What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? **** (1969, Geraldine Page, Ruth Gordon, Rosemary Forsyth, Robert Fuller, Mildred Dunnock) – Classic Movie Review 4817

This extremely tasty 1969 black comedy mystery chiller is producer Robert Aldrich’s third Grand Guignol horror film after What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964).

However, this time there is no Bette Davis as star and Aldrich hands over the direction to Lee H Katzin, who has no trouble stirring up the atmosphere and tension in Theodore Apstein’s screenplay based on the novel The Forbidden Garden by Ursula Curtiss, in which Tucson, Arizona, widow Claire Marrable (Geraldine Page) makes a bad habit of bumping off the home help for their money and burying the bodies in the garden.

But now Aunt Alice (lovely old Ruth Gordon) turns up at Mrs Marrable’s home to take on the job of housekeeper so that she can find out what happened to her missing widowed friend Edna and eventually to trap Marrable.

The veteran actresses kick up a storm, the twisting plot is chilling and funny in turns, and the movie is wickedly entertaining.

Also in the cast are Rosemary Forsyth, Robert Fuller, Mildred Dunnock, Joan Huntington, Peter Brandon, Michael Barbera, Peter Bonerz, Richard Angarola, Valerie Allen, Martin Garralaga, Jack Bannon, Seth Riggs, Lou Kane, Howard Wright and Jess Riggle.

Katzin replaced an uncredited Bernard Girard as director after four weeks’ shooting.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4817

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