Claire Marrable

"I think we can do without music tonight."

- Claire Marrable

"It's not very perceptive of you to minimize the courage that it takes to kill...."

- Claire to Alice

Claire Marrable is the main antagonist of the 1969 crime/drama What Ever Happened To Aunt Alice? Claire is a callous elderly widow who scams two of her live-in housekeepers out of money before murdering them. She hires a third housekeeper named Alice Dimmick who is secretly investigating her.

Her Husband's Death
After "grieving" the loss of her husband, she eagerly sits down with her lawyer to learn how much his assets are worth. Her lawyer informs her that her husband was actually horrible at managing money and that he has no assets- only liabilities. Enraged, she goes through the things that he did have: a dagger, a briefcase, a stamp collection, and his childhood butterfly collection. The lawyer is horrified as she goes on a vicious diatribe about how poor she is and smashes the butterfly collection.

The Murders of Rose Hull and Edna Tinsley
Claire relocates to Arizona, near her nephew George and his wife Julia. She hires a housekeeper named Rose, who she verbally abuses regularly. One night, Rose turns on music, and Claire ominously tells her to turn it off as she believes that they can "do without music tonight." Rose and Claire go into the garden at night to plant a pine tree, when Claire "accidentally" drops her watch into the hole, and when Rose attempts to pick it up, Claire hits her with a rock and buries her under the tree.

After hosting an event, Claire meets a woman named Edna Tinsley who gives Clair her life savings to invest in the stock market. To repay her while she waits for the stock to increase in value, Edna becomes Rose's replacement live-in housekeeper. Edna is also subjected to Claire's emotional abuse. One day, Claire instructs her gardener Juan to dig a hole for a pine tree to be planted. Claire keeps Edna in line by threatening to call her broker and instruct him to sell her stock, at a loss if necessary. Claire tells Edna that they can do without music for the night, as she drinks alcohol. That night, Edna meets the same fate as Rose, when Claire takes her to plant a second pine tree and bludgeons her with a shovel, revealing that she actually stole the money. Claire burns all of Edna's possessions except for her bible.

Encounter With Alice Dimmick
As Claire prepares to host another social with George and Julia, Juan compliments her on how well her pine trees have been growing, and Claire explains that she uses a special fertilizer before laughing maniacally. At the dinner party, Julia brags to her friends that Claire moved to Arizona so she and George can keep an eye on her because of her large amounts of money. Claire arrives, wheelchair-bound, and socializes with the other guests. Claire tells Julia that she fired Edna for having a drinking problem. An enthusiastic former nurse named Alice Dimmick arrives to Claire's house, and is hired on the spot for her people-skills (and large amount of savings).

Shortly after Alice's arrival, Chloe, a stray dog that Rose used to care for, begins barking at the trees, worried that the dog could expose the corpses, Claire attempts to get rid of it, only for a boy named Jim to intervene, and Claire learns from George that the neighboring cottage has been rented out to Jim's aunt Harriet and her boyfriend Mike, much to her chagrin. Claire later attempts to kill Chloe with an axe, but fails when it begins growling at her. Several months after Alice's arrival, it transpires that Mike is actually Alice's nephew, and Alice was a friend of Edna Tinsley who is investigating her disappearance. Claire begins to suspect Alice is onto her scheme of defrauding housekeepers out of money and killing them when Alice suspiciously goes into town to buy toothpaste before they planned on going on a road trip, when she finds a tube full of toothpaste. She also finds letters asking about Edna's whereabouts, and confirms that they were written by Alice, via handwriting.

Claire confronts Alice, on a stormy night as she attempts to call Mike, and the two engage in a struggle when Alice accuses Clair of murdering Edna and Rose. The struggle ends when Claire knocks Alice unconscious with a telephone receiver. The next morning, Harriet visits to tell Claire that George called her, but the storm had killed the phone lines. Claire tells Harriet that Alice was injured during the storm, but insisted on leaving to go the pharmacy. Claire disguises herself as Alice, and puts Alice's body in the passenger seat of the car and leaves.

Crimes Exposed
Harriet and Jim mistake Claire for Alice and see her drive away. Alice tauntingly tells Claire that "she told..." before Claire annoyedly beats her with a purse and drives the car into a lake, drowning Alice. Claire pretends to be shocked when she hears of the tragic "accident" and is comforted by Julia and George. Harriet, who had visited with concerns for Alice is appalled when Julia is more concerned about how much the car was worth than Alice's death.

Mike, who suspects Claire murdered his Aunt Alice goes to the police, but they do not believe him. Claire suspects that Alice told Harriet about her suspicions, and invites her and Jim over for drinks, which she drugs. When Jim and Harriet faint at their cottage, Claire sets it on fire, locking Chloe inside as well, in an attempt to make sure no one knows of her crimes. The next morning, she awakes to Chloe barking, and finds that Mike rescued Chloe, Harriet, and Jim and that the police, Juan, George, and Julia have unearthed her pine trees. Claire enters a state of shock before berating them for ruining her garden. Jim then returns Joseph's stamp collection that Claire had given him, saying that it was valued at more than $100,000, meaning all the murders that she committed her entirely pointless. Upon hearing this, Claire laughs and cries before suggesting to the police that she apply to be a live-in housekeeper, as she is an excellent gardener.

Trivia

 * Claire Marrable is portrayed by Geraldine Page.
 * Geraldine Page also provided the voice work for Madame Medusa.
 * She is an antagonist of the What Ever Happened To... series, but is not as well-known as Baby Jane Hudson from What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?