It's true that the weird and wonderful 60's and the spillover hedonistic 70's produced more than their fair share of the bizarre, especially in cinema where new boundaries and barriers were constantly being explored and broken.

Ted Post's early 70's drama The Baby is just about the strangest movie we have come across in decades of avidly pursuing the bizarre. For a respectable film with "proper" actors and decent production value's this is about as strange as it gets.

The subject matter is just so twisted and demented that the film actually deserves more than one viewing just to try to decipher what actually was going on. If it's a feminist statement with roles deliberately warped beyond belief just to prove a point then the point gets lost in the sheer weirdness of proceedings on screen.

It is however a delight to see Ruth Roman the wimpy, mousy, pathetic airhead of a tennis girlfriend from Strangers On A Train show a resoundingly different side to her acting persona. She is sublimely monstrous as Baby's mother, with a deliciously raspy smokers voice that adds to the manic persona she assumes so wonderfully in this movie. In this form she would have given even the legendary Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) from Friday the 13th a close run for her money.

Also featuring among the almost entirely female cast is an old Hot Spot favourite Mariana Hill who found instant fame within our madcap household in her fabulous guest appearances in the swinging Batman TV series from the 60's. She was magnificent as Cleo, the moronic sidekick of King Tut who naturally had a secret crush on Batman. Which girl wouldn't have a crush on the gorgeous Adonis that Adam West was in his pomp. Mariana Hill provides a suitably demented performance as Baby's very strange sister. In fact this movie is just so damn strange it's almost indigestible and as it progresses it gets more and more twisted and psychotic.

The final twist is a real scream and manages to provide the adequate climax to one of the very strangest films we have ever come across. I sincerely hope that David Manzy was adequately reimbursed for making the biggest ass of himself on screen that anyone possibly could make of themselves. It is a quite miraculous performance, totally defying description. Its also not an enormous surprise that Manzy didn't get to become a big star - its doubtful that anyone would be ready to hire him after this fantastic performance. He does an earnest job, but its just such a ridiculous role to have to play, one has to have pity on the poor fellow.

The story involves a demented mother and her two daughters whose pride and joy is Baby - a fully grown man who is and always has been treated as an infant. He still lies in his crib cooing and gurgling like a 1 year old. It's a most grotesque sight to say the very least. Baby is befriended by a dedicated social worker who takes an avid interest in the problems of the family and the very strange case of this Baby. The social worker eventually manages to kidnap Baby from his demented family, but unexpected and dark happenings lurk just around the corner.

Noticeable is the weirdly discordant violin dominated soundtrack which is reminiscent of the brilliant Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice. A quick look back at the titles reveals that Gerald Fried was indeed responsible for both scores and must have been a master of the macabre in his time. It's a perverse wonder of a movie deserving to be enjoyed just to see a subject matter that is about as unique as any.