Customer Reviews

The Baby

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This might be one of my all-time fave camp movies, and is also one that leaves me disturbed after watching it. Lovely Anjanette Comer is a social worker who seeks out the assignment of looking into a family of 3 women who are raising an adult man who still functions as a baby. Turns out the women - a violent mother and her two deranged daughters - don't seem to want the "baby" to learn how to walk and talk. At the same time, one of the sisters doesn't mind slipping into his crib at night . . . The mother is played by Ruth Roman, who played a beautiful and feminine socialite in Hitchcok's Strangers on a Train; here, she is a seedy, chain-smoking, trash-talking old gal in a role that could have been played by a latter-day Shelley Winters. One of the daughters has a hairstyle that looks like it could have been part of a horror movie get-up, and the other one is a characters who likes to punish her brother by shocking him with some kind of electric prod, and who will only let her boyfriend kiss her if he lets her hold a lighter flame to his hand first. So, yeah, a really sick family - and then there's the "baby," a grown man in a crib. When the movie gets really warped is when you realize that the one "sane" person here, the social worker, might actually be a little off herself, and seems to have some unusual interest in the "baby." This movie is a great campy romp that fans of warped cinema will enjoy, but don't blame me if you can't shake the creepiness of it out of your system for a while after watching.

A social-worker gets involved w/ a strange family w/ a "BABY" who is actually an adult. Many strange occurrences and even stranger characters abound. THE BABY is a black comedy w/ horror elements. While the siblings are definitely insane, the mother is downright scary! If you enjoy bizarre movies and subject matter, then THE BABY belongs in your collection!...

I saw this film years ago and it left so many memories in my head.I tried for years to track it down.What didnt help my search was the misguided belief that Joan Crawford was the mother of Baby.A chance stumble upon the name of Ruth Roman Threw this baby(pardon the pun)to light.It is a bizarre and truly original movie.I prize my dvd collection and have over 2,000 titles,all original,with so many cinema classics from Blade runner to The Godfather to the Big Lebowski....but I can confirm that this movie,for its sheer originality and Ruth Roman,will sit proudly alongside them.
The dvd itself has no menu..it just starts straight into the opening credits.But the image quality is good as is the sound.Get the movie and enjoy it with friends or by yourself and it certainly will leave its mark.Its a coup getting it.Rock on Baby.

"The Baby" has been one of my favorite films of the '70s ever since I first saw it nearly 30 years ago back in the early days of VHS rentals. It is strange, perverse, hilarious, sickening and heartbreaking all at once, and really defies classification. Not quite a horror film, not quite exploitation, nor a full-fledged social drama, "The Baby" plays like a demented mix of ABC Afterschool Special with a touch of grindhouse cinema thrown in.

Ruth Roman is an indomitable force as Mrs. Wadsworth, a bitter, chain-smoking harridan who lives with her two grown daughters Germaine (Mariana Hill) and Alba (Suzanne Zenor). Together these three partake in the care and feeding of Baby--a twenty-something man who exists in an infantilized state, his world consisting of diapers, bottles and life in a playpen. Concerned social worker Ann Gentry (Anjanette Comer) arrives on the scene to investigate and quickly becomes obsessed with giving Baby a chance to live up to his potential. Things escalate until the story becomes a struggle of wills between Ann and the Wadsworths over Baby's welfare, which results in kidnapping and murder!

The story may be somewhat slow-moving for those born after 1980 who are used to non-stop action and excessive editing in their films, but for those who appreciate "old-school" technique and character development, stick it out because the payoff is HUGE. I am somewhat jaded but even I didn't see the twist coming (I won't reveal it here and spoil it for first-timers).

The two lead actresses really play well off each other (the interview with director Ted Post found among the bonus features hints that Roman may have purposely caused some friction so that the tension between Ann and Mrs. W would be amplified onscreen) and the film transcends its limited budget. The sorrowful cello score is wonderful throughout, especially heartbreaking during the scene when Comer looks at old vacation slides of she and her husband.

The best scenes involve over-the-top abuse as when Alba uses a cattle prod to discipline Baby, and when the women return home to find the babysitter suckling Baby in the nursery (Roman is scary as all-out brandishing that whipping-rope).

Five stars for the movie itself based on originality, entertainment value, and performances.

The new 2011 release from Severin Films however is a whole other story. I already owned a discontinued full-frame release from Image Entertainment that was put out about 10 years ago and was eager to own a remastered version so I purchased the new release. While the specks and blemishes have all been removed from the picture, the entire film looks desaturated. It's as though they used a beige filter on everything and the colors are not strong or vibrant at all. I immediately compared the two and the colors are much brighter and vivid on the old release. **NOTE** I posted two comparative screen grabs in the images section of this product. Judge for yourself. Also, since the film wasn't originally created in widescreen, they have cropped off part of the picture for this release. I am glad I didn't sell my old copy because if I had to choose, I'd rather watch it in fullscreen with some dirt and specks rather than a faded, washed out print.

There are two short audio interviews with director Ted Post and with David Manzy Mooney (who played Baby).

If you have never seen this before and love weird, offbeat '70s flicks, by all means get it. If you already own the Image version, be warned this one looks washed out.

This one is a real doozy. Similar in feel to other weird horror/camp classics from the era like Baby Jane, Aunt Alice, and How Awful About Helen, this is a neat little creep fest. Ruth Roman is very much like the Aldrich divas in this one and the story has to be seen to believed. Suffice it to say, you probably will never forget it.

Starts off as a drama as a social worker tried to help an adult baby who lives with a very strange family. Some horror elements creep in there after awhile, and before you know it a classic is born!
Weird, original '70s flick that can be rewarding if you stick with it.
Severin's DVD is probably the best this has ever looked, taken from the original negatives.

I have loved Ted Post's 'The Baby' ever since it was shown late one Friday night on BBC2 back in the 90s, and the IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT disc came as a very welcome release - exactly as I remembered it PLUS the gorgeous Gerald Fried score as an isolated audio track too.

However, not only - as someone has alread stated, does the Severin DVD appear to be faked widescreen, i.e. little evidence of extra side information but definite evidence of lost top/bottom information... from comparative screenshots BUT THIS DISC IS NOT REGION 0 / ALL REGIONS AS ADVERTISED BY SEVERIN'S WEBSITE AND THE DVD COVER.

I have verified that this disc is actually hard coded for region 1 by comparing it on a laptop set to region 1, and a DVD player set to region 2. The region 2 player rejects Severin's disc every time but will play every other region 0 DVD I have including many Code Red, Image, Anchor Bay, Blue Underground, and numerous Indie Label discs. Whereas the region 1 laptop will play The Baby [and not any region 2 discs].

For me, and every other international fan of this superb little cult classic this is a real problem, not to mention a fundamental disc authoring botch OR blatant 'false advertising' on the part of Severin & their own website.

I would give the film 5 stars any day of the week, and there are plenty of reviews to explain why BUT this disc only gets a 2 because it has been misrepresented by Severin, and must either be watched on a correctly set laptop, a temperamental grey market all-region player, or ripped to DVD-R to negate the coding and render it watchable on regular equipment. Shame on you Severin, Code Red might not have many friends out there BUT their region coding is impeccable.

I bought this movie because I saw all the positive reviews for it, I have a high tolerance for all sorts of cinema and love b-movies, exploitation, grindhouse ect, but this movie made me sick to my stomach, and not for the gore as there wasn't much of that, but watching a grown man crawl around in diapers for an hour and a half pretending to be retarded is not my idea of entertainment. I'm astounded so many people enjoyed this movie, I'll agree it is definitely one of the most bizarre things ever put to celluloid, but for me this flick has zero replay value and isn't worth any more than whats in Baby's diaper.

The Wadsworths have seen their share of social workers come and go. They tend to go rather quickly when faced with their unorthodox situation; a grown man who completely acts like a two year old! With the father skipping out years ago, Baby (yes, that's the tall toddler's name) has to contend with his mother and two older sisters (including Marianna Hill; "Messiah of Evil") taking care of him. Okay, so one can argue that the disiplinary measures may seem a tad extreme (think cattle prod), but the women of the house maintain they do just fine without a functioning adult male around... New social worker Ann (Anjanette Comer) becomes dedicated to helping Baby reach his full potential, even if it means separating him from his home... Not a horror film in the traditional sense and, until the last ten minutes or so, it's difficult to place this oddity in any genre catagory. The rewarding climax changes all that. Strangely appealing, but clearly no masterpiece. 5.75/10

A social worker takes a special interest in a very bizarre case. A mother and her two daughters have been raising their adult "baby" for years, keeping him in diapers. He sleeps in a crib and has no ability to apeak or stand. Why? It seems there's nothing mentally wrong w/ "baby", so what is his family up to? THE BABY is a wickedly funny black comedy, full of crazy characters, insane situations, and a dark twist at the end. Buy immediately...