Down Will Come Baby | |
---|---|
![]() Promotional poster | |
Genre | Thriller |
Based on | Down Will Come Baby by Gloria Murphy |
Teleplay by | Gregory Goodell |
Directed by | Gregory Goodell |
Starring | |
Music by | Joseph Conlan |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producers |
|
Cinematography | Tom Del Ruth |
Editor | Paul Dixon |
Running time | 88 minutes [1] |
Production company | Hearst Entertainment |
Original release | |
Network | CBS |
Release | May 4, 1999 |
Down Will Come Baby is a 1999 American suspense thriller [2] television film written and directed by Gregory Goodell, based on the 1991 novel of the same name by Gloria Murphy. The film tells the story of Leah (played by Meredith Baxter), a career woman who prioritizes work over her husband Marcus (Tom Amandes) and their young daughter Robin (Evan Rachel Wood). Leah accepts an out-of-state promotion that takes her away from her family, just as Robin is going through a difficult time following the accidental death of her friend at summer camp. The family's kindly new neighbor Dorothy (Diana Scarwid) steps in to help, but Leah suspects that Dorothy's seemingly innocent interest in her daughter belies a darker motive.
Down Will Come Baby was produced by Hearst Entertainment for CBS, following the network's adaptation of another one of Murphy's novels for the 1996 film Summer of Fear . The film was shot over 18 days in and around Phoenix, Arizona, from February to March 1999. Down Will Come Baby premiered on CBS on May 4, 1999, to negative reviews. Critics panned the film for its lurid depiction of child violence as well as its unflattering view on working mothers. It was watched by 11.4 million total viewers and was the 27th highest-rated prime time broadcast for its respective week.
Leah Garr is a workaholic whose career often takes her away from her home in Phoenix, Arizona, causing tension with her husband Marcus, who wants her to spend more time with her family. Tired of their constant fighting, the couple's 12-year-old daughter Robin insists on going away to summer camp. At camp, Robin befriends Amelia, an odd girl who lives with her abusive and controlling mother. One night, Robin decides to sneak off for a swim in a nearby lake and convinces Amelia to join her. Amelia is not a good swimmer and ends up drowning, leaving Robin ridden with guilt. Meanwhile, Leah accepts a big promotion that requires her to move to Denver, such that she only gets to see her family on the weekends.
While hanging out at the park, Robin is approached by a friendly stranger named Dorothy Cotton, who later turns out to be Robin's new neighbor. In Leah's absence, Dorothy ingratiates herself in Robin's life, offering to help look after the girl whenever Marcus is busy. Leah is suspicious of Dorothy's intentions, but Marcus reassures her that Dorothy is just trying to be a good friend. Dorothy encourages Robin to confide in her, and Robin admits that she blames herself for her friend Amelia's death. Dorothy shares that her younger sister was also named Amelia, who she claims accidentally fell to her death when they were playing in their attic as children. Robin becomes creeped out by Dorothy's increasingly obsessive behavior, which includes stalking her, rearranging her bedroom, and yelling at the girl when she does not follow her instructions to the letter. Robin shares her fears with Marcus, who thinks she is overreacting. Unbeknownst to the Garrs, Dorothy has also been listening in on their conversations through a baby monitor she hid in Robin's room.
Marcus is grateful when Dorothy agrees to stay over with Robin while he and Leah are out of town. While staying over, Dorothy's overbearing conduct gets on Robin's nerves. When the latter tries to call her mother to complain, Dorothy knocks her unconscious in a fit of rage. Leah and Marcus return home to find their daughter missing and they call the police after noticing blood on the doorframe. The worried couple convince their landlord to unlock Dorothy's barely lived-in apartment, where they find photographs of Robin's friend Amelia. The Garrs realize that Dorothy has been lying about her true identity, and that she is in fact the mother of Robin's deceased friend, who in turn was named after Dorothy's deceased sister. Meanwhile, Robin is being held captive in her late friend's bedroom by a delusional Dorothy, who believes that Robin is actually her daughter Amelia. Tired of waiting on the police, Leah and Marcus break into the summer camp's office, where they find out that Dorothy's real name is Gretchen McIntyre. They rush to Gretchen's address and arrive just in time to stop Gretchen from branding Robin with a hot iron as punishment for her disobedience. The police arrive shortly thereafter and Gretchen has a mental breakdown as she is taken into custody. On their way home, Leah announces that she is going to leave her job post in Denver to be with her family in Phoenix, much to Marcus and Robin's delight.
Down Will Come Baby was written and directed by Gregory Goodell, [2] based on the 1991 [3] novel of the same name by Gloria Murphy. [4] It was produced by Hearst Entertainment for CBS, with Renee Valente and Paullette Breen serving as executive producers. The creative team also included Tom Del Ruth (director of photography), Paul Dixon (editor), and Joseph Conlan (composer). [2] CBS had previously adapted another one of Murphy's novels, Simon Says (1994), into the 1996 television film Summer of Fear . [5] While Murphy was unhappy with the previous adaptation, she approved of Goodell's adaptation of Down Will Come Baby, believing that his script stayed true to her original story and characters. There were some changes made for the film, such as the setting being switched from New England to Arizona. [4]
Meredith Baxter said the role of Leah appealed to her because she could relate to the struggle of being a working mother. [6] She was also drawn to the notion put forth in the script that even ordinary people can find themselves in extraordinary situations, noting that the film starts out following a very normal family before taking a sudden sinister turn. Having done her share of true crime television dramas, Baxter was pleased to be a part of a film that is based on a fictional story. [7] She explained:
This confirms that the networks are again ready and willing to accept stories made up by the magnificence of a writer's mind. For a long period of time, it seemed a script had to come from the headlines before it had any dramatic credibility. [7]
The film was shot on location in Phoenix, Arizona, based out of the downtown area, [8] from February to March 1999. [9] [10] It was shot over 18 days in what Baxter described as a "pretty demanding" schedule. [7] Several local Arizonan actors rounded out the supporting cast including Booze-Mooney, Thompson, Glaeser, and McKay. [10]
Down Will Come Baby premiered on CBS on May 4, 1999, in the 9:00–11:00 pm time slot, [2] as part of the network's season-ending "sweeps" line-up. [11] It was released on home video in the UK later that year by Odyssey Video. [1] [12]
The film earned a national Nielsen rating of 8.7, where each ratings point represents 994,000 households, making it the 27th highest-rated prime time broadcast for the week of May 3 to 9, 1999. [13] Overall it was the 120th most-watched television film for the 1998–1999 season, with a total of 11.4 million viewers. [14]
The Corpus Christi Caller-Times ' Elaine Liner found that Down Will Come Baby plays out in such an uninspiring manner, that its only remarkable feature was having Baxter play a "good mom" in contrast to her usual "wack-job" roles. [15] Given its depiction of brutality against a minor, Liner also thought it was irresponsible of CBS to broadcast the film just two weeks after the Columbine High School massacre. [15] Similarly, The Washington Post 's Tom Shales and The Times-Picayune 's Benjamin Morrison both condemned the film for stoking parental fears with its gratuitous depiction of child violence. [16] [17] Despite his criticisms, Morrison acknowledged that the film was "effective and occasionally well-handled", with an engaging plot and cast; although he felt that its constant gloom ultimately made for an unpleasant viewing experience. [17]
In The Scranton Times-Tribune , Faye Zuckerman opined that any potential for a compelling story was quickly discarded by the filmmakers in favor of typical horror fare. She compared Down Will Come Baby unfavorably to the 1992 film The Hand That Rocks the Cradle , noting the lurid violence displayed in both. [18] Variety 's Laura Fries found the cast to be adequate, highlighting Wood as the steadiest performer, but did not think their performances were enough to elevate the film from "a hodgepodge script and so many plot holes". [2] New York magazine's John Leonard highlighted Scarwid's unrestrained performance, but was otherwise unimpressed with what he considered to be a "by-the-numbers" production. [19]
Reviewers also took issue with the apparent moral that sees Leah learning to cast aside her career to focus on being a mother and wife. [17] [19] Morrison suggested that Marcus should have been the one to re-evaluate his behavior instead. [17] Shales, who was especially annoyed by the "simpering" Marcus throughout the film, emphatically stated that the Garr family's problems were really the result of Marcus' foolish ignorance rather than Leah's career ambitions as the script asserted. [16] Fries was critical of Goodell's unflattering treatment of the adult female characters as a whole, noting that they were pigeonholed as either being dedicated to their careers or to their families, with the underlying implication that women who forsake their maternal duties deserve to be punished. [2] Susan Stewart's review in TV Guide Magazine concluded that "the real horror is that movies like this are still made in the era of two-income families". [20]
For her performance as Robin, Wood was nominated for the YoungStar Award for Best Young Actress in a Miniseries/Made for TV Film. [21]
In Old Arizona is a 1928 American pre-Code Western film directed by Raoul Walsh and Irving Cummings, nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The film, which was based on the character of the Cisco Kid in the 1907 story "The Caballero's Way" by O. Henry, was a major innovation in Hollywood. It was the first major Western to use the new technology of sound and the first talkie to be filmed outdoors. It made extensive use of authentic locations, filming in Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park in Utah, and the Mission San Juan Capistrano and the Mojave Desert in California. The film premiered in Los Angeles on December 25, 1928, and went into general release on January 20, 1929.
Dorothy Lamour was an American actress and singer. She is best remembered for having appeared in the Road to... movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope.
Rose Joan Blondell was an American actress who performed in film and television for 50 years.
Inga Swenson was an American actress and singer. She appeared in multiple Broadway productions and was nominated twice for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performances as Lizzie Curry in 110 in the Shade and Irene Adler in Baker Street. She also spent seven years portraying Gretchen Kraus in the ABC comedy series Benson.
Amelia March Luckinbill is an American actress best known for her roles in American soap operas.
"Sweetheart" is a song originally recorded by American singer Rainy Davis. It was written by Davis and Pete Warner, and produced with Dorothy Kessler. The track was released in 1986 by independent record label SuperTronics as a single from Davis's 1987 studio album Sweetheart. A freestyle, hip hop pop, and synth-funk song, "Sweetheart" appeared on R&B and dance music-based record charts in the United States.
Diana Scarwid is an American actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Christina Crawford in Mommie Dearest (1981). She received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Inside Moves (1980), and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for Truman (1995).
Whitney Blake was an American film and television actress, director, and producer. She is known for her four seasons portraying Dorothy Baxter, the mother, on the 1960s sitcom Hazel, and as co-creator and writer of the sitcom One Day at a Time. With her first husband she had three children, including actress Meredith Baxter.
Gretchen Hoyt Corbett is an American actress and theater director. She is primarily known for her roles in television, particularly as attorney Beth Davenport on the NBC series The Rockford Files, but has also had a prolific career as a stage actress on Broadway as well as in regional theater.
Robin Patricia Williams is an American educator who has authored many computer-related books, as well as the book Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare?. Among her computer books are manuals of style The Mac is Not a Typewriter and numerous manuals for various macOS operating systems and applications, including The Little Mac Book.
Jennifer Baxter is a Canadian actress and comedian formerly based out of Toronto and currently living in Los Angeles.
James A. Marcus was an American actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1915 and 1937. He was born in New York City. On October 15, 1937, Marcus died in Hollywood, California from a heart attack at age 70. Marcus' most notable films include Regeneration, Oliver Twist and Sadie Thompson.
Dirty Dancing is an American comedy-drama television series that ran for 11 episodes on CBS from October 29, 1988, until January 14, 1989. It was based on the 1987 film of the same name, and is the second release in the titular franchise. Despite its sourced original story, none of the original cast or crew returned for the TV adaptation. The series starred Patrick Cassidy as Johnny Castle and Melora Hardin as Frances "Baby" Kellerman.
Live-In is an American sitcom created by Robert Sternin and Prudence Fraser that aired on CBS from March 20 to May 22, 1989. The series focuses on young Australian au pair Lisa Wells integrating into the home life of a New Jersey family and their teenage son Danny Mathews' efforts to become her boyfriend. Nine episodes were filmed in Los Angeles, which CBS hoped would draw a younger audience to the network.
Katie Joplin is an American sitcom created by Tom Seeley and Norm Gunzenhauser that aired for one season on The WB Television Network from August to September 1999. Park Overall stars as the title character, a single mother who moves from Knoxville to Philadelphia and tries to balance her job as a radio program host with parenting her teenage son Greg. Supporting characters include Katie's niece Liz Berlin as well as her co-workers, played by Jay Thomas, Jim Rash, and Simon Rex. Majandra Delfino guest-starred in three episodes as the daughter of the radio station's general manager.
Down Will Come Baby is a thriller novel written by Gloria Murphy and published in February 1991 by Donald I. Fine. An audio version of the book was also released by Brilliance Corp in a six-cassette tape format later that year.