Yes, Sir, that's Satan's Baby....

Rating: 8/10 (21 October 2014)

When a movie opens with Mia Farrow singing "La la la la" over the credits to spooky music, you know it's going to be a strange film, and with "Rosemary's Baby", not only did she become a star, but the supernatural Satan worship film craze began. Yes, there were movies about devil worshipers before, but they were usually Z-grade low budget films that had little commercial release other than drive-ins and underground theaters. "Rosemary's Baby" was a mainstream film produced by the king of shock schlock (William Castle) and directed by the controversial Roman Polanski.
Finding the perfect apartment in Manhattan has been tough in any decade, but in the 1960's, it proved to be demonistic for young housewife Farrow whose out of work actor husband (John Cassavettes) literally makes a deal with the devil to insure his success. Once you find a perfect apartment in Manhattan, you also hope for perfect neighbors, ones who are friendly and helpful without being nosy. "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner!" Katherine Hepburn says in a Turner Movie Classics montage of 100 years of film, which is immediately followed by a shot of a peephole focusing on the obviously eccentric Ruth Gordon. Minnie Castevet is one of those neighbors one dreads but can't help but not like. She's a little too helpful, always a bit too cheery, and a lot interfering, if well-meaning. But there is obviously something up with her and husband Roman (Sidney Blackmer), and it will come to a horrific discovery for Farrow, especially after a nightmare that leads to her becoming pregnant.
Ira Levin's best-selling novel was one of 1968's most popular movies and made a cult movie star out of the elf-like Farrow who is unlike any other movie star before or since. Even with all those classic Woody Allen films of the mid-late 1980's, this will be the film for which she will always be remembered. She's just slightly neurotic enough to be compared to the boy who cried wolf, which in this case would make her the wife who cried Satan! Nobody's going to believe that the nightmare she had was actually reality, that is except an old friend (Maurice Evans, ironically the warlock Maurice on "Bewitched") who finds out that his interference isn't without consequences.
On the side of Satan are such memorable character performers as Patsy Kelly, Hope Summers, Elisha Cook Jr., and Phil Leeds. Kelly is hysterically funny as Gordon's pal as they arrive at Farrow's apartment and start knitting up a storm for the unborn toddler. Later, she rocks the cradle as if she was churning butter, making her distaste towards Farrow obvious and childlike. The film is mostly serious, especially as Farrow meets and befriends young Victoria Vetri who meets a shocking ending. This alerts her to the dangers awaiting her, especially when she meets Gordon and Blackmer upon returning home to find a crowd in front of the apartment building on Central Park West. The suspense grows and grows, exploding into spooky consequences as Farrow tries to escape her fate. The film is guaranteed to keep the audience riveted, and the ending leaves the viewer's imagination open as to what would happen, although a rarely seen television sequel would take the story down stranger paths.