The Baby (1973)

The Baby: Directed by Ted Post. With Anjanette Comer, Ruth Roman, Marianna Hill, Susanne Zenor. A social worker, still reeling from the loss of her architect husband, investigates the eccentric, psychedelic Wadsworth Family, consisting of a mother, two daughters, and an adult son with the apparent mental capacity of an infant.

“The Baby joins a select club of really flaky little films from the poofy-hair-on-guys era, early 70u0026#39;s to early 80u0026#39;s; the best of these was Night Warning, William Shatneru0026#39;s wigged-out Impulse is another, the MSTu0026#39;d Touch of Satan is another. The Baby and Impulse even share the services of the wondrous Ruth Roman, who in The Baby looks more than ever like Victor Mature in full drag. All these feature somebody driving around in a Dodge Dart or a Maverick and plot twists that make you ask, u0026quot;What were these people ON?u0026quot;u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eTed Post was already in his late fifties when he did The Baby, so the lame direction canu0026#39;t be written off as a young director learning his craft. It just plain sucks. Anjanette Comer stands around screeching and flapping her hands for emphasis like sheu0026#39;s at a community-theater audition; itu0026#39;s hard to see any of the luminescent Aimee Thanatogenos from The Loved One, just eight years before. And Baby is a hoot – this was pretty much the entire career of the hard-working young actor trying to make us believe heu0026#39;s a teenager operating at a 9-month-old level, but somebody decided to dub in the sounds of a real baby coming from his adult voice-box, and you donu0026#39;t buy the bit for five seconds.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut thereu0026#39;s just enough here to make it worthwhile to stick it out for the snapper ending. Anybody who says they guessed where this was going is lying like a red dog. Itu0026#39;s no Night Warning, but if youu0026#39;ve seen Night Warning and you need another sip from the same bucket, itu0026#39;ll do.”