What’s the Matter with Helen?
1971
Hollywood, CA
Curtis Harrington
Camp Thriller
What’s it all about: Everything is the matter with Shelley Winters after her son is convicted of murder and her best friend Debbie Reynolds gives her a really bad haircut. It doesn’t help that Debbie can’t seem to shut the front door to save her life, or that her idea of laying low is to move to Hollywood, dye her hair platinum and dance like everyone’s watching.
First Encounter: first viewing
Prostitute Index: nil
Death By: plow
Relics: mink stole, newsreel, gambling ship, elocution class
Hoops: it never ends well for a white rabbit in the movies
Heartthrobs: Debbie Reynolds, Dennis Weaver
Pass/Fails the Test of Time: Agnes Moorehead
LoFi Magic: Debbie Reynolds’s floor-clearing tango with a stranger
Words to live by: “Poverty frightens me, I guess.”
Makes me want to: read more about Shelley, who was having a nervous breakdown IRL while playing this part
Candotti Take: “A lot of old ladies, no? And very thin eyebrows.”
Worth a watch/rewatch: Yes
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