‘What’s the Matter with Helen?’ Is a Quotable Midnight Movie Ritual Made for Two

On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age. 

First, the spoiler-free pitch for one editor’s midnight movie pick — something weird and wonderful from any age of film that deserves our memorializing. 

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Then, the spoiler-filled aftermath as experienced by the unwitting editor attacked by this week’s recommendation.

The Pitch: After Dark but Make It for Gays of a Certain Age

When I was pressed into service for IndieWire After Dark, I hesitated all of five seconds before I screamed, “What’s the Matter With Helen?” at Ali. Partly because it’s a truly bonkers hagsploitation movie but mostly because I greedily grasp at every excuse to discuss Curtis Harrington’s examination of what the mothers of thrill killers Leopold and Loeb might have done with their lives after their sons’ convictions.

Move from the Midwest to Los Angeles to fulfill a lifelong dream of opening a dance school for kids, of course! But somehow, despite life amid the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, good old salt-of-the-earth murders keep happening around Helen (two-time Oscar winner Shelley Winters) and Adele (Debbie Reynolds). But never fear! That doesn’t mean the film won’t grind to a screeching halt for not one but two batshit musical numbers, one a child’s talent show during which a little girl sings a song in full Mae West drag (“Oh You Nasty Man”) and another in which Reynolds and Broadway’s Sven Svenson tango on a party boat.

In the aftermath of “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” there grew a subgenre of horror thrillers that put actresses of a certain age in situations of a certain type (typically bloody and violent). Bette Davis went on to do “Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte,” perhaps the ultimate Grand Guignol example of the genre. Joan Crawford did so many that it gets bleak to look at her late filmography. The whole thing was the MCU of its era, inexplicably attracting Oscar winners who just wanted to work.

But Harrington’s directorial contributions are different. He has a camp aficionado’s appreciation for aging actresses, and he’d wind up working with a shocking array of them, from Gloria Swanson to Yvette Mimieux. And “What’s the Matter with Helen?” with its silver lamé gowns, marcelled hair, and general ’30s Hollywood milieu is camp of the highest order.

Now, I’m forcing our own Alison Foreman to watch what happens when two moms get dazzled by the bright lights of the big city. Good goody! —MP

The Aftermath: You Had Me at ‘Somebody Cut Me’

You can hear “What’s the Matter with Helen?” become a midnight movie long before its visuals reach cult classic status… but damn, if that last-act leotard and ladder scene doesn’t go for broke.

From the moment Shelley Winters uttered, “Somebody cut me! Somebody out there CUT ME!,” I heard nearly every one of this movie’s scrumptiously soapy lines immediately re-delivered in the lyrical tone of my colleague and friend Mark Peikert. A fiendish lover of old-school melodrama (and, dare I say, a professional connoisseur of contemporary cool??), IndieWire’s resident expert in made-for-Hollywood hysteria had this fizzy and fucked-up delight just waiting on his personal movie recommendation tap. If you’ve spoken with him even once, that makes all the sense in the world.

Mark brings the same melodic highs and lows to everyday conversation as Harrington’s warring actresses exhibit in this inexplicable two-hander, and that’s the exact energy you’ll want coming from any fringe film lover you pick to venture back in time with for this bygone era of big screen catfights.

This is one of those movies that, yes, was technically made to be watched… but it’s all but designed for theatrical recitation. Seriously, we’ve worked together long enough now that I can’t remember if Mark has actually said, “I know it’s against your religion Helen, but you’d better have a shot of gin!” to me or if that’s just a dream I had. Either way, having that and “May I have… the matches?” ready to reference at the drop of a hat will have to make our professional communications quicker.

Stupendously quotable with a sickening rhythm you’ll want to break out your tap shoes for, “What’s the Matter with Helen?” demands to be experienced in duet. It’s a grower not a shower, but when the crazy lady’s piano finale really builds, this showbiz corpse can dance and you’ll want to work in twos. —AF

Those brave enough to join in on the fun can stream “What’s the Matter with Helen?” on YouTube. IndieWire After Dark publishes midnight movie recommendations at 11:59 p.m. ET every Friday. Read more of our deranged suggestions…

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