What's the Matter with Helen? (1971)

In the glitzy haze of 1930's Hollywood, the spotlight shines on a dance school orchestrated by enthusiastic Adelle Stewart and her conservative partner, Helen Martin. Their school, a beacon for starry-eyed parents yearning for their daughters to echo the success of Shirley Temple, hides a chilling secret. Adelle and Helen, in reality, are Adelle Bruckner and Helen Hill, mothers of convicted murderers who fled from Braddock, Iowa, to escape the scandal of their sons' gruesome crimes. Bound together by their shared nightmare, the duo embarks on a journey to reinvent themselves, following an anonymous, ominous threat that haunts their past. Adelle, the more daring of the two, embraces the Hollywood allure, expanding the dance school by welcoming the enigmatic Hamilton Starr to teach elocution. She also finds herself drawn to the charming Linc Palmer, a wealthy southern patriarch of one of her students, who tempts her with a life of opulence and tranquility. In stark contrast, Helen, enshrouded in guilt, sees the specter of their past in every shadow, every glance, every whisper. She is tormented by the constant fear that a revenge-seeking specter is tracking them, ready to unleash their vengeance for their sons' atrocities. Adelle dismisses her anxieties as figments of an overwrought imagination, but the tension between their contrasting responses to their past threatens to unravel the fabric of their new lives. Caught in a labyrinth of Hollywood glamour, haunting guilt, and the looming menace of retribution, the duo must confront their past and their fears. As they navigate the thin line between perceived threats and reality, they question if they can ever truly escape the legacy of their sons' heinous deed.

What's the Matter with Helen? is a horror movie featuring Shelley Winters and directed by Curtis Harrington.

What's the Matter with Helen? is currently streaming on DIRECTV.