The Baby (1973) ***1/2

The Baby (1973) is a bizarro flick directed by Ted Post, a competent work-for-hire who directed a lot of TV and a number of films—most notably Hang 'Em High (1968) (the first (of many more) western(s) that Clint Eastwood starred in after completing the "Dollars" Trilogy with Sergio Leone), Beneath The Planet Of The Apes (1970) (the second entry in the original series), and Magnum Force (1973) (the second entry in the Dirty Harry series). The Baby stars a bunch of actors I'd never seen in anything else (that I can recall anyway), with Ruth Roman being a standout, doing her best '60s era Joan Crawford. The film is an odd one, starting out as what appears to be a somewhat genuinely concerned social drama and gets zanier and campier throughout, until it steers directly into horror territory by the end. If you like crazy hairstyles, intense stares, human cattle prodding, and uncomfortable breastfeeding, then this is your movie.