In 1971, underappreciated horror indie director Curtis Harrington (NIGHT TIDE, RUBY, HOW AWFUL ABOUT ALLEN) finally got to shoot the movie he'd been wanting to make for years, a screenplay by Henry Farrell (BABY JANE, SWEET CHARLOTTE) which filmed under the working title THE BEST OF FRIENDS. He wrangled two renowned stars into taking the leading roles, Shelley Winters and Debbie Reynolds, stuffed the film full of 1930s atmosphere and fought to keep his vision intact as much as possible (including some pretty blatant lesbian subtext). Despite a few edits that were made, it remained pretty much intact... but he was in England shooting his next film when it was released, promotion was minuscule, and he later referred to the film's poster as "one of the worst moments of my career."
Released as WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN, the film was largely ignored and critical reviews were mixed, but Reynolds and Winters have stated numerous times how proud they are of the movie and until the day he died, Harrington referred to it as his favorite film that he directed. HELEN began airing infrequently on NBC around '74, but it was over 20 years old before it was officially released on home video. By that time, it had been mostly forgotten, though it's developed a small cult audience over the years... and early this year when I first saw it, I became a part of that cult.
The initial reason for my disappearance on this blog is because I was working on a site for the film called Goody, Goody. It's unfinished at the moment, but for anyone who's interested, go check it out. After I saw the film, I started searching and found virtually no information about it online, so I set out to right that wrong. Unfinished, yes, but there's still a lot of info there that's not surfaced before on the web.
And here's the soundtrack. It consists of both the (practically impossible to find) LP with David Raksin's score (my own rip, by the way -- there's a pretty terrible rip floating around) and DVD rips of some additional pieces of the score and songs. None of the tracks on the LP are titled (neither the jacket nor disc label cite tracks) , so I came up with titles of my own. Some of the LP cuts are longer and/or different from the ones that appear in the film, and there's two cues that I couldn't find anywhere in the movie. I just realized that the "Military on Parade" DVD rip is included -- I don't think I edited that track like I'd planned, and don't have time to go back and fix it at the moment.
And here's the soundtrack. It consists of both the (practically impossible to find) LP with David Raksin's score (my own rip, by the way -- there's a pretty terrible rip floating around) and DVD rips of some additional pieces of the score and songs. None of the tracks on the LP are titled (neither the jacket nor disc label cite tracks) , so I came up with titles of my own. Some of the LP cuts are longer and/or different from the ones that appear in the film, and there's two cues that I couldn't find anywhere in the movie. I just realized that the "Military on Parade" DVD rip is included -- I don't think I edited that track like I'd planned, and don't have time to go back and fix it at the moment.
01. Main Title
02. Just a Harmless Crank
03. Lenny's Father
04. Unused Cue #1
05. Poverty Frightens Me
06. Unused Cue #2
07. Open Door
08. Goody, Goody (Finale, album version)
09. Did You Get My Letter?
10. We'll Get Rid of Him... Together
11. Helen Hallucinates
12. No Man Can Be That Marvelous
13. Dead Bunnies
14. Helen Goes Crazy
15. Goody, Goody (Rehearsal, album version)
DVD RIPS
16. Hearst Metrotone Newsreel
17. Main Title (Film Version)
18. Goody, Goody (Rehearsal #1, film version)
19. Goody, Goody (Rehearsal #2)
20. Goody, Goody (Jazz Version)
21. The Tango
22. Did You Ever Hear a Dream Walking? - Debbie Reynolds
23. Animal Crackers in My Soup - Sammee Lee Jones
24. Nasty Man - Robbi Morgan
25. Military On Parade
26. Goody, Goody - Debbie Reynolds
27. What a Friend We Have in Jesus - Agnes Moorehead
28. Bye, Bye Blackbird - Debbie Reynolds
29. Goody, Goody (Finale, Film Version)
6 comments:
Brilliant work as always! Very much looking forward to what the site will hold in the future. Also, thanks a bunch for the heads up on the Doctor Detroit soundtrack!
Thanks a bunch!
You know that if you track down some back issues of Scarlet Street magazine, you'll find some wonderful reviews of the film, an interview with Debbie Reynolds which talks basically about HELEN and other treasures which might help you out on GOODY GOODY. . .
Thank You, Vinnie!
Thanks, I just downloaded this after seeing the film for the first time. I thought it was campy fun, but I actually liked the film on the flipside of the DVD better - Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?
I'm disappointed in the DVD transfers though. Helen has 16:9 enhancement but the image is overly smooth, as if too much digital noise reduction was applied. It's also progressive but looks as if it were previously interlaced at times. And the color palette is very uneven - the actors either look like they were drained of blood or just stepped out of a Jersey Shore episode. While Auntie Roo has pretty much none of these problems, it's letterboxed in a 4:3 frame. I mean I hate to whine - we're lucky anyone cared to put them on DVD at all - but MGM could have taken a little more care.
@Joey - Personally, I think "Auntie Roo" drags a bit in spots and there's a few too many characters who have very little to do. (Though Judy Cornwell claimed her part was cut down because Shelley Winters was being a diva). Once they get into the "Hansel & Gretel" third act, however, it's stellar.
As for "Helen," I think your criticism is mostly of the way it was filmed rather than the transfer. Curtis Harrington employed an old Hollywood technique wherein they covered the lens with cheesecloth for the close-ups of the leading ladies to soften their appearance. He didn't employ the same method with "Auntie Roo," which is why it looks so different. (I just replied a little more in-depth to your post on the imdb "Helen" board.)
Ah. Yeah, I could tell there was the soft focus closeups, but the transfer still reeks of digital noise reduction to me as well, but I don't know - I wasn't there when MGM did the video transfers lol.
My big criticism with Auntie Roo is the opening scene - it shows us immediately that she's lost her marbles when we see her singing to a decomposing skeleton. That exposition would have worked a lot better about 30 minutes into the film, because it'd pack an even bigger punch if we just thought she was a lonely quirky widow and then we find out she's gone batshit. It's basically a repeat of Helen's promotional campaign - too much important stuff given away too soon.
Nonetheless I don't regret picking up the DVD, transfer or story issues for either film aside. Both are good campy fun and they'll both become good Halloween staples for me, along with the perennial classic that is Hocus Pocus.
I did download the Helen soundtrack, and I thank you for posting. The score was quite good and I'm surprised it hasn't turned up on iTunes and such, where many long out-of-print soundtracks have ended up these days.
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