The innocence of childhood and the purity of motherly love are brought gloriously, gothically into question in this modern-day “Hansel and Gretel” directed by Curtis Harrington in England with an all-English cast, save Shelley Winters--the perfect one to play the loving, lonely Auntie Roo, whose maternal instincts threaten to overflow dangerously at any moment. The widow of a magician, Auntie Roo is given to mysticism herself; she attempts to recall the little girl she has lost in a tragic accident years ago by keeping the child's remains in a coffin and participating in seances engineered by phony medium Ralph Richardson. And every year at Christmas time she invites the children of a nearby orphanage to warm up her huge mansion. A strange wonderland of masks, dummies and other paraphernalia left behind by her husband frightens and titillates the children--and increases the atmosphere of dementia in the house. When Auntie Roo takes a strong liking to one of the little orphans, the girl's brother concludes--rightly or wrongly--that Auntie is a witch who must be destroyed in the Grimmest of manners.