Roman Polanski’s “Rosemary’s Baby” was a box-office hit upon its release in the summer of 1968. It grossed $33 million dollars off a $3 million dollar budget (adjusted for inflation that’s $221million from a $19 million budget) and it paved the way for horror blockbusters like “The Exorcist” and “The Omen” in the years to come. Made by Polanski at the age of 34, it was the Polish director’s American film debut, and the picture became nominated for two Academy Awards, including a win for Ruth Gordon‘s deliciously quirky Supporting Role performance as the neighbor from hell. It also earned Polanski his first Oscar nomination for his adaptation of Ira Levin’s novel, which is not bad for a guy that didn’t speak English as a first language.
A creepy, darkly comic psychological horror/drama, “Rosemary’s Baby,” in case you’re living under a rock, centers on a New York young couple (Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes) who move into a new apartment, only to be surrounded by peculiar neighbors and odd occurrences. When the wife becomes mysteriously pregnant, paranoia over the safety of her unborn child begins controlling her life (and that’s just the tip of the iceberg).
It’s become a touchstone horror film, that like all the classic ones, is much more than just a horror picture thanks to its deliciously wry humor and its potent ambiguity (some have posited the entire story is just in Rosemary’s head). Released on the Criterion Collection on DVD and Blu-ray this week, it’s finally found a suitably cared for home by these home video tastemakers with a gorgeous transfer and insightful extras.
Evidently Alfred Hitchcock himself had passed on an option of the novel and instead horror producer William Castle optioned it and took it to renowned Paramount head Robert Evans who, on the extras, said the movie “remains a highpoint of my career.” Evidently no one at Paramount, including the notoriously conservative chairman Charles Bludhorn, wanted to Polanski to direct the film nor trusted him to make a horror for his first English-language picture in the U.S. But Evans dug in his heels and Bludhorn eventually relented. The DVD extras detail out several fascinating aspects of the production so here’s seven highlights of elements we learned from “Rosemary’s Baby.”
1. Producer William Castle was once poised to direct the film after Polanski was already on board, according to Mia Farrow.
According to the Criterion Collection DVD extra “Remembering Rosemary’s Baby,” Mia Farrow recalled that Castle called her and said, “I’m so glad you’re going to do the part, but we may be doing it without Roman,” she remembered, noting that Castle, also a director, would take the helm if such a thing happened (presumably this meant the filmmaker had a change of heart at one point or negotiations weren’t going well). “My heart sank. I mean, lovely man, William, but I knew the power of the film would lie in Roman telling the tale.”
Evans wouldn’t let Castle direct it. Instead choosing Polanski because he was so impressed and unnerved with “Repulsion” and the directorial prowess evinced by “Knife In The Water” and “Cul De Sac.” Evans said he was “fascinated” with Polanski’s films, while Castle was a shlocky B-film director/producer of gimmicky horror films. “Macabre” was touted as being so scary it came with a ridiculous $1,000 life insurance policy for each customer in case they should die of fright during the film. “13 Ghosts” was shot in “Emergo” (essentially accompanied by a dangling glow-in-the-dark skeleton in the theater) and he best known for wiring theater seats to jolt patrons of “The Tingler.”
“He was good [at what he did],” Evans said. “But the quality of the films were not what I wanted to make. I read his submission of ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ and I loved it. Because it was a horror film, but brilliantly written. It was too good for Bill Castle,” he laughed, saying he needed a special person to take on the job.