Post Rings Twice with Devious The Baby (1973) | Blu-ray Review

A prolific television director throughout the 1950s and 60s (the 1955 series “Waterfront” would land him a Primetime Emmy nod), Ted Post benefitted from the burgeoning New Hollywood movement of the 1970s which saw him direct a handful of titles which would be the most lucrative of his five-decade career. While he broke into franchise with 1970’s Beneath the Planet of the Apes, he’s perhaps best remembered for a pair of Clint Eastwood titles, 1968’s Hang ‘Em High and 1973’s Magnum Force. But between all of these, Post would deliver one of the decade’s strangest cult classics with The Baby (1973), a wacky melodrama which unfortunately languished in obscurity over the past several decades.

Social worker Ann Gentry (Anjanette Comer), who recently lost her beloved husband, a successful architect, stumbles onto a strange case seems fated to oversee. The Wadsworth family, which consists of Mrs. Wadsworth (Ruth Roman) plus her two grown daughters Germaine (Marianna Hill) and Alba (Susanne Zenor), depend solely on the money they receive from social welfare to care for Baby (David Mooney), a twenty-one-year-old invalid who has never graduated from diapers or learned to talk and walk. Intrigued, Ann visits the secretive family only to find herself headlong in a strange mystery. The last social worker assigned to the family disappeared. And something about how Mrs. Wadsworth treats the children is off-putting. Eschewing professional decorum, Ann takes it upon herself to investigate.

If screenwriter Abe Polsky’s scenario seems a bit rough around the edges with its themes on social welfare, this is nothing compared to the virulent homophobia of his 1969 script for The Gay Deceivers (a prototype for the more politically correct but equally asinine I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry in 2007). In fact, the discomfort of The Baby is what makes it seem surprisingly subversive, thanks mostly to the rigorous physicality of David Mooney’s (here credited as David Manzey) performance as a developmentally disabled adult.

How Post and Polsky play with our assumptions on exploitation of people and systems is another layer, enhanced greatly by a draconian Ruth Roman, here in horror hag Joan Crawford mode, and far from her glory days of Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (1952). Zenor and Hull are particularly spellbinding as the dysfunctional sisters, particularly Hull, who looks like she wandered off the set of The Howling. Wardrobe and economy are addressed slyly, as is a delicious little twist the insidiousness of which makes The Baby profoundly disturbing.

Disc Review:

Arrow Video brings the sinister and insane The Baby back to roaring life with this new 1.78:1 transfer (the package also includes a 1.37:1 version). Picture and audio are superb in this early 70s vintage drama. Costume designers Shirley Brewton and Frances Dennis (who had a host of delightful schlock items to her credit, including Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks) deserve special credit for Roman and Comer’s stylish wardrobes, which feel much more pronounced in this presentation than previous VHS copies. As usually, several worthwhile extra features are available on this Arrow release, including audio commentary with Travis Crawford.

A Family Affair:
Actress Marianna Hill sat for this five-minute interview with Arrow in July 2018, describing the production of the film and working with Ted Post.

Nursery Crimes:
Arrow interviewed nursery painting creator Stanley Dyrector in July 2018, who talks about his experiences designing the paintings for The Baby in this six-minute bit.

Down Will Come Baby:
Film professor Rebekah McKendry presents this twelve-minute retrospective on The Baby.

Tales from the Crib:
Arrow includes this twenty-minute archival audio interview with Ted Post.

Baby Talk:
Arrow also includes this fourteen-minute archival audio interview from 2011 with actor David Mooney.

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