"The Baby"(1973) Movie Review

I was intrigued about this movie after reading about it in Rue Morgue magazine forever ago, they were doing an interview with Ted Post who was the director of the film.  Just the premise of the movie and the fact it was from the 70's made me want to watch asap! I love movies from the 70's, I think there's great movies from all era's, but 70's era movies have a special kind of crazy aesthetic to me.
                                    First of all the premise is a little shocking-it's about a physically grown man who never got past being a baby in that he can't speak except for baby gibberish, can't walk but can crawl, still has to use a bottle and sleeps in a crib. The film opens with a social worker reading his case file, then visits the family to meet with them and see just what is going on with "Baby", which you find out is also his name. From the family you meet his two eccentric sisters who help their Mother take care of Baby, and get a sense of the family dynamics- the family supports themselves with the income from Baby's welfare check and you get the sense that this social worker is overly interested in this family and particularly Baby as she visits them 3 times in a week and the family says the last social worker didn't come by all that much. There's even a scene with the social worker and her boss where her boss tells her Baby is fine and she is neglecting her other cases by playing favorites with this one. It seems that the social worker really cares about Baby and wants him to learn and grow if he's mentally able to. The family doesn't take too kindly to this intrusion and think they are handling Baby just fine. It's worth it to watch all the way to the twist ending when everyone's true motives are finally revealed!
                                     This is one of those movies that will either hold your attention or it won't but if you're a fan of John Waters, 70's B-Movies and just plain weird this is definitely for you! I especially thought the acting was great -standouts are Baby's Mother(Ruth Roman), the Social Worker(Anjanette Comer) and Baby(David Manzy) himself. It would be all too easy to make the role of Baby into something cheesy or silly if the acting wasn't spot-on. So glad I got to learn of this movie and that it was available for Instant Watch on Netflix!