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Rosemary's Baby (1968)

Director(s) Roman Polanski
Producer(s)

William Castle

Dona Holloway

Top Genres Drama, Film Adaptation, Horror, Mystery, Thriller/Suspense
Top Topics Babies, Book-Based, Husband Wife, New York, Supernatural

Rosemary's Baby Overview:

Rosemary's Baby (1968) was a Drama - Horror Film directed by Roman Polanski and produced by William Castle and Dona Holloway.

The film was based on the novel of the same name written by Ira Levin published in 1967.

SYNOPSIS

This terrifying film redefines and updates Gothic horror for the modern (and more explicit) age. Cassavetes and Farrow move into a huge, creepy - and suspiciously affordable - apartment. They're taken under the wing of elderly neighbors Blackmer and Gordon, and good things start to happen in Cassavetes's marginal acting career. When the couple decides to have a child, Gordon takes over Farrow's care, and a strange dream that Farrow has of mating with a hideous beast begins to seem possible. Farrow's suspicions are treated as paranoid delusions, until they take shape in the form of her baby, the spawn of Satan. Polanski creates a truly frightening world from Ira Levin's sensational novel in which no one is who they seem and the dreaded underworld exists side by side with everyday life.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

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Rosemary's Baby was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2014.

Academy Awards 1968 --- Ceremony Number 41 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best Supporting ActressRuth GordonWon
Best WritingRoman PolanskiNominated
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Rosemary's Baby BlogHub Articles:

Rosemary’s Baby (1)

By Alexander Diminiano on Nov 26, 2012 From Cinemaniac Reviews

Bottom Line: A sly surprise. Directed by: Roman Polanski Rosemary Woodhouse: Mia Farrow Guy Woodhouse: John Cassavetes Also Starring: D’Urville Martin, Elisha Cook, Emmaline Henry, Hanna Landy, Hope Summers, Philip Leeds, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer It’s true only the good die young. A ... Read full article


ROSEMARY'S BABY...Roman Polanski's Horror Classic

By The Lady Eve on Oct 28, 2010 From Lady Eve's Reel Life

A landmark film of the horror genre, Rosemary's Baby (1968) also marked Roman Polanski's directorial debut in the US. The film, a runaway hit on release, was the prototype that inspired the onslaught of big-budget "A" horror films that followed: The Exorcist, The Omen, etc. In the tradition of Hitc... Read full article


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Rosemary's Baby Quotes:

Rosemary Woodhouse: Unspeakable... unspeakable!
— From: Rosemary's Baby

Minnie Castevet: Now! That's what I call the long arm of coincidence!
— From: Rosemary's Baby

Rosemary Woodhouse: Pain, begone, I will have no more of thee!
— From: Rosemary's Baby

Minnie Castevet: As long as she ate the mouse, she can't see nor hear. Now sing.
— From: Rosemary's Baby

Guy Woodhouse: What the hell is that?
Rosemary Woodhouse: I've been to Vidal Sassoon.
Guy Woodhouse: You mean you actually paid for it?
— From: Rosemary's Baby
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Rosemary's Baby Facts
Casting for this film presented its own problems: Polanski at first saw Rosemary as an "All-American Girl" and sought Tuesday Weld for the lead, but she passed on the role. Jane Fonda was then approached, but turned down the offer so she could make Barbarella in Europe with then- husband Roger Vadim. According to his memoirs, Polanski for a while had the idea of having his future wife Sharon Tate on the part of Rosemary, yet he desisted, thinking it would have been unethical. Other actresses considered for the part were Julie Christie, Elizabeth Hartman and Joanna Pettet. Robert Evans suggested Mia Farrow based on her TV work and her media appeal (at the time she was Mrs. Frank Sinatra). Both men wanted Robert Redford for the role of Guy Woodhouse, but negotiations broke down when Paramount's lawyers blundered by serving the actor with a subpoena over a contractual dispute regarding his pulling out of <a href="bio.php?person

The movie's poster was as #21 of "The 25 Best Movie Posters Ever" by Premiere.

Ira Levin felt Rosemary's Baby is "the single most faithful adaptation of a novel ever to come out of Hollywood." William Castle speculated the reasons for this were because it was the first time Roman Polanski had ever adapted another writer's work. Unaware he had the freedom to improvise on the book.

According to John Parker's recent biography of Jack Nicholson, Robert Evans suggested Nicholson to Polanski but, after their meeting, the director stated that "for all his talent, his slightly sinister appearance ruled him out".

Directed by Roman Polanski, whose pregnant wife actress Sharon Tate was murdered in 1969 by Charles Manson and his followers, who titled their death spree "Helter Skelter" after the 1968 song by The Beatles, one of whose members, John Lennon, would one day live (and in 1980 be murdered) in the Manhattan apartment building called The Dakota - where Rosemary's Baby had been filmed.

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