Robert Evans Week: Rosemary's Baby

Welcome to Day 1 of Robert Evans Week.  Selling a horror movie is never easy,  especially in mainstream Hollywood.   You can sell it easier with acclaimed playwright/novelist Ira Levin (A Kiss Before Dying, This Perfect Day, The Stepford Wives, The Boys from Brazil and Sliver).  Actions lead to consequences including pacts for wealth and success with dark forces may not be the wise career path.  Just ask Dennis Rodman.  This is Rosemary's Baby.

Ahh to Satan!  Er I mean our health!

Roman Castevet: I think we're spoiling Rosemary... 
Rosemary Woodhouse: I wasn't offended, really I wasn't.
Roman Castevet: You're not religious, my dear, are you?
Rosemary Woodhouse: I was brought up a Catholic... now, I don't know.

 Housewife Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow of Peyton Place, See No Evil, The Public Eye, Scoundrel in White, The Great Gatsby, Hannah and Her Sisters, Radio Days, Reckless,  A Girl Thing, Third Watch and The Omen) and struggling actor Guy Woodhouse (John Cassavetes of Our Virgin Island, Shadows, Johnny Staccato, The Webster Boy, Burke's Law, The Dirty Dozen, Bandits in Rome and Husbands) moved into the Bramford, a gorgeous archaic 8 floor walk-up apartment with a dubious reputation in New York City.   Was there any part of that sentence that didn't say, "Shop around, kiddies." ?

How could you say no to such a matronly face?

Their landlord Mr. Nicklas (Elisha Cook Jr. of The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep,  House on Haunted Hill, The Killing, El Condor, Blacula and Salem's Lot)  has no problem at all explaining the previous tenant had gone senile and had to be shipped off the elderly concentration camp...  old folk's home if you prefer.    No sooner have they brought their bags in an elderly couple, the Castevets Minnie (Ruth Gordon of Two-Faced Woman, Edge of Darkness, Lord Love a Duck, What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?, The Big Bus and Boardwalk) and Roman (Sidney Blackmer of Little Caesar, The Wrecker, The Lady and the Monster, The Rifleman, Ben Casey and Gentle Ben) who seem quaint and eccentric (THAT MEANS WHACKO!!!!) but charming and pleasant altogether.  The couple seem to be watching over a young lady that is a former drug addict who is grateful for a sponsor when she inexplicably hurls herself out the window at the Castevets' residence.  Hmm, bad timing I suppose.

 The Castevets give Rosemary with a strange talisman and tell her it is a good luck charm as Guy gets a role that another man was up for when he mysteriously was stricken with blindness.  With their good fortune Guy insists they start trying for a baby and basically violates Rosemary in her unconscious state so as to not miss the optimal cycle.  Yes, because this is what every husband rationally does with his wife...  IN THE LAND OF SATAN!!!!   Her cravings become unusual as her body demands raw meats, mostly organ and severe body spasms and pain as if something otherworldly is going on.  Is something amiss with those around her or is it all in her head and this is the normal path to motherhood... that no one has ever described or hinted at.

A few comments, critiques and compliments about the film now.  Roman Polanski as director took some unusual lighting and camera methods to portray a sense of dread in even sunlit scenes.   With the Spherical Eastman 35 mm a more pronounced use of the widescreen shooting and some anamorphic lens shoots it makes you feel you are in the room watching Farrow slip away into this madness and completely helpless to offer aid.   Rosemary's baby was born in June 1966. Yes, 6/66.  

Writer Ira Levin felt the film was the single most faithful adaptation of a novel to come out of Hollywood.   B-Movie Director William Castle bought the rights to Rosemary's Baby and wanted to direct.  Evans green-lit the project but persuaded Castle to produce instead, giving Polanski the go ahead for the helm.  Wise call there.  
Old Blue Eyes (Frank Sinatra, people.  Take in some history, sheesh.) called Evans demanding his then wife was starring in The Detective and she needs to quit this flick.  Evans has to haggle with Sinatra and tell him she won't be done for more than a month.  Threatened with divorce, Farrow continued Rosemary's Baby which was nominated for best Supporting Actress and Best Screenplay and won Best Supporting Actress.  Frankie had the papers sent to her at the set.  He did his way.  The irony of it all is Evans was producing both movies.  The critic in me wondered about Best Actress and Best Director as well but film critics alike agree it is still a terrifying movie and aged with us like a sinister wine.

Oh sweetie, let's pledge to he who shall not be named... or get a puppy.