FAQ for
Rosemary's Baby (1968) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDbs Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for Rosemary's Baby can be found here.

Yes. Rosemary's Baby is a 1967 novel by American novelist Ira Levin [1929-2007]. The novel was adapted for the movie by director Roman Polanski. Levin also wrote a sequel novel, Son Of Rosemary (1997).

As Rosemary (Mia Farrow) mentions three times, Guy (John Cassavetes) has done Luther and Nobody Loves an Albatross. Both are real plays from 1963. Luther was written by John Osborne; Nobody Loves an Albatross by Ronald Alexander.

In the book, Guy and Rosemary are "flush." Guy is still netting royalties from a series of Anacin commercials he had done in 1964, which earned him $18,000. He also has a recurring role on "Another World." And, like his movie counterpart, he has a speaking role in a Yamaha commercial. Guy either makes enough money doing commercials for Yamaha or, as the landlord admits, he's unable to raise the rent beyond the 15% yearly increase. In the 1960s, New York was under rent control. A landlord could not raise the rent to market value each time a new tenant came in. The rent was increased 15% from the rent of the last tenant. If the elderly Mrs. Gardenia had lived in 7-E for a long time, the rent would not have been as high as it would have been with a succession of different tenants. Therefore, the rent might be fairly low. In any event, it's only 15% higher than what Mrs. Gardenia had paid.

We don't know what Roman Castevet (Sidney Blackmer) said to Guy during their first meeting. We can assume that Guy was an easy mark. There are hints throughout that he's a soulless coward who disdains religion and is insecure about his acting career. Someone like him would be very open to promises of great success and would close his mind against all the consequences--to himself and others. Also, Guy probably didn't join the coven the first night, and Roman probably didn't tell him everything right away: just enough to tantalize him and get him to come back the next day.

No. He started this false rumor himself. The role was played by an uncredited actor named Clay Tanner. Anton LaVey did not participate in this film at all.

We never find out--in the book or the movie. Dr Hill (Charles Grodin) says the nurse didn't take enough blood for him to run all the tests he wanted. It could be only that. We may suppose, though, that he found something unusual in the first blood test that he couldn't explain. One possibility that's been suggested is that Rosemary was already showing symptoms of the severe anemia that was to follow, which would explain Dr Hill's request that he needed more blood...to explore the cause of the anemia, since anemia can result from several different medical conditions.

"Snips and snails and puppies dog's tails" says Minnie (Ruth Gordon). Later, she says it's made of raw egg, gelatin, herbs, and tannis root. If she's lying, or if there's more in it than she's saying, we never find out--in the book or the movie. The tannis root is probably bad enough. It turns out to be a fungus called Devil's Pepper.

Maybe. And maybe that is its main purpose--to keep Rosemary in bed and out of contact with the outside world. If so, that explains why her pain eventually goes away after she stops drinking it. Of course, she resumes drinking it later, but perhaps Minnie isn't putting in whatever it was that was torturing her the first time. She and the coven know that if Rosemary has the pain again she'll see another doctor--and spoil their plans. Then again, it might be that the drink is healthy for the baby, but the baby is not healthy for mommy and actually is the direct cause of the pain.

He isn't a quack. He's an eminent obstetrician--and everyone from Dr. Hill to Hutch (Maurice Evans)'s two daughters trusts and respects him. Of course, he's giving advice to Rosemary that is far different from what he gives to his other patients. It's true that Sapirstein tells her not to listen to her friends and not to read books. But most of us would interpret that from an eminent doctor as: I know what I'm talking about and they don't. It's probably true. He may give that advice to all his patients. Besides, he tells her to call him day and night. What doctor would offer that? Dr. Eminent is giving her his special attention. At this point, most of the audience is fooled along with her.

Rosemary isn't dumb--but she's not street smart either. She's probably 24, as in the book. She's a sheltered Catholic girl from Omaha. Meanwhile, she hears nothing but good things about Dr. Sapirstein. When she disobeys him and reads a book, it tells her of "ectopic pregnancies" and scares her. Throw the book away, says Sapirstein. It still sounds like good advice. Who needs to be unduly frightened while carrying a child?

We begin to doubt him when she loses weight and has severe pain that lasts for months. Once her girlfriends tell her what she has secretly suspected for a long time--that Sapirstein is a "sadistic nut"--she decides to get a second opinion. However, the pain suddenly stops--perhaps due to Rosemary discontinuing the green drink or perhaps due to supernatural intervention, i.e., the devil knew he'd better stop the pain or someone besides Sapirstein would find out what that baby really was.

No, it was already short. Mia Farrow had cut it that short herself on the set of her prime-time soap opera "Peyton Place" in 1966, shortly before marrying Frank Sinatra. During the first half of the film she wears a blonde fall with a flip created by Sydney Guilaroff, the famed hairdresser for Paramount. Vidal Sassoon set her real hair, amid much publicity, for the second half.

Appear is the wrong word. Tony Curtis plays Donald Baumgart, the actor who goes blind, a character we only hear over the telephone when Rosemary calls to express her sympathy.

Yes. While waiting in Dr. Sapirstein's office, Rosemary flips through an issue of Time Magazine with the cover, "Is God dead?" This is a real cover, dated April 8, 1966.

No. Nor did the director have any intention of showing it. Polanski never shot any scenes that would have given us a clear view of the title character. We do see eyes when they are flashed upon the screen, but even that glimpse may only be what Rosemary sees--or thinks she sees. The eyes could even be Rosemary's fleeting memory of her copulation with the Devil.

That's for the viewer to decide. Rosemary's Baby is among a small group of films--that includes A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Night of the Eagle (1962), the Val Lewton horror films and others--that let us eat our cake and have it, too: we get the supernatural thrills without being required either to believe or reject them. Typically in movies, the supernatural is undeniable, in everything from the Dracula films to Bell Book and Candle (1958) to The Exorcist (1973). Or (especially in films of the 30s and 40s) the fantasy elements are implausibly explained away, e.g. Mark of the Vampire (1935). Or they turn out to have been the stuff of a dream, as in The Wizard of Oz (1939), Cabin in the Sky (1943), etc.

Rosemary's Baby leans toward the supernatural, but there's nothing in it that would make a believer of a skeptic. The witches evidently place curses on Donald Baumgart, who goes blind, and Hutch, who lapses into a coma and later dies. Both could be coincidences. Rosemary's pain and weird behavior (such as eating raw liver) could be solely the result of the herbs and fungi she is eating and not of carrying a demon child in her womb. We get glimpses of the devil, who could be real or a figment of Rosemary's dream. And so on.

Yes. See the soundtrack listing for this title.

No. In September of 1967, Polanski shot several location scenes, including the Dakota scenes and many of the climactic scenes set in summer--i.e. Rosemary crossing Fifth Avenue, Rosemary in the phone booth, etc. Later, the cast and crew went to Los Angeles to shoot on set. In November of 1967, after the first snowfall, a second unit flew back East to shoot the Christmas scenes in front of Tiffany's window and the Time-Life building. Production wrapped soon thereafter.

PRO:

Excellent... The film holds attention without explicit violence or gore. -- Variety

Genuinely funny, yet it's also scary, especially for young women: it plays on their paranoid vulnerabilities. The queasy and the grisly are mixed with its entertaining hipness. Its probably more fun for women who are past their childbearing years. -- Pauline Kael, New Yorker

Ira Levin created Rosemary's Baby... But it was Polanski who endowed it with plastic elegance, visual shape, vocal timing, frightening camera movement and the full acting benefit of high definition performance... Levin is the creator and Polanski the artist. -- Kenneth Tynan, Observer

By far [Polanski's] most satisfying film so far, precisely because it is stylistically polished, restrained and pretty conventional, and because it is a glossy, superficially psychological horror thriller with no noticeable pretensions to be taken as anything more. -- John Russell Taylor, Times

Like all good horror films [it] is set in a completely realistic and tangibly normal environment. -- Sean Brestin, Irish News

Tension is sustained to a degree surpassing Alfred Hitchcock at his best. -- Daily Telegraph

The characters and the story transcend the plot. In most horror films, and indeed in most suspense films of the Alfred Hitchcock tradition, the characters are at the mercy of the plot. In this one, they emerge as human beings actually doing these things. -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times

Classic modern-day thriller by Ira Levin, perfectly realized by writer-director Roman Polanski. -- Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide

MIXED:

It may not be for the very young, and perhaps pregnant women should see it at their own risk. -- Motion Picture Herald

A pleasant surprise [is] the very real acting ability of Mia Farrow... The film's most memorable performance though is turned in by veteran Ruth Gordon... dispensing that old Black Magic she knows so well in a voice that sounds like a crow with a cold. --Time

Conspicuously well made. But it is insufferably silly. -- Dilys Powell, Sunday Times

The section of Rosemary's Baby that's been most publicly controversial - her nightmare of being raped by Satan, which the censor has unjustifiably cut - is actually its least successful... The sharpest bit of casting is Mia Farrow. Her curious physical deficiencies are turned into advantages by Polanski who makes the thin, ravaged, angular, listless, anorexia-like appearance that the character presents... into a pathetic counterpoint to the supernatural powers operating on her. -- Alexander Walker, Evening Standard

Seminal gothic melodrama which led in due course to the excesses of The Exorcist; in itself well done in a heavy-handed way, the book being much more subtle. -- Leslie Halliwell, Film Guide, 1970s

Glossy schlock about satanists and the devils child is not as scary as it is uncomfortable to watch. It becomes upsetting seeing Farrow not only look pale due to her unusual pregnancy but feel confused and constantly tormented... A big hit that is on some levels quite enjoyable - yet its really an ugly film. -- Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic, 1986

CON:

Make a film like Rosemary's Baby? I wouldn't touch it with a five-foot Pole. -- Billy Wilder

The film is very proficient, but all the same, what's it for? If it weren't made by Polanski, I suppose one mightn't ask the question. A horror film isn't for anything; it's just something to scare yourself with. The trouble is that Rosemary's Baby doesn't really scare you much. -- Penelope Gilliatt

Whoever directed this picture must have been the brilliant Polanski's dopey Doppelganger, if not indeed his Hollywood stand-in... The lone authentic bit of horror in the film is Ruth Gordon's performance: a sort of self-serving, nonstop tuneless singsong issuing from a decrepit butterfly that thinks itself the Empress Theodora, it is easily one of the most offensive spectacles of any year and does make Rosemary's Baby, whenever it is on view, perhaps not horrifying but certainly disgusting. -- John Simon, New Leader

If it lacks some of the book's suspense, put that down to a rasping performance by Ruth Gordon, who plays all parts exactly the same... As the witch on the case, she couldn't frighten a cat. -- Esquire

Ruth Gordon is the mother, giving the same eccentric performance she has been giving for many, many years, except that now, mercifully, she doesn't try to be sexy. -- Stanley Kauffmann, New Republic

Sources include: christookey.com