B-movies on the Brain

[AndyC]

I recently discovered that my wife has never seen Rosemary's Baby. It came up while watching a recent episode of Enterprise, in which the movie was referenced (movie night was a nice addition to the show). Anyway, I hadn't seen it since I was a kid, so we rented it, or rather I rented it and assured Lori that as an old movie, it wouldn't be too scary. It's more my mother's idea of a scary movie.

Anyway, I had no idea, until the opening credits, that it was a William Castle picture.

So, after several discussions of just how thick Rosemary is, since she keeps spilling her guts to everyone long after she should have known better, a couple of imitations of Philo's mom from Every Which Way But Loose (whenever Ruth Gordon came on) and one sick joke about the real threat to the baby being Woody Allen (the heart wants what it wants), we got to the big shocking moment when Rosemary learns that she's just had Satan's baby which will destroy the world. Then she's offered a chance to raise it.

At this point, I had to imagine a smiling Castle walking into the scene and asking the audience to hold their cards "thumbs up" if they wanted Rosemary to raise the baby, or "thumbs down" if they didn't. I started to chuckle, and had to explain it to Lori. She got it, but didn't appreciate it quite so much.

It really got me thinking that once you go down the path of b-movies, you will never look at any movie the same way again.

Anybody have a similar experience?

[Scott]

Seeing PLAN 9 FROM OUTERSPACE in the early 80's and years later the movie ED WOOD along with a Video Production class I took just before has steered me in the B-movie direction.

AndyC I also just seen ROSEMARY'S BABY a few weeks ago for the fist time all the way through. I thought it was really good and was equally surprised to see WILLIAM CASTLE in the credits.

[Cullen]

Castle made a few decent films, here and there.  He's no Corman, mind you, but hearing he made a good movie does not suprise me.

Now, if the name Ed Wood or  Larry Buchanan  had popped up...

[Scott]

William Castle actually made a Western as Corman did a couple also.

[AndyC]

Cullen wrote:

> Now, if the name Ed Wood or  Larry Buchanan  had popped up...


If Larry Buchanan had made it, the baby would have had ping pong balls for eyes. Jeez, now I'm going to be thinking of that the next time I see the "what's wrong with his eyes" scene.

This is your brain on b-movies. Any questions?