The Baby (1973)

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.

Director:

Ted Post

Writer:

Abe Polsky

Stars:

Anjanette Comer, Ruth Roman, Marianna Hill

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Anjanette Comer	...	Ann Gentry
Ruth Roman	...	Mrs. Wadsworth
Marianna Hill	...	Germaine Wadsworth
Susanne Zenor	...	Alba Wadsworth (as Suzanne Zenor)
Tod Andrews	...	Doctor
Michael Pataki	...	Dennis
Beatrice Manley	...	Judith (as Beatrice Manley Blau)
Erin O'Reilly	...	Babysitter
Don Mallon
Joseph Bernard	...	Mr. Foley
Virginia Vincent
David Mooney	...	Baby (as David Manzy)

Storyline

A social worker who recently lost her husband investigates the strange Wadsworth family. The Wadsworths might not seem too unusual to hear about them at first - consisting of the mother, two grown daughters and the diaper-clad, bottle-sucking baby. The problem is, the baby is twenty-one years old.

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Plot Keywords:

social worker | birthday party | dysfunctional family | psychopath | mental retardation | 

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Taglines:

Nothing in this nursery rhymes.

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Genres:

Horror | Thriller

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

Severin Films [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

March 1973 (USA)

Also Known As:

Jaula sin techo

Company Credits

Production Co:

Quintet Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

84 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The re-mastered edition of the audio track is not the original track from the film. The original track contained the actual sounds made by David Mooney during the filming. The baby sounds came from his performance and not canned baby sounds. The original track must have been lost and later baby sounds were added.

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Quotes

Doctor: What's your special interest in this case?
Ann Gentry: Can you think of anything more horrible than being buried alive? Well that's what's happened to this client. He's been imprisoned by a kind of sick love. He's a normal full grown man, trapped with no way out.
Doctor: There's something here I don't understand. If he isn't seriously retarded, then how do you account for the fact that he can't walk, talk?
Ann Gentry: Negative reinforcement, some kind of consistent punishment to discourage him from normal learning.
Doctor: That's a ...
[...]

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Connections

Featured in Tales from the Crib: A Conversation with Ted Post (2011)

User Reviews

Weird horror psychodrama with sick ending

I just love horror psychodramas from the early seventies, and this one's one of the best. The story concerns Ann Gentry(Anjanette Comer), a young social worker and recent widow who lives with her mother-in-law. Ann is given the case of the Wadsworth family: raspy-voiced Mrs. Wadsworth(Ruth Roman),her two weird adult daughters(Suzanne Zenor and Mariana Hill), and Baby, an adult man who is literally an infant mentally and developmentally. As Ann comes to know more about the Wadsworths, she decides to rescue Baby from his negligent and abusive family, and the initial battle between this upstanding young woman and these depraved women is underway! After several verbal sparrings with Mrs. Wadsworth, Ann accepts an invitation to Baby's birthday party, unaware that the crazy women have a plan to take her out of the picture! The deranged three give Ann drug-lace punch and attempt to tie her up in the basement, planning to dispose of her later. However, Ann escapes with Baby in tow. But Mama Wadsworth and her girls aren't giving up that easy, and decide to find Ann and take Baby back . . .

The great thing about this film is that there are clues to the ending which, in retrospect, obviously hint at the outcome. What we have here is a battle of wits between two sets of psychos. Mrs. Wadsworth and her daughters are fruitcakes, to be sure, but the ending casts Ann's attempt to rescue Baby--and her reasons behind it--in a disturbing new light . ..

A weird little film with a sick ending that distroys everything you assumed at the beginning. Reccommended.