What’s the Matter with Helen? (1971) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

After their sons received life sentences for murdering Ellie Banner, Helen and Adelle faced a threatening caller who cut Helen's palm and vowed to make them pay for their children's crimes. Fearing for their safety and wanting to escape the guilt by association, they changed their names and moved to Hollywood to start fresh, opening a dance academy as a way to build new lives away from the scandal.

• move to hollywood
• escape iowa
• sons convicted
• life sentences
• dance academy

The intruder remains largely mysterious. He entered the house at night, called Helen by her real name, and was subsequently pushed down the stairs by Helen, dying from a head wound. It's never explicitly revealed who he was, though his knowledge of Helen's identity suggests a connection to her past in Iowa or potentially to theEllie Banner murder case.

• intruder
• home invasion
• real name revealed
• mystery man

Helen killed the rabbits as a manifestation of her deepening psychological breakdown. When Adelle discovered the slaughtered rabbits, Helen used the moment to confess that she had also killed her husband by pushing him off a plow, revealing a pattern of violence that predates the film's events and showing how her mental state has deteriorated under the pressure of her sons' crimes and the ongoing threats.

Foreshadowing: Earlier in the film, Helen's unsettling visions and paranoia hint at unresolved trauma from past violent acts.

• rabbits killed
• husband death
• confession
• psychological breakdown

Helen revealed that she killed her own husband by pushing him off a plow. This confession came during the traumatic moment when Adelle discovered the slaughtered rabbits, and it exposed Helen as someone with a history of violence that predates her sons' crimes. The revelation explains her extreme paranoia and guilt throughout the film.

• husband killed
• plow death
• past murder
• hidden crime

Helen stabbed Adelle in the back after learning about her plans to marry Lincoln Palmer. The murder was driven by Helen's intensified jealousy, isolation, and complete mental collapse. Having already killed an intruder and her own husband, Helen's grip on reality had deteriorated to the point where she saw Adelle's happiness as an unbearable betrayal, especially as she faced losing her only remaining connection.

Foreshadowing: Helen's jealousy over Adelle's romance with Lincoln had been building throughout the film, creating tension between the two women.

• adelle killed
• stabbing
• jealousy
• lincoln palmer
• murder

Helen sensed something dangerous and predatory about Hamilton Starr, the elocution teacher who offered to help at their dance academy. While Adelle welcomed his professional services, Helen experienced unsettling visions, including one where she saw Starr holding a knife during a show. Her paranoia proved justified given the threatening atmosphere surrounding the women, though Starr's exact role in the mystery remains ambiguous.

• hamilton starr
• elocution teacher
• suspicious
• knife vision

Sister Alma's evangelist broadcasts became a source of both comfort and torment for Helen. As Helen's guilt and paranoia grew, she fixated on the radio program, seeking spiritual absolution. When Helen visited Sister Alma for confession, she received forgiveness, but Helen's subsequent public breakdown led to her being prescribed bedrest. The religious figure represented Helen's desperate need for redemption that she could never fully achieve.

• sister alma
• evangelist
• radio show
• confession
• guilt

The piano motif that Lincoln Palmer followed to the rehearsal hall was the 'Goody Goody' music, a seemingly innocent tune that took on dark significance in context. When Lincoln arrived, he discovered the horrific scene of Helen, dressed in her dance costume, pushing Adelle's corpse up a ladder on stage while playing the piano with gleeful mania. The music symbolized the twisted continuation of their dance academy dreams twisted into nightmare.

• piano
• goody goody
• lincoln palmer
• rehearsal hall
• final scene

Helen's breakdown resulted from accumulated trauma: her sons' notorious murder conviction, the anonymous threatening calls, the physical attack and cutting of her palm, her past crime of killing her husband, the intruder she killed, and her guilt over covering up that murder. These stressors, combined with her isolation from Adelle and jealousy over Adelle's happiness, culminated in full psychotic break where she murdered Adelle and celebrated with manic laughter.

Foreshadowing: Her earlier visions, reliance on Sister Alma's broadcasts, and growing paranoia foreshadowed this complete unraveling.

• madness
• mental breakdown
• psychosis
• guilt
• trauma

The anonymous calls created a persistent atmosphere of terror for Helen and Adelle. The first call came right after their sons' arrest, with a voice claiming to have cut Helen's palm and vowing they would pay for their sons' crimes. These calls represented the community's rage and the inescapable nature of their past, contributing significantly to their decision to flee to Hollywood. The calls resumed even after the relocation, showing their past followed them.

• anonymous calls
• threats
• phone calls
• past catching up