★ 6 / 10
Shelley Winters is super in this oddball horror
CinemaSerf
Shelley Winters is super in this oddball horror. She ("Mrs. Forrest") invites ten young children into her mansion-cum-orphanage one Christmas - desperate to…
Shelley Winters is super in this oddball horror. She ("Mrs. Forrest") invites ten young children into her mansion-cum-orphanage one Christmas - desperate to fill the void left by the death of her young daughter Katherine. Two children who did not get invited - "Katy" (Chloe Franks) and her brother "Christopher" (Mark Lester) decide that they are not going to be left out - but when the girl ends up locked in the attic, it falls to her brother to manage to convince everyone that his sister has been kidnapped, and that the old lady is not of particularly sound mind! A solid cast support the star here - Sir Ralph Richardson, Lionel Jeffries - in a straight (ash) role for a change, and the always engaging Hugh Griffith, but somehow once the film gets going I expected it to turn comedic. There just isn't any menace. Winters' performance is just scatty, never scary. Still, the ensemble delivers a reasonable script well enough and there are just about enough creepy goings on in the house to sustain it before an ending that i found rather sad.
Read full review
★ 5 / 10
Certainly Not the Gingerbread Man!
BaronBl00d
I had the fortunate circumstance to see this double-billed as a very young child with Bava'a Baron Blood. Some of the scenes remained in my mind - particularly…
I had the fortunate circumstance to see this double-billed as a very young child with Bava'a Baron Blood. Some of the scenes remained in my mind - particularly the creepy figure of Shelley Winters. I recently set out to see the film again some 30 years later. I remembered more than I thought I had, and the film came back to me in large part. This is not a bad film nor a good film. As another reviewer noted, it is a pleasant, harmless time-waster - for those of us who enjoy "wasting" time on such things. Mark Lester and Chloe Franks play two orphans at an orphanage. Franks has an uncanny resemblance to the dead daughter of the orphanage's greatest patroness and benefactress, Shelley Winters. Winters is so good to the kiddies that every year she invites them to her sumptuous home at Christmas for yuletide fun. She has virtually no interest in Lester but soon has the keenest of hearts for the young Franks as her dead daughter's look-a-like. Well, Lester is a growing teen rebelling, Winters decays into some form of madness, a cast of stalwart British character actors such as Sir Ralph Richardson, Hugh Griffith, and Lionel Jeffries ably aid the story, and that story degenerates/diffuses into some sinister tale not unlike Hansel and Gretel. Well, the movie has a poor story overall - but Winter's fine performance albeit over-the-top to be sure does add emotional depth to it. Director Curtis Harrington is very able behind the camera if not dazzling.
Read full review
★ 7 / 10
A fun cult flick.
Hey_Sweden
Shelley Winters is given some rich opportunities here to emote and otherwise tear into the scenery. In the role of Mrs. Forrest, a.k.a. "Auntie Roo", she…
Shelley Winters is given some rich opportunities here to emote and otherwise tear into the scenery. In the role of Mrs. Forrest, a.k.a. "Auntie Roo", she provides a nice place for orphaned children to spend their Christmas holidays. But incorrigible child Christopher Coombs (Mark Lester) is convinced that she's like the witch in the "Hansel and Gretel" story, and kidnaps kids in order to fatten them up and eat them.
While clearly Mrs. Forrest has gone off the deep end, you do feel sympathy for her. She certainly can't accept or deal with the death of her own child, and she's taken advantage of by a conniving butler (Michael Gothard) and medium (the great Ralph Richardson). Some viewers are sure to be suspicious of the bratty Christopher, and doubt the possibility of Mrs. Forrest being an actual "witch".
Overall, the movie is a fun, if not exemplary, effort for Curtis Harrington, who'd also collaborated with Winters on "What's the Matter with Helen?". They make a good team, in this tale (concocted by David D. Osborn, and scripted by Robert Blees and Hammer scribe Jimmy Sangster) intended as a twisted modern version of "Hansel and Gretel". It establishes a tone right away with its pre-credits sequence, where Mrs. Forrest sings a lullaby to a corpse.
Lester and adorable Chloe Franks are good as the brother and sister targeted by our unbalanced protagonist, with Gothard, Richardson, lovely Judy Cornwell, Lionel Jeffries, Hugh Griffith, and Rosalie Crutchley providing excellent support.
The opening credits sequence comes complete with over the top music by Kenneth V. Jones, adding to the fairy tale feel of the material. And since it takes place during the Christmas holidays, some viewers may want to make it part of their Yuletide viewing tradition.
Seven out of 10.
Read full review
60%
TOMATOMETER
· 10 reviews
44%
AUDIENCE
· 250 ratings
6.1/10
3K
•••
A modern take on the Hansel and Grettel story. Please seed the 720. Thank you.