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‘Rosemary’s Baby’ is horribly frightening: 1968 review(released 50 years ago, this summer)
New York Daily News ^ | 6/11/2015 | Kathleen Carroll

Posted on 03/07/2018 11:12:12 AM PST by simpson96

Right to its bitter end, there is no escaping “Rosemary’s Baby.” On film Ira Levin’s best selling novel is as horribly frightening as it was on paper. Few people could put Levin’s book down. By the same token, viewers of the movie at the Criterion and Loew’s Tower East Theatres will find themselves compelled to see it through. It is that tantalizing a shocker.

The subject matter is peculiarly repugnant. It is witchcraft, not as practiced in Salem or the like, but as taken seriously in our very own city.

The setting is an apartment house modeled after those venerable Gothic caverns on the West Side. The building’s blackened, menacing hallways with their incredibly high ceilings set-off the innocent glow of the young heroine who lives in this gloomy setting with her bridegroom.

Knowing the story from the book killed a little of the suspense for me since director Roman Polanski follows it relentlessly. Therefore, I will tell nothing of the plot. What makes this film worthy of attention, no matter how one reacts to Polanski’s exacting inclusion of Rosemary’s erotic dreams and the sickening triumph of evil in the end, is, surprisingly, Mia Farrow.

Miss Farrow’s special magic is her fragility. She reminds one of a fawn in captivity. What she does so remarkably well is draw sympathy to Rosemary who is herself a captive fawn, a totally helpless heroine surrounded by evil on all sides with now way out. Everyone in the audience will want desperately to help her.

(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...


TOPICS: TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: anniversary; hollywood; moviereview; polanski; witchcraft; wob
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Link to video highlights of remastered Criterion Edition on DVD

1 posted on 03/07/2018 11:12:13 AM PST by simpson96
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To: simpson96

I believe some or all Satanists were played by actual Satanists.


2 posted on 03/07/2018 11:15:34 AM PST by \/\/ayne (I regret that I have but one subscription cancellation notice to give to my local newspaper.)
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To: simpson96

I’ve watched it many times and it always gives me the creeps in how the husband “pimped” out his wife to the devil...

For a part in a play...


3 posted on 03/07/2018 11:16:32 AM PST by RedMonqey ("You don't tug on Superman's cape...You don't spit into the wind...")
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To: \/\/ayne

Even Ruth Gordon?


4 posted on 03/07/2018 11:17:21 AM PST by RushIsMyTeddyBear (Screw The NFL!!!!!! My family fought for the flag!)
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To: \/\/ayne
I believe some or all Satanists were played by actual Satanists.

Source, please.

5 posted on 03/07/2018 11:17:41 AM PST by RedMonqey ("You don't tug on Superman's cape...You don't spit into the wind...")
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To: simpson96

I don’t know much about this movie. I have never seen it - and, now that I know it was directed by Roman Polanski I never will.


6 posted on 03/07/2018 11:18:58 AM PST by WayneS (An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. - Winston Churchill.)
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To: RedMonqey

Don’t judge him. Artists must make sacrifices for their art...

;-)


7 posted on 03/07/2018 11:20:11 AM PST by WayneS (An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. - Winston Churchill.)
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To: simpson96

A pastor in our area recently recanted in a sermon that he had warned his congregation about going to Rosemary’s Baby when the movie first came out. Shortly afterward, he had to exorcise a baby of a mother who had attended the movie.


8 posted on 03/07/2018 11:21:53 AM PST by stars & stripes forever (Blessed is the nation whose GOD is the LORD. Psalm 33:12)
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To: simpson96

SHE CAN’T HEAR US SHE ATE THE MOUSE


9 posted on 03/07/2018 11:22:24 AM PST by golux
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To: simpson96

In spite of Polanski, it’s a good film - tense and creepy. John Cassavetes drank himself to death way too young, the man was talented.


10 posted on 03/07/2018 11:22:26 AM PST by dainbramaged (Get out of my country now)
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To: WayneS

(Snicker, Snicker!)


11 posted on 03/07/2018 11:23:50 AM PST by RedMonqey ("You don't tug on Superman's cape...You don't spit into the wind...")
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To: simpson96; Gamecock; SaveFerris; FredZarguna; PROCON; KC_Lion; Army Air Corps

GEORGE: She doesn’t deserve a baby shower. She deserves a baby monsoon. She deserves Rosemary’s baby!


12 posted on 03/07/2018 11:32:44 AM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: \/\/ayne

The head of the church of satan played the devil raping Rosemary

Not sure what you’re talking about. But anything’s possible


13 posted on 03/07/2018 11:35:19 AM PST by dp0622 (The Left should know saying Syrian rebels in anost back in Trump is kicked out of office, it is WAR!)
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To: simpson96

The creepy apartment building is The Dakota. John Lennon lived and I believed was killed in front of it. It was and is home to many famous people.


14 posted on 03/07/2018 11:36:44 AM PST by pnut22
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To: simpson96

Good movie, but I could only watch it once. Scared the crap out of me — but not as much as “The Exorcist” did. I can’t believe it’s been 50 years.


15 posted on 03/07/2018 11:37:36 AM PST by MayflowerMadam (Have an A-1 day.)
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To: dainbramaged

Also creepy because Polanski’s wife and unborn baby were murdered the next year by thoroughly evil people. Roman didn’t set up his wife for evil like Guy Woodhouse did, though.


16 posted on 03/07/2018 11:37:42 AM PST by Cecily
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To: MayflowerMadam
. Scared the crap out of me — but not as much as “The Exorcist” did.

Well it just keeps getting funnier, every single time I see it.

17 posted on 03/07/2018 11:38:37 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: pnut22
Yoko Ono still lives in the apartment at the Dakota she and John shared. Once you get in you can never leave.

http://www.businessinsider.com/15-crazy-facts-about-nycs-dakota-building-2015-8

18 posted on 03/07/2018 11:40:40 AM PST by Menehune56 ("Let them hate so long as they fear" (Oderint Dum Metuant), Lucius Accius (170 BC - 86 BC))
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To: stars & stripes forever
Shortly afterward, he had to exorcise a baby of a mother who had attended the movie.

Did the baby also instantly walk for the first time?

19 posted on 03/07/2018 11:41:04 AM PST by Dagnabitt (Point at the Q-Tards and Laugh!)
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To: dfwgator

Exorcist or Rosemary’s Baby?

I suppose if I were to watch The Exorcist now it wouldn’t bother me so much. When I saw it I was in my early 20s, had left Seminary a few months earlier (one class was “Demonology”), and was alone all night because my hubby was on midnight shift at Air Force base.


20 posted on 03/07/2018 11:42:00 AM PST by MayflowerMadam (Have an A-1 day.)
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