The Baby
The Baby
PG | 01 March 1973 (USA)
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A social worker who recently lost her husband investigates the strange Wadsworth family. The Wadsworths might not seem too unusual to hear about them at first - consisting of the mother, two grown daughters and the diaper-clad, bottle-sucking baby. The problem is, the baby is twenty-one years old.

Reviews
Alicia

I love this movie so much

Cubussoli

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

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Peereddi

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

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Cassandra

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

atlasmb

"The Baby" is one of the oddest films you will ever see. A social worker is suspicious of a family that includes a grown man called "Baby" who behaves like an infant and wears diapers. The women in the family seem invested in his remaining baby-like. The mystery of this horror film lies in learning their true intentions. Or does it?"The Baby" feels like the second offering in a grade B, drive-in horror double feature. Some of the production values are adequate, but they are undermined by the rambling background music and the incessantly annoying and fake baby sounds that supposedly come from Baby.The film has its roots in "Psycho", but falls far short of Hitchcock's mastery. The director does use light effectively and he is able to frame a scene, but otherwise the film is nearly laughable.The ending is a surprise, but it falls short of delivering on the film's promise of shock or horror.

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wes-connors

Social worker Anjanette Comer (as Ann Gentry) has a new case. She is to oversee government assistance going to the weird "Wadsworth" family. The client receiving checks is a young adult man called "Baby" (played by David Mooney aka David Manzy). Baby is well-named as he has remained intellectually a baby for 20-some-odd years. Baby's mother is deep-voiced Ruth Roman. She has two sexy grown-up daughters who have aged normally – relatively speaking... Meeting Baby on a "routine" visit isn't enough for Ms. Comer. She becomes unusually attached to Baby and begins visiting him frequently. Her boss worries about the time Comer spends with Baby and thinks about changing his social worker. Comer responds by telling him she has some suspicions about the case and begins investigating. Presumably, Comer suspects the wacky Wadsworth family has kept Baby infantile on purpose...This is a very strange film. The adult Baby wears diapers and speaks in genuine baby gibberish. He is so strange you're wondering what went wrong and where the story is headed. It sure fooled me. The other characters are interesting, too. Filmmakers and director Ted Post give it a naughty Gothic TV Movie atmosphere that works like a charm.******* The Baby (3/73) Ted Post ~ Anjanette Comer, Ruth Roman, David Mooney, Marianna Hill

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LeonLouisRicci

At First this one seems like a Grindhouse Perversion Exploitation Oddity Marketed for the Raincoat Crowd and Sexual Deviants who Haunted Grimy, Sticky-Floored Theatres in an Era of Anything Goes Cinema.But it is Decidedly Not that. On Further Examination it is a Professionally done, well Acted, Sincere Film with an Honest Social-Commentary Concern. Yes, it has a Horror-Movie Ending and is Disturbing Beyond Anything Explainable. There are a Few Scenes that are Certainly Socially Unacceptable and have Hidden Sexual Fantasy Quirks that are not Discussed Openly, but these are done as Tasteful as Possible. The Heart of the Film is Shining a Light on Family Abuse and Regard for the Handicapped.It is a Film not Easily Forgotten and one that is so Politically Incorrect it would Never even be Hinted at Today as Filmable. It can be Embarrassing to Watch on Occasion but not Completely without Merit and it is so Well Done that it Rises Above the Cheap Soft-Porn Gimmickry so Prevalent in its Day.Approach with Caution and be Warned that there may be Things here that Almost Cross the Line into Indecency, but it Never Goes There and in the End it is a Different Distraction and Stands Apart from just about Anything that was Attempted in an Age when just about Everything was.

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Scott Amundsen

I had completely forgotten this movie, which I first saw on television at least thirty years ago, until God only knows why it popped up on Turner Classic Movies.Presumably TCM considers this a "cult classic" and there are those who would agree, but I think that is just too generous. A lurid horror tale about a social worker (Anjanette Comer) who takes on the case of a family that is probably the textbook definition of "weird," assuming there is one, the story is stupid beyond belief, most of the acting is terrible, and the whole mess is just so...well, weird (I know I keep returning to that word but it's the only one that fits) that halfway through I confess I simply tuned out.The weird family in question consists of a matriarch (Ruth Roman), her two daughters (Marianna Hill and Suzanne Zenor), and the youngest child, a grown man (David Manzy) who apparently never progressed mentally out of babyhood; the film tries without much success to make the case that this only son was deliberately stunted by his family. Among the hints the film drops is the sisters' habit of abusing the kid with a cattle prod.Now, some of my favorite movies are really really bad: THE EVIL DEAD, THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, HALLOWEEN III SEASON OF THE WITCH, just to name a few (and I doubt it is a coincidence that they are all horror movies). But I wasn't able to have any fun at all with this one. Ruth Roman makes an impression as one of the weirdest screen mothers of all time, but the movie is a terrible mess of weird ideas just thrown at the screen like overcooked pasta: no sauce and no taste. What makes the movies I mentioned above work is that there's usually at least ONE character in the mix that represents the "norm," an average person who finds him/herself trapped in a nightmare. Unfortunately, in THE BABY, the social worker, who SHOULD have represented sanity, is just as weird as the rest of the cast; this gives the actors playing the weird family nothing to play against. And it does not help that the acting by Marianna Hill and Suzanne Zenor as the daughters is several levels below high school drama club.I don't know what possessed Ruth Roman to appear in this Godawful piece of crap, but watching the film I can't help wondering if afterward she did not wish she had gone down with the Andrea Doria.I've seen some garbage come out of Hollywood, but this takes the cake.

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