Product Details

• Actors: Anjanette Comer, Marianna Hill
• Directors: Ted Post
• Format: Color, Dolby, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Korean
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Severin Films
• DVD Release Date: June 28, 2011
• Run Time: 84 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B004VQRCHS
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #58,924 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Cancel your appointments, tell your folks you can't make it for dinner, tell the band you can't practice today, and find this movie. --Dread Central

Product Description

An A-list director. A jaw-dropping storyline. And depraved depictions of suburban violence, 70s fashions and 'sick love'. The result remains one of the most disturbing movies in Hollywood history: Anjanette Comer (The Loved One) stars as an idealistic L.A. County social worker who investigates the case of Mrs. Wadsworth (former '50s starlet Ruth Roman of Strangers On a Train fame), her two buxom daughters, and son 'Baby', a mentally-disabled man who sleeps in a crib, eats in a high-chair, crawls, bawls and wears diapers. But what secrets of unnatural attachment - and sexual obsession - are all of these women hiding? Marianna Hill (The Godfather Part II) and Michael Pataki (Grave of the Vampire) co-star in this psychotic stunner from director Ted Post (Magnum Force, Beneath the Planet of the Apes), now fully restored from the original film negative for the first time ever.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars The Baby March 14, 2000

By Tom Kertis

Format:VHS Tape

I remember seeing this movie,(having seen it twice) in the 70's at our local drive-in. Back then it was some movie, and as I STILL remember it, it still is. To this day,I haven't seen anything like this! To quote "The Video Movie Guide", "Extremely odd film about a teenager who has remained an infant all of his life (yes, he still lives in his crib) and with his insane, overprotective mother. Eerily effective chiller is entertaining, though many will find it undoubtedly repulsive, and rediculous". I couldn't beleive it was re-issued again. This is truly, one hell-of-a remarkable story! I highly recommend it! Creepy! (In spite of the Mad TV skit.) Get it!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars Because It Looks Faded and Dull August 7, 2011

By Kasey G

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

"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. Read more ›

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Twisted December 7, 2003

By Jeffrey Leach HALL OF FAMEVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

If you like your cinematic excursions laugh out loud, stark raving loony, bizarrorama howl at the moon weird, you might just find something to like with Ted Post's 1972 release "The Baby." This eerie little number is to cinema what Ed Gein is to psychopathology; it's the equivalent of dancing around on your property wearing a mask made out of bacon and singing Debbie Boone songs, or papering every wall in your house with pictures of Uncle Fester. Yes, "The Baby" is that offbeat, weird, whatever label you want to stick on it that translates as "strange." After watching the final credits roll, I pondered what I had just witnessed. The only explanation that seemed to fit is that Post and the other people associated with this film took the brown blotter at Woodstock. I think it is safe to say that this movie never had a chance of getting a coveted Oscar nomination or any other significant award. The only place that might see fit to recognize this film would be an insane asylum.

As "The Baby" starts, we learn that social worker Ann Gentry (Anjanette Comer) has decided to accept one of the strangest assignments of her career. She will begin visiting the Wadsworth residence a few times a week in order to monitor that family's treatment of their infant son. The clan consists of the husky voiced, chain-smoking mother (played with a nod and a wink by an aging Ruth Roman), two gorgeous yet snotty sisters named Alba and Germaine, and Baby. Nothing too odd here, except Baby is actually a full grown man who cannot speak, walk, or take care of himself. Baby spends most of his time in a playpen in the house or in a crib out on the lawn where he gurgles and gasps to himself and his family.... Neither the mother or the sisters care much for Baby but they have to go through the motions if they want to keep those state aid checks coming in. The entire family tolerates Ann with barely contained disdain, grudgingly putting up with her frequent surprise visits. As Gentry gains a familiarity with Baby, she becomes convinced that the man-child has the capacity to learn how to speak and walk. When Comer's character becomes convinced that the Wadsworths are subtly thwarting her efforts to help Baby, she recommends the child be removed from the house. The family defies Ann at every corner, with the eventual showdown between the social worker and the Wadsworth clan turning into a surprisingly violent romp.

As weird as "The Baby" sounds from the description above, the movie gets even stranger up close and personal. A certain encounter between Baby and one of his sisters implies a behavior that is both shocking and deeply repulsive. Moreover, as time goes on we soon begin to suspect the actions of the angelic Ann Gentry. What are her motivations for the endless surprise visits to the Wadsworth house? The last social worker knew the boundaries of the job. Why can't Ann put her emotions in check? Even noticing Gentry's increasingly nosy behavior won't prepare you for the mind-shattering conclusion. That little jolt comes arcing out of the sky with the force of a thunderclap, throwing into confusion everything you thought you knew up to that point. Even better, once you watch the whole thing and remember the clues you will slap yourself on the forehead for not seeing where this one was going. Maybe it's the garish clothing or the hilarious birthday party for Baby where the décor and music is part psychedelic trip and part disco fever that prevents the viewer from keeping things in perspective. (This is 1973, remember, one of those awkward years between the hippies and "Saturday Night Fever." Yikes.)

The performances in "The Baby" are top notch. Roman believably plays the cynical matriarch of the clan, a woman so inured to the way things are that she will brook no upheavals to her family's stability from some high minded social worker. The actresses who play Alba and Germaine are two foxy gals decked out in huge hair and risqué '70's clothes. They play their parts to a T, as two nasty young ladies who know the score and are loyal to their mother up to the bitter end. Anjanette Comer does an adequate turn as Ann Gentry, conveying just the right amount of concern and hardheaded persistence over Baby's status in the Wadsworth house. She also makes the twist ending believable. Congratulations deservedly go to David Manzy in the role of Baby. This guy never utters one word in the entire picture and after awhile you really come to believe this is a twenty something year old guy who never developed past the infant stage.

The DVD doesn't really give us anything to stand up and shout about. "The Baby," perhaps more than most other films, really deserves a commentary track from some of the principal members of the cast and crew. I just want to know two things about this movie: what were you thinking and how in the heck did you manage to get a 'PG' rating for this film? This movie is so disturbing that I cringe a bit thinking about the kiddies going to see this one in the theater. If I had seen this as a youth I would have been permanently scarred. It took me years to get over the creepy commercials for the film "Magic"; I can only imagine what "The Baby" would have done to my sensibilities. In short, if you like strange, check out "The Baby." Read more ›

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyably Twisted May 19, 2008

By Brian J. Greene VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

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.