ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - June 12th
"ROSEMARY'S BABY" released in 1968
For Rosemary Woodhouse, moving into the Bramford apartments was a dream come true; spacious living and friendly neighbors. But when Rosemary becomes pregnant, her maternal happiness quickly descends into hysteria, madness and horror, in Roman Polanski's shocking supernatural chiller, Rosemary's Baby!
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Rosemary and her husband Guy (Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes) - a struggling actor - move into an opulent but antiquated New York City apartment building, the "Bramford", next door to the eccentric but seemingly harmless old couple, the Castevets, Minnie (Ruth Gordon) and Roman (Sidney Blackmer). As time goes by, Guy's career begins to pick up (landing a role in a play when the actor who was originally cast suddenly and inexplicably goes blind!) and suggests that he and Rosemary try to conceive. After a harrowing experience, Rosemary awakens the next morning to scratch marks on her body and, sometime later discovers, is pregnant. As her preganancy progresses, strange events begin to surround Rosemary - her friend Hutch (Maurice Evans)(who originally tried to dissuade them from moving into the Bramford) mysteriously dies, eerie noises from the discovered secret closet, and the unnatural attention of the Castevets providing strange pendants and mysterious "vitamin pills". As Rosemary's comes closer and closer to giving birth, her sanity is strained to the breaking point - before she learns the shocking and horrifying truth!
TRIVIA: Mia Farrow said in a recent interview that the actor playing the Devil, Clay Tanner, was completely naked during the rape scene, dressed up in demonic makeup with vertical contact lenses. She said Clay Tanner spent hours grinding on top of her as they were shooting the rape scene. After they were done he got up, shook Mia's hand in a very cordial and businessman type way and said "Miss Farrow, it was a pleasure working with you". Mia shook his hand back and said "thank you. He was a very lovely man", she said. Clay Tanner is an actor and an extra who has appeared in a lot of movies, most notably The Outlaw Josie Wales and Lady Sings the Blues. This, of course, dispells the urban legend that Anton LeVay, founder of the Church of Satan, served as a technical advisor on the film and performed the rape scene himself, dressed in Devil make-up.
Top and Above: Rosemary (Mia Farrow) finds strange scratch marks on her body after waking from a bizarre dream
Based on the 1967 bestselling novel by Ira Levine, the film rights to Rosemary's Baby were originally purchased by famed B-movie producer/director William Castle (financed by mortgaging his house). Castle took the picture to Paramount pictures in the hopes of directing his first A-list picture. Executive Robert Evans, recognizing the commercial potential of the project, agreed but with the stipulation that Castle, who had a reputation for low-budget horror films, could produce but not direct the film adaptation (as well as making a prominent cameo appearance). Paramount instead chose European filmmaker Roman Polanski to direct his first American movie, with producer Evans luring Polanski to America with the offer to direct Downhill Racer with Robert Redford - although he always intended to have Polanski make Rosemary's Baby.
Casting for this film presented its own problems: Roman Polanski at first saw Rosemary as an "All-American Girl" and sought Tuesday Weld for the lead, but she passed. Other actresses considered for the part were Sharon Tate (Polanski's real life wife), Jane Fonda, Julie Christie, Elizabeth Hartman and Joanna Pettet, before Evans suggested Mia Farrow. And John Cassavetes was cast as Guy over fellow contenders Richard Chamberlain, Jack Nicholson, James Fox, Burt Reynolds, Laurence Harvey (who begged to play the role) and Warren Beatty (who turned it down claiming "Hey! Can't I play Rosemary?").
Filmed on location in New York, The Dakota Building (1 West 72nd Street) on Manhattan's Upper West Side was used as the exterior for infamous "Bramford". While on location shooting a scene where a dazed and preoccupied Rosemary wanders into the middle of a Manhattan street into oncoming traffic, Farrow was reluctant to film the scene for "real" until Polanski pointed to her pregnancy padding and reassured her, "no one's going to hit a pregnant woman". The scene was successfully shot with Farrow walking into real traffic and Polanski following, operating the hand-held camera - since he was the only one willing to do it!
Casting for this film presented its own problems: Roman Polanski at first saw Rosemary as an "All-American Girl" and sought Tuesday Weld for the lead, but she passed. Other actresses considered for the part were Sharon Tate (Polanski's real life wife), Jane Fonda, Julie Christie, Elizabeth Hartman and Joanna Pettet, before Evans suggested Mia Farrow. And John Cassavetes was cast as Guy over fellow contenders Richard Chamberlain, Jack Nicholson, James Fox, Burt Reynolds, Laurence Harvey (who begged to play the role) and Warren Beatty (who turned it down claiming "Hey! Can't I play Rosemary?").
Filmed on location in New York, The Dakota Building (1 West 72nd Street) on Manhattan's Upper West Side was used as the exterior for infamous "Bramford". While on location shooting a scene where a dazed and preoccupied Rosemary wanders into the middle of a Manhattan street into oncoming traffic, Farrow was reluctant to film the scene for "real" until Polanski pointed to her pregnancy padding and reassured her, "no one's going to hit a pregnant woman". The scene was successfully shot with Farrow walking into real traffic and Polanski following, operating the hand-held camera - since he was the only one willing to do it!
TRIVIA: There is a popular rumor that Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey gave technical advice and portrayed Satan in the impregnation scene. This is false - LaVey had no involvement with the film.
Top and Above: As Rosemary's pregnancy progresses, her husband Guy (John Cassavetes) grows more distant, and the neighbours, Minnie and Roman Castevets (Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer) become more and more involved in the "health" of her unborn child
This was Roman Polanski's very first adaptation, and it is very faithful to the novel with pieces of dialog, color schemes and clothes taken verbatim from the book. Ira Levin felt that this film is "the single most faithful adaptation of a novel ever to come out of Hollywood." William Castle speculated the reasons for this were because it was the first time Roman Polanski had ever adapted another writer's work, unaware he had the freedom to improvise on the novel.
Rosemary's Baby was widely well received by critics upon its theatrical release in 1968, and has since earned almost universal acclaim from film critics, won numerous nominations and awards, and today is considered one of the greatest American horror films ever made. In her 1968 review for The New York Times, Renata Adler said, "The movie—although it is pleasant—doesn't seem to work on any of its dark or powerful terms. I think this is because it is almost too extremely plausible. The quality of the young people's lives seems the quality of lives that one knows, even to the point of finding old people next door to avoid and lean on. One gets very annoyed that they don't catch on sooner." In 2015, Variety stated, "Several exhilarating milestones are achieved in Rosemary's Baby, an excellent film version of Ira Levin's diabolical chiller novel. Writer-director Roman Polanski has triumphed in his first US-made pic. The film holds attention without explicit violence or gore... Farrow's performance is outstanding." Ruth Gordon would go on to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Minnie Castevet.
Rosemary's Baby was widely well received by critics upon its theatrical release in 1968, and has since earned almost universal acclaim from film critics, won numerous nominations and awards, and today is considered one of the greatest American horror films ever made. In her 1968 review for The New York Times, Renata Adler said, "The movie—although it is pleasant—doesn't seem to work on any of its dark or powerful terms. I think this is because it is almost too extremely plausible. The quality of the young people's lives seems the quality of lives that one knows, even to the point of finding old people next door to avoid and lean on. One gets very annoyed that they don't catch on sooner." In 2015, Variety stated, "Several exhilarating milestones are achieved in Rosemary's Baby, an excellent film version of Ira Levin's diabolical chiller novel. Writer-director Roman Polanski has triumphed in his first US-made pic. The film holds attention without explicit violence or gore... Farrow's performance is outstanding." Ruth Gordon would go on to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Minnie Castevet.
At the end of the book Rosemary seriously considers killing Andy and then committing suicide for a few minutes, much like Terry did at the beginning of the novel under similar circumstances. She then takes pity on Andy, after seeing the terrified look on his face. After considering all the options she decides to raise Andy as her own. Even though he's a demon, she decides to love him and mother him and let her good natured human personality influence him, hopefully to do good ( "he's half Devil but half me after all!"). She also decides to report everything to the Pope and the Vatican, and to let them handle the issue as they see fit (whether that be executing Andy, forgiving him or trying to reform him). None of this is said in the movie; we just see Rosemary begin to rock the cradle and look at the baby inquisitively as the camera pulls back, the lullaby cues up on the soundtrack and the movie fades out and ends.
Above: Director Roman Polanski on location in New York with Mia Farrow
In 2014, Rosemary's Baby was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Thirty years after he wrote Rosemary's Baby, Ira Levin wrote Son of Rosemary, a sequel which he dedicated to the film's star, Mia Farrow. Reaction to the book was mixed, but it made the best seller lists nationwide. A remake of Rosemary's Baby was briefly considered in 2008 by producers Michael Bay, Andrew Form, and Brad Fuller, before NBC made a four-hour Rosemary's Baby miniseries, with Zoe Saldana as Rosemary, in 2014. The miniseries was filmed in Paris - in place of New York - under the direction of Agnieszka Holland.
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 99%
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