Cheap Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice? (DVD) (Geraldine Page, Ruth Gordon) (Lee H. Katzin, Bernard Girard) Price

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Customer Reviews of Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice?

An excellent mixture of chills and dark comedy.
Don't let the title fool you. This is not a parody of WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?. AUNT ALICE is its own little film, and what a nifty one it is. The great Geraldine Page stars as Mrs. Marrable, a widow whose husband left her only a stamp album. Unable(and unwilling) to cope with poverty, Mrs. Marrable is able to live up to her station by devising a plan that consists of hiring-then murdering housekeepers for their private incomes. The plan works very well until Mrs. Marrable makes the mistake of eliminating wispy Miss Tinsley(Mildred Dunnock) whose feisty friend, Mrs. Dimmock(the delightful Ruth Gordon), promptly applies for a position at the Marrable residence in order to solve this bizarre missing-persons mystery. Theodore Apstein's script(based on the novel 'The Forbidden Garden' by Ursula Curtiss) is a superlative mixture of spine-tingling suspense and dark comedy. The supporting cast performs competently enough, but the film ultimately belongs to Page and Gordon who both turn in positively flawless portrayals. The DVD is an absolute must for collectors. DVD lovers may at first be put off by the lack of extra material on this particular release, but it does include the original theatrical trailer(which isn't included on the VHS release), and the film itself never looked better. Highly recommended!

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Devilish fun!
Claire Marrable, a destitute widow, finds a way to keep herself living the good life by hiring a series of housekeepers whom she eventually murders, steals their life savings and buries them in her desert pine tree garden. An incredibly fun movie which derives pleasure from the lead actors. Geraldine Page (as Mrs. Marrable) and Ruth Gordon (as Alice Dimmock, the latest housekeeper who is actually trying to find out what happened to her friend who mysteriously vanished while working for Marrable) chew the scenery to the hilt and it is so much fun watching the interactions between the two. Watch Page's reaction when Gordon tells her the amount in her savings account - priceless! The film as a whole suffers somewhat from some dull supporting characters and a dreary romantic sub-plot involving Gordon's nephew and Page's neighbor. Still worth it for the acting dynamo of Page and Gordon and even Mildred Dunnock manages some nice moments in her few scenes. And you'll never forget the frenetic zither music score!

The quality of the dvd is very good. The picture is sharp and the colors are strong. The only extra feature is a trailer for the film which delivers the memorable tag-line - "Whatever happened to Aunt Alice is more terrifying than what happened to Baby Jane"!

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Sheer brilliance
They do not make movies like this anymore. Geraldine Page plays a nutcase hell bent on murdering every housekeeper that comes to work for her. What makes it so memorable is how she discards of the bodies (I won't give anything away here). Also adding effect is the spectacular music. Ruth Gordon joins the cast as a housekeeper trying to catch her out. Bad move Ruth.
While this film might seem dated to many, no moviegoer can argue the brilliant acting and suspense. An all round favourite.