Rosemary's Baby (film)

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Rosemary's Baby

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Roman Polanski
Produced by William Castle
Written by Roman Polanski
Based on Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin
Starring Mia Farrow
John Cassavetes
Ruth Gordon
Sidney Blackmer
Maurice Evans
Ralph Bellamy
Music by Krzysztof Komeda
Cinematography William A. Fraker
Editing by Sam O'Steen
Bob Wyman
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) June 12, 1968 (1968-06-12)
Running time 136 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $2.3 million
Box office $33,395,426[1]

Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 American horror film written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on the bestselling 1967 novel Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin. The cast includes Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Maurice Evans, Sidney Blackmer and Charles Grodin.

Farrow plays a pregnant woman who fears that her husband may have made a pact with their eccentric neighbours, believing he may have promised them the child to be used as a human sacrifice in their occult rituals in exchange for success in his acting career.

The film was an enormous commercial success, earning over $33 million in the US on a modest budget of $2.3 million. It was met with near universal acclaim from film critics and earned numerous nominations and awards. The American Film Institute ranked the film 9th in their 100 Years…100 Thrills list. The official tagline of the film is "Pray for Rosemary's Baby."

Contents

[edit] Plot

Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow), a bright but somewhat naive young housewife, and Guy (John Cassavetes), her husband and a struggling actor, move into the Bramford, a Gothic Revival 19th century New York City apartment building. Their neighbors, Minnie and Roman Castevet (Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer), are an elderly and slightly eccentric couple who tend to be meddlesome but appear to be harmless. Guy first loathes them but then becomes unusually close to the pair while Rosemary tries to maintain a distance from them.

Rosemary meets a young woman, Terry Gionoffrio (Victoria Vetri) in the basement laundry room, and Terry tells her she has been taken in and helped by the Castavets after sleeping on the streets and doing drugs. She says Roman and Minnie have been like grandparents to her. As Rosemary admires a pendant necklace the Castavets gave to Terry, she remarks on the strange smell which seems to be coming from the pendant, and Terry tells her it is from some kind of root. Returning home one night, Guy and Rosemary see a commotion and police on the street outside the Brampton; Terry has thrown herself from the window of the Castavets' seventh-floor apartment. Minnie and Roman arrive, shocked by what has happened.

Guy lands a role in a play when the actor who was originally cast suddenly and inexplicably goes blind. Soon afterward, Guy suggests that he and Rosemary have the child they had planned. On the night they planned to try to conceive, Minnie brings them individual ramekins of chocolate mousse. Rosemary finds hers has a chalky under-taste and surreptitiously throws it away after a few mouthfuls. Shortly afterwards, she has a dizzy spell and passes out. Rosemary experiences what she perceives to be a strange dream in which there is a group of naked persons in their bedroom (the Castevets and other tenants of the Bramford) and then she is raped by a demonic presence. The dream is so vivid that she exclaims near the end, "This is no dream — this is really happening!" When she wakes, she finds scratches on her body, and her husband tells her that he had intercourse with her while she was unconscious because he did not want to pass up the moment for her to conceive.

A few weeks later, Rosemary learns she is pregnant and is due on June 28, 1966. She plans to receive obstetric care from Dr. Hill (Charles Grodin), recommended to her by her friend Elise (Emmaline Henry), but the Castevets insist she see their good friend, famed obstetrician Dr. Abraham Sapirstein (Ralph Bellamy) who says that Minnie will make Rosemary a daily drink which is more healthy than the usual vitamin pills. Minnie also gives Rosemary a pendant similar to the one owned by Terry, telling her it is a good luck charm and the odd smell is from a plant called "tannis root".

For the first three months of her pregnancy, Rosemary suffers severe abdominal pains, loses weight, becomes unusually pale and craves raw meat and chicken liver. The doctor insists the pain will subside soon and assures her she has nothing to worry about. When her old friend Hutch (Maurice Evans) sees Rosemary's gaunt appearance and hears that she is consuming the mysterious "tannis root" on a daily basis in Minnie's health drink, he is disturbed enough to do some research.

On the day Hutch plans to share his findings with her, he mysteriously falls into a coma a few hours before their meeting, and dies three months later. After briefly regaining consciousness before his death, he has instructed the doctor to have a book about witchcraft, which he had left on his desk, be given to Rosemary. Grace Cardiff, a friend of his, decides to have the book delivered to Rosemary at Hutch's funeral along with the cryptic message: "the name is an anagram".

At the Castavets' New Year's Eve party, Roman raises an equally cryptic toast: "To 1966: the Year One." Rosemary sees that Hutch has marked photographs and passages in the book. Using the clue given to her in the cryptic message, Rosemary deduces that Roman Castevet is really Steven Marcato, the son of Adrian Marcato, a former resident of the Bramford who was accused of being a witch and of worshiping Satan, and was a martyr to the cause. Rosemary suspects her neighbors are part of a cult with sinister designs on her baby, and that Guy is cooperating with them in exchange for their help in advancing his career. She deduces that Dr. Sapirstein is also part of the conspiracy when his receptionist comments that the smell coming from the good luck charm given to Rosemary by the Castavets, reminds her of a fragrance often used by the doctor.

Rosemary becomes increasingly disturbed and shares her fears and suspicions with Dr. Hill, who, assuming she is delusional, calls Dr. Sapirstein and Guy. They tell her that if she cooperates, neither she nor the baby will be harmed. The two men bring Rosemary home, at which point she briefly escapes them by spilling the contents of her purse, then hijacking the elevator as they gather the contents from the floor. They pursue her to the apartment, where Rosemary locks the door. A few moments later, they enter the bedroom, having somehow gained access. Rosemary goes into labor and is sedated by Dr. Sapirstein. When she awakens, she is told the baby died; however, she hears an infant's cries somewhere in the building, and suspects he is still alive.

In the hall closet, Rosemary discovers a secret door leading into the Castevet apartment where the coven meets (and which explains how Guy and Dr. Sapirstein were able to enter the apartment after she chained the front door), and finds the congregation gathered around her newborn son. Seeing the disturbing appearance of her baby's eyes and demanding to know what had caused the deformity, Rosemary is then told that Guy is not the baby's father. The revelation that the baby, named Adrian, is actually the spawn of Satan horrifies Rosemary, who spits in Guy's face when he approaches her. Roman urges Rosemary to become a mother to her son, and tells her she does not have to join the coven if she does not want to. The film ends with her adjusting her son's blankets and gently rocking his cradle.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Production

[edit] Script

In Rosemary's Baby: A Retrospective, a featurette on the DVD release of the film, screenwriter/director Roman Polanski, Paramount Pictures executive Robert Evans, and production designer Richard Sylbert reminisce at length about the production. Evans recalled William Castle brought him the galley proofs of the book and asked him to purchase the film rights even before Random House released the publication. The studio head recognized the commercial potential of the project and agreed with the stipulation that Castle, who had a reputation for low-budget horror films, could produce but not direct the film adaptation. He makes a cameo appearance as the man at the phone booth waiting for Mia Farrow to finish her call.

Evans admired Polanski's European films and hoped he could convince him to make his American debut with Rosemary's Baby. He knew the director was a ski buff who was anxious to make a film with the sport as its basis, so he sent him the script for Downhill Racer along with the galleys for Rosemary. Polanski read the latter book non-stop through the night and called Evans the following morning to tell him he thought Rosemary was the more interesting project, and would like the opportunity to write as well as direct it.

Author Ira Levin claimed that during a scene in which Guy mentions wanting to buy a particular shirt advertised in The New Yorker, Polanski was unable to find the specific issue with the shirt advertised and phoned Levin for help. Levin, who had assumed while writing that any given issue of The New Yorker would contain an ad for men's shirts, admitted that he had made it up.[2]

[edit] Casting

Polanski envisioned Rosemary as a robust, full-figured, girl-next-door type, and he wanted Tuesday Weld or his own wife Sharon Tate for the role. Since the book had not reached bestseller status yet, Evans was unsure the title alone would guarantee an audience for the film, and he felt a bigger name was needed for the lead. Patty Duke was considered for the lead (and ironically, would play the role of Rosemary during a brief sequence at the beginning of the TV movie Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby (1976), in which Ruth Gordon was the only actor to reprise her role from the 1968 movie). With only a supporting role in Guns at Batasi (1964) and the then unreleased A Dandy in Aspic (1968) as her only feature film credits, Mia Farrow had an unproven box office track record, but her role as Allison MacKenzie in the popular television series Peyton Place and her unexpected marriage to Frank Sinatra had made her a household name.

Despite her waif-like appearance (which would ultimately prove beneficial, as Rosemary became more frail as her pregnancy progressed), Polanski agreed to cast her. Her acceptance incensed Sinatra, who had demanded she forgo her career when they wed, and he served her divorce papers via a corporate lawyer in front of the cast and crew midway through filming. In an effort to salvage her relationship, Farrow asked Evans to release her from her contract, but he persuaded her to remain with the project after showing her an hour-long rough cut and assuring her she would receive an Academy Award nomination for her performance.

Robert Redford was the first choice for the role of Guy Woodhouse, but he turned down the offer. Jack Nicholson was considered briefly before Polanski suggested John Cassavetes.

Sylbert was a good friend of Garson Kanin, who was married to Ruth Gordon, and he suggested her for the role of Minnie Castevet. He also suggested that the Dakota, an Upper West Side apartment building known for its show business tenants, be used for the Bramford. Its hallways were not as worn and dark as Polanski wanted, but when the building's owners would not allow interior filming, that became academic and it was used for exterior shots only.

Polanski wanted to cast Hollywood old-timers as the coven members but did not know any by name. He drew sketches of how he envisioned each character, and they were used to fill the roles. In every instance, the actor cast strongly resembled Polanski's drawing. They included Ralph Bellamy, Patsy Kelly, Elisha Cook, Jr., Phil Leeds and Hope Summers.

When Rosemary calls Donald Baumgart, the actor who goes blind and is replaced by Guy, the voice heard is that of actor Tony Curtis. Farrow, who had not been told who would be reading Baumgart's lines, recognized the voice but could not place it. The slight confusion she displays throughout the call was exactly what Polanski hoped to capture by not revealing Curtis' identity in advance.

[edit] Filming

Sydney Guilaroff designed the wig worn by Mia Farrow in the film's early scenes.[citation needed] It was removed to reveal the Vidal Sassoon hairdo that made headlines when Farrow cut her trademark long hair during filming of Peyton Place.

One of Mia Farrow's more emotionally charged scenes occurs in the midst of a party, when several of Rosemary's female friends lock Guy out of the kitchen as they console her in private. The scene was shot in a single day.[citation needed] That morning, just before the first take was filmed, a private messenger served Farrow with formal divorce papers from Frank Sinatra. As she read the documents, Farrow fell to her knees on the kitchen floor and openly wept in front of the cast and crew.[citation needed] Roman Polanski insisted that the day be canceled and filming be postponed until the next day, when he would start consecutively filming as many scenes as possible that did not contain Rosemary.[citation needed] Farrow openly refused to accept this, insisting that nothing had changed. The day's filming concluded on time and without delay.[citation needed]

When Farrow was reluctant to film a scene that depicted a dazed and preoccupied Rosemary wandering into the middle of a Manhattan street into oncoming traffic, 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.[3]

[edit] Critical reception

In her 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."[4]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "a brooding, macabre film, filled with the sense of unthinkable danger. Strangely enough it also has an eerie sense of humor almost until the end. It is a creepy film and a crawly film, and a film filled with things that go bump in the night. It is very good...much more than just a suspense story; the brilliance of the film comes more from Polanski's direction, and from a series of genuinely inspired performances, than from the original story . . . The best thing that can be said about the film, I think, is that it works. Polanski has taken a most difficult situation and made it believable, right up to the end. In this sense, he even outdoes Hitchcock."[5]

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."[6]

Today, the film is widely regarded as a classic; the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie a 98% rating (53 out of 54 reviews), with the site's consensus stating "A frightening tale of Satanism and pregnancy that is even more disturbing than it sounds thanks to convincing and committed performances by Mia Farrow and Ruth Gordon".[7]

[edit] Legacy

In the 1976 television film, Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby, Patty Duke starred as Rosemary Woodhouse and Ruth Gordon reprised her role of Minnie Castevet.

The film ranked #9 in AFI's list of 100 Years...100 Thrills, and the scene in which Rosemary is raped by Satan was ranked #23 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

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.[citation needed]

A remake of Rosemary's Baby was briefly considered in 2008. The intended producers were Michael Bay, Andrew Form, and Brad Fuller.[8] The remake fell through later that same year.[9]

[edit] Accolades

Academy Awards
Golden Globe Awards
Other awards

[edit] In popular culture

Following the film's premiere, a string of other films focusing on Satan worshippers and black magic appeared, including The Brotherhood of Satan, Mark of the Devil, Black Noon, and Blood on Satan's Claw.

The film has been parodied in numerous works since its 1968 release, including Mad Magazine ("Rosemia's Boo-Boo", issue #124, January 1969) and The Realist ("Rosemerica's Baby", No. 93, August 1972[10]).

References to the film can also be found in innumerable other works in various forms of media. The hardcore punk band Rosemary's Babies took the pluralized version of the title as a statement of their horror film influences.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Rosemary's Baby, Box Office Information". The Numbers. http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1968/0RBBY.php. Retrieved January 29, 2012. 
  2. ^ Trivia IMDB.com
  3. ^ "Rosemary's Baby" TCM Archives, movie presentation
  4. ^ New York Times review
  5. ^ Chicago Sun-Times review
  6. ^ Variety review
  7. ^ "Rosemary's Baby (1968)". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rosemarys_baby/. Retrieved 2008-05-29. 
  8. ^ "Rosemary's Baby Remake Confirmed". cinemablend.com. http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Rosemary-s-Baby-Remake-Confirmed-8144.html. Retrieved May 21, 2010. 
  9. ^ "Rosemary's Baby Remake Scrapped" IMDB.com, 22 December 2008
  10. ^ cartoon from The Realist, August 1972, reprint

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