Director:Roman Polanski
Year: 1968
Runtime: 136 minutes
Rating: R
Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse are looking to settle down in a Manhattan apartment building called The Dakotas. Though the price is steep, the place is nice and Guy agrees. Rosemary and Guy are looking to have a few babies too. Guy is an actor, TV commercials and radio mostly, but he has not had that break yet. Success will come.
While doing the laundry, Rosemary meets a nice young girl and they keep eachother company in the horrible basement. The friendship doesn't last, though, because she turns up dead. Rosemary comforts her adopted parents, a nice old couple Minnie and Roman Castavette. Rosemary was just wanting to be nice, but the old couple kind of leach themselves into their life, in an almost parasitic sort of way. Guy does not want to have anything to do with them, but Rosemary doesn't have the heart to tell them off. They join the Castavettes at dinner one evening and Guy has a long talk with Roman, and he changes his mind totally.
Rosemary still doesn't like them, but Guy is going over to their house almost every night. This is very odd, isn't it? Rosemary doesn't know quite what to expect. Finally, Guy gets his break. The part he was trying out for suddenly became available, and he decided that this would be the best time to have the first kid. Rosemary and him set the date, and they prepare. Of course, Roman and Minnie are fixing their love potions, and trying to involve their nosey selves, but Rosemary ignores them. Rosemary gets drunk that night though, and she passes out in Guy's arms. He puts her to bed, but she has the strangest dream that night. She dreams that she was raped by a monster, or possibly the devil himself. Guy denies this had any basis in fact.
Rosemary become pregnant and goes to see the doctor recommended by the Castavettes. Minor complications start to scare her, and she becomes very paranoid. I will not shed any more light on this story, so you will just have to rent it. The back of the box ruins the plot though, so be careful.
Based on the book by Ira Leving.
Nominated for 4 Golden Globes and 2 Oscars.
The producer, William Castle, appeared in the film as a man near a phone booth.
This was Roman Polanski's second film from the US. He did not make any appearance in this film like he did in the one before it or the ones after it.
Tony Curtis' voice was in a telephone conversation.
This movie was released shortly after the wedding of Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate.
You are familiar with the 6 Signs of Kevin Bacon, right? Well, here is something similar I came across on the IMDb that is extremely interesting: Roman Polanski's pregnant wife was murdered by Charles Manson and his family, whose story is told in the book Helter Skelter, the title coming from the song by the Beatles member John Lennon, who was killed by a born-again Christian in The Dakota, a Manhattan apartment building where "Rosemary's Baby" took place.
"Rosemary's Baby" was Mia Farrow's first big role, previously she had acted in minor, extra roles.
Every year at Halloween, Blockbuster sells "Rosemary's Baby" along with a few other titles for only $2.99 (SP mode too) when you rent a movie. The rest of the year they sell the same over-stocked movies for $15-20.
There is a sequal to "Rosemary's Baby" that was made for TV in 1976 called "Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby". Basically Adrian is adopted and is forced to face the fact that he is Satan's son. It was very bad. Mia Farrow's character Rosemary Woodhouse was played by Patty Duke, and almost everybody else was replaced. Whether out of shear boredom or contract, Ruth Gordon was in this film too. I cannot imagine why she would have done this unless it was "for the fans".
A totally unrelated thing: One of the victims of the Manson family murders was Rosemary LaBianca. If you didn't draw the connection on your own, they have the same first names, duh!
