this was based on the popular fairy-tale by the Brothers Grimm "Hansel & Gretel" - with Lester and Franks as the siblings at the mercy of 'witch' Winters! Ironically, however, the first half of the film works rather better than the heavy-handed fairy-tale scenario: the story has been updated and reset to pre-WWI England (where it was also shot) and necessitates quite a bit of exposition (including a subplot involving Richardson and Gothard fleecing the rich widow by holding fake séances, in which she tries to contact her own daughter about whose death she is guilt-ridden and whose decaying corpse she still conserves!). It may be that, not having another actress of her own caliber to play against, Winters too often resorts to hamminess and gradually unbalances the film...though it must be said that Lester is supposed to have a demonic side to him, given his callous disposal of Winters, but which he's largely unable to convey (for this reason, it'll be interesting to check out his NIGHT HAIR CHILD [1972] where he plays a disturbed boy menacing stepmom Britt Ekland and which I've had on DivX for quite some time)! This, then, would seem to suggest that the supporting cast is wasted; with respect to Jeffries and Griffith, that may perhaps be true, but Richardsoin does get to demonstrate his incomparable thespian skills in a couple of extended scenes (still, his role isn't quite as large or central to the plot as one would expect from his above-the-title billing!).
Harrington's wonderful period atmosphere is admirably sustained, however, and the scenes in which Winters lullabies her long-dead daughter have a definite creepiness to them (ditto the sequence in which the children insinuate themselves into the room belonging to Winters' late conjurer husband, play around with a still-active guillotine and are scared by a costumed Gothard).
Anyway, AUNTIE ROO is an AIP horror piece which came at the tail-end of the so-called "Whatever" cycle - which began with WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962) and was noted for giving larger-than-life macabre roles to ageing female Hollywood stars. This one featured Shelley Winters (who also co-starred with Debbie Reynolds in HELEN), who certainly gave the part her all. She was surrounded by accomplished cast members (Ralph Richardson, Lionel Jeffries, Hugh Griffith, Rosalie Crutchley, Michael Gothard and child actors Mark Lester and Chloe Franks) and the behind-the-camera crew was equally imposing (Jimmy Sangster and Gavin Lambert among the screenwriters and cinematographer Desmond Dickinson).
Incidentally, just as Hammer's STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING (1972) took its inspiration from "Peter Pan", this was based on the popular fairy-tale by the Brothers Grimm "Hansel & Gretel" - with Lester and Franks as the siblings at the mercy of 'witch' Winters! Ironically, however, the first half of the film works rather better than the heavy-handed fairy-tale scenario: the story has been updated and reset to pre-WWI England (where it was also shot) and necessitates quite a bit of exposition (including a subplot involving Richardson and Gothard fleecing the rich widow by holding fake séances, in which she tries to contact her own daughter about whose death she is guilt-ridden and whose decaying corpse she still conserves!). It may be that, not having another actress of her own caliber to play against, Winters too often resorts to hamminess and gradually unbalances the film...though it must be said that Lester is supposed to have a demonic side to him, given his callous disposal of Winters, but which he's largely unable to convey (for this reason, it'll be interesting to check out his NIGHT HAIR CHILD [1972] where he plays a disturbed boy menacing stepmom Britt Ekland and which I've had on DivX for quite some time)! This, then, would seem to suggest that the supporting cast is wasted; with respect to Jeffries and Griffith, that may perhaps be true, but Richardsoin does get to demonstrate his incomparable thespian skills in a couple of extended scenes (still, his role isn't quite as large or central to the plot as one would expect from his above-the-title billing!).
Harrington's wonderful period atmosphere is admirably sustained, however, and the scenes in which Winters lullabies her long-dead daughter have a definite creepiness to them (ditto the sequence in which the children insinuate themselves into the room belonging to Winters' late conjurer husband, play around with a still-active guillotine and are scared by a costumed Gothard).