Baby Pictures

I recently read (though it was mostly photographs) This Is No Dream: Making Rosemary's Baby. The book was released last year on the 50th anniversary of the film.  I think it's one of the best films of 1968, and still holds up today. (Still, I was a bit surprised the book came out, since RB is not quite as iconic as, say, The Graduate or 2001.)

The book does a good job explaining how the project was put together.  First came the bestselling Ira Levin novel, about a young newlywed in New York who's used by her actor husband and a bunch of devil worshipers to bear Satan's child. (Sorry if that was a spoiler, but I think the statute of limitations ends after half a century).

The story was bought (before it got big) by producer William Castle, who usually did schlock.  Robert Evans at Paramount was interested, and the studio got the talented young Polish director Roman Polanski to come to Hollywood.

They then hired Mia Farrow as the lead.  She was known for TV, and for being the young bride of Frank Sinatra, but was perfect for the role.  For her husband they get John Cassavetes.  They would have liked Robert Redford--not quite a major star yet--but Paramount was suing him at the time, so that wasn't going to happen.  They considered Jack Nicholson, definitely not a star yet, but Polanski found him a bit too devilish, which would give the game away. (Polanski would later work with Nicholson on Chinatown.  And Kubrick showed in The Shining he didn't care if Nicholson starts out a horror film being really nasty.)

They also hired a bunch of veterans, such as Ruth Gordon (she won an Oscar for the role) and Ralph Bellamy to play members of the coven.  And Charles Grodin got his first big movie break playing an obstetrician who unwittingly betrays Rosemary.  For years people would come up to him on the street and berate him for what his character did.

Polanski was painstaking, and the film, shot both in New York and Los Angeles, went significantly over budget.  Charles Bludhorn, who ran Gulf + Western which owned Paramount, was not happy, but Evans backed his boy.  When they film came out, it earned so much there was a large profit, so everyone was happy.

It's a good study in paranoia.  Rosemary isn't quite sure what is going on, and the film is her descent into madness, except it's really happening. The title of the book comes from the movie, and the original novel--Rosemary has been drugged and imagines she's having sex with the Devil, except she tells herself she's not dreaming.

Before this film, most horror was Dracula, Frankenstein, or weird monsters, often with a gothic background.  This film was mod, present-day New York and was mostly realistic.  It changed how horror was done on screen.  And it also made Satan a lot more popular in films.  Ira Levin would later bemoan how a lot of cultists picked up on this kind of thing, even thinking it was cool--though, as Levin noted, he still cashed the checks.

Anyway, lots of great photos taken on the set.  And a good behind-the-scenes story of how a successful motion picture is (or at least was) put together.