WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN?

What is the matter with Helen? I've been asking myself that for a few days. Well in this bargain basement Grand Guignol film, Helen is Shelley Winters and if that's not matter enough, she's living with Debbie Reynolds (Adelle). They play two mothers who leave 1930's New York after their children are convicted of murder to start a new life in LA! Yes - From New York to LA just like the song says.

Adelle laps up the Hollywood lifestyle teaching dance to kids whilst their parents dream of their children being the next Shirley Temple. One glorious scene has a 3 foot liqoured up girl doing her damndest at a Mae West impression, complete with nasal twang and curves to match during a dance display. Another has Adelle coming home from a night of dancing (which there is a lot of) to discover that Helen has taken a bad ass kitchen knife and chopped up her pet bunny rabbits and left them all over the kitchen and garden. Glenn Close may have boiled rabbits but Shelley Winter's Helen cut them up for her to cook!

There's also one part when the pushy stage mothers are leaving the dance studio when a dolled up dwarf appears on screen, gives a cheesy grin and walks off. Kind of a precursor to the Midget Mae West Experience we see later!

The list could go on but basically Helen's as nutty as a fruitcake just like her son and she plays the piano like a woman possessed. She's also got a penchant for kitchen knives, listening to evangelists, pushing people downstairs and having visions of dead people bleeding! The tagline for this bad boy is "ALL SHE WANTS IS A FRIEND - TO THE END!" - And that really IS the matter with Helen!