The Bad Seed

Plot synopsis:
Lovely, well-to-do Christine Bravo Penmark has everything: a loving, well-paid husband with a respectable career (as an Air Force colonel, no less), a swank apartment in a respectable part of town, and an adorable, cherubic eight-year-old daughter. But as Col. Kenneth Penmark leaves for an assignment in Washington, DC, the strains that have lurked beneath the surface of the Penmark household now begin to manifest. For example, her daughter Rhoda gives every indication of being a grasping, greedy child, whom their landlady, Monica Breedlove, indulges with extravagant presents that Rhoda gives some indication of not being satisfied with. For another, Rhoda protests loudly and resentfully when reminded that she had lost a penmanship competition, saying that she ought to have won first place, and the medal that goes with that honor.The apartment-house handyman, Leroy, presents another complication. Though an adult, he seems to have an eight-year-old mind himself. He is also mean and spiteful, and regularly spars with Rhoda.Rhoda leaves for a school picnic, wearing two shoes that have been modified with iron plates to make them sound like tap shoes. As she leaves, Leroy sprays her shoes with the garden hose, earning a stern reprimand from Monica. Leroy nurses resentment of Mrs. Breedlove, a lustful attitude toward Christine, and a clear enmity toward Rhoda.At the picnic, Christine tries to sound out Claudia Fern, the headmistress of Rhoda's school, about how Rhoda is fitting in and getting along. Miss Fern at first is effusive in her praise of Rhoda but then becomes evasive and abruptly excuses herself. Christine confesses at this point that Rhoda seems overly mature for her age, in a "disturbing" manner.That afternoon, Christine entertains her "psychiatry club," at which Monica fairly boasts of having been under analysis by some of the most droppable names in the profession of psychiatry. (That she could actually have been a patient of Sigmund Freud, as she boasts, is a stretch, and her fellow clubbers seem to know it.) Then, as the club starts to discuss a case of a recently convicted serial murderess, Christine finds the conversation disturbing, prompting Monica to tease her about it. The conversation then continues onto the case of one Bessie Denker, a name that Christine recognizes but won't elaborate on.In the middle of this conversation, someone turns on the radio, and the announcer gives a shocking report: that Claude Daigle, a fellow student of Rhoda's, has drowned on an old, rickety pier that the students had been forbidden to play on or near. As expected, the school bus brings Rhoda home early--and Rhoda, far from being in any to-be-expected state of shock, seems to care nothing about the death of her classmate, and casually asks for a peanut-butter sandwich and a glass of milk, and then goes out roller-skating. The one adult who takes the most notice of Rhoda's casual attitude is the handyman, Leroy. He says flat-out that she's not even sorry that he died, and Rhoda half-innocently, half-sardonically asks why she should feel sorry. As she skates away, Leroy forms a resolve to find something to scare her with, thinking only as an eight-year-old thinks, to "take her down a peg."A few days later, Claudia Fern comes to visit Christine, and to reveal some startling information: that Rhoda was the last student to see Claude Daigle alive, and that Claude's penmanship medal, which he had worn to the picnic, was now missing. Miss Fern also reveals that Rhoda had been pestering Claude all morning, trying to snatch his medal from him. Furthermore, Miss Fern reveals that a lifeguard had shouted a warning to a girl answering to Rhoda's description, as she was coming off the wharf.Christine now remembers that Claudia Fern and her sisters never asked Christine to pay for a share of the flowers for Claude Daigle's funeral, and Miss Fern states that she thought that Christine would prefer to send flowers individually. Now Christine asks flatly why Miss Fern would take that attitude, and ask Christine Penmark about the missing medal. In reply, Miss Fern reveals what she had earlier not wanted to discuss with Christine: that Rhoda has no sense of fair play, is a sore loser, and has earned the enmity of all the other pupils in the school. Furthermore, Miss Fern announces that Rhoda will not be welcome when school takes up again in the following fall. This prompts Christine to ask Miss Fern flat-out whether she supposes that Rhoda had anything to do with Claude's death. Shocked, Miss Fern disclaims any such suspicion, but her behavior indicates that, whether she harbored such a suspicion or not, her sisters do.Their conversation is interrupted when Hortense Daigle, the dead boy's mother, stumbles into the apartment, drunk and barely able to walk in a straight line, followed closely by Henry Daigle, her embarrassed husband. Mrs. Daigle sarcastically observes that Christine is her social superior, an "honor" that Christine hastily disclaims, and then comes to the point of her visit: she demands to know what became of the penmanship medal, and what Miss Fern, concerned as she probably is with liability issues, won't reveal. Mrs. Daigle also reveals that Claude, when found, had bruises on his hand and a crescent-moon-shaped wound on his forehead. In the end Mrs. Daigle becomes terrifically angry, and then almost collapses in tears, allowing her otherwise-ineffectual husband to lead her away. After Hortense leaves, Christine and Miss Fern have a tearful parting. Shortly after this, Col. Penmark calls to ask about the accident, and to reveal that his Washington assignment will last at least another four weeks.When Monica calls and asks Christine to lend her a locket that she had given Rhoda, so that she can have its gemstone changed, Christine is horrified to find the penmanship medal in Rhoda's little "treasure chest." She then shows the medal to Rhoda and demands that Rhoda explain how she came by the medal. Rhoda at first tries to change the subject, then denies that she had had the medal, then tells a variety of stories that Christine recognizes as false almost at once, and finally says that she had somehow persuaded Claude to let her hold the medal, and then had gone out onto the pier and fallen in later on. In between these activities, Rhoda indulges in a bit of flattery that now seems anything but flattering. Then Christine recalls a fatal accident that had happened to a neighbor in Wichita, KS, an accident by which Rhoda came into possession of a keepsake belonging to the neighbor. Christine finally announces her intention to call Miss Fern, intending to surrender the medal, but Rhoda, in a frightened tone, begs her not to, saying that the school officials don't like her and were persecuting her. Miss Fern is not available, and Rhoda seems to care most of all about retaining the medal, insisting that she, not Claude, had actually earned it.Back in Washington, Col. Penmark buys an expensive children's tea set for Rhoda and has it shipped to Rhoda, packed in excelsior. Rhoda goes out to play with it, and takes the packing material with her. Leroy sees her at play, and begins his scare campaign by accusing her of beating Claude Daigle with a stick and saying that she could never clean a murder weapon enough to remove all trace of blood, that the police have "stick bloodhounds" that can find a thrown-away stick in any forest, and that the police laboratory will sprinkle "blood powder" on a blood-soaked stick and make it turn blue. Rhoda, for her part, gives Leroy the excelsior, saying that she knows about the bed of excelsior that Leroy has made for himself so that he can sleep on the job in the furnace room without being caught. Nor is she afraid of Leroy's accusations, saying that he made them all up. Christine catches Leroy talking to Rhoda and warns him never to speak to Rhoda again, or she will report him to Monica Breedlove.When Rhoda comes back into the house, she asks her mother about police tests for blood. Christine offers to ask Miss Fern about it, but again Rhoda does not want Christine to ask Miss Fern any such thing. Christine instructs Rhoda to go up to Mrs. Breedlove's apartment for dinner, while the famous psychiatrist Reginald Tasker dines in the Penmark apartment with the local "psychiatry club." Mr. Tasker reveals that he has great respect for Christine's father, Richard Bravo, who had been quite an authority on crime and criminals in his younger days. Tasker and Bravo engage in good-natured professional sparring, and also discuss Christine Penmark's own dreams of writing a murder mystery. Christine asks Tasker whether children ever commit murder, and Tasker says that they do, and even that many adult criminals begin their careers in childhood. Christine insists that criminals are made in bad environments, but Tasker insists that some criminals are born that way, that they are "bad seeds," possessing atavistic, consciousless minds, and even that one might inherit a tendency to criminality. Richard Bravo refuses to accept such a theory, but Tasker politely stands by his theory, and even states that a child criminal would not present a sour countenance at all, but would instead present a quite convincing "normal" and "innocent" manner.Then the conversation turns to the case of Bessie Denker, one of Richard Bravo's own case-history subjects. Bravo wants to avoid the subject, but Christine insists, and Tasker reveals that Ms. Denker vanished without a trace before the authorities could make an arrest. Tasker even remembers that Ms. Denker left a child behind, a part of the story that Bravo hastily denies. Shortly after making this revelation, Tasker leaves.Now that Christine and her father are alone together, Mr. Bravo challenges Christine with the worry that shows plainly on her countenance. Now Christine starts to talk freely of her fear of having been an adopted child, and not the actual daughter of Richard Bravo and his wife. Christine also says that her concerns about Rhoda have prompted a return of her old fear. She mentions a recurring nightmare that she had always talked to Richard about, but Mr. Bravo clearly does not want to discuss it, and especially does not want Christine to lend credence to the inherited-criminality theory.But now Mr. Bravo reveals that he did find Christine in "a very strange place." Then Christine reveals her recurring nightmare, about living in a farmhouse with her brother and a very beautiful lady, then not having a brother anymore, then being terrified of being in the room, then being outside in an orchard. Finally she remembers the name she originally had: her name was not Christine Bravo at all, but Ingold Denker, Bessie Denker's daughter.This, then, is the truth: Richard Bravo found Ingold Denker, whom he renamed Christine, in the orchard on the Denker farm after Bessie Denker had died. But Christine now feels that she would have done better to die, because she is afraid that she inherited a tendency to extreme criminality from her real mother, Bessie Denker--and passed this on to her own daughter, Rhoda Penmark.At this moment, Monica Breedlove returns with Rhoda. Rhoda greets her grandfather cheerfully, but now Richard Bravo takes a long, hard look at his granddaughter, though he will not explain his misgivings. Bravo agrees to stay in a spare room in Monica's apartment overnight.Later, Christine catches Rhoda trying to dispose of something in a paper bag. Rhoda doesn't want to reveal the contents of the bag, so Christine struggles with Rhoda and forces her to reveal what she had been trying to dispose of: her shoes with the iron half-moon reinforcements. Now Rhoda knows the horrible truth and extracts a confession from her: that Rhoda killed Claude Daigle by beating him with her toe shoes, after he had refused to let her handle his penmanship medal. After the first blow, Claude surrendered the medal, and then tried to escape, and Rhoda struck him again, and again, until he fell in the water. When he tried to climb back onto the wharf, Rhoda beat the backs of his hands with her shoes to make him let go, and so he drowned. Rhoda also confesses something else: that she had in fact deliberately caused their neighbor in Wichita to fall on some ice. Christine, totally distraught, instructs Rhoda to throw the shoes into the incinerator slot and say nothing to anyone. Rhoda again asks about the medal, and Christine half-promises not to give the medal back to Miss Fern.The next morning, Richard Bravo leaves, and Leroy again tries to tease Rhoda. This time Leroy says that if the police find the stick with which she killed Claude Daigle, they'll sentence her to death in the electric chair, and even that the police have his-and-her child-sized electric chairs. Next, Leroy says that he hasn't seen her in her tap shoes, and now says that he knows that she hit Claude Daigle with the shoes, and even that he has retrieved them from the incinerator. That last boast causes Rhoda to take alarm and demand that Leroy return the shoes. At last Leroy has found something to scare her with, and he presses his point--and finally realizes that she really did the deed, and that's the reason why she is scared and is demanding the return of the shoes.In fact, Leroy did not retrieve the shoes when he said he did, but after Christine chases Leroy away from Rhoda a second time, Leroy opens the incinerator and finds the shoes, but is now too afraid to say anything. Christine, for her part, reprimands Rhoda for talking about this subject after they had agreed never to speak of it to anyone.When Monica calls to give Rhoda the locket, after it has been modified, Rhoda asks permission to catch the ice-cream man and buy a popsicle. On her way, Rhoda tries to steal several matches. Christine tells her to replace them, but manages to hide two of them. When Rhoda leaves, Monica probes Christine, knowing that something is troubling her, but not knowing what. Monica offers to give Christine some sleeping pills to help her sleep. Christine collapses in a pool of tears, but still is afraid to tell Monica anything. At that moment, Hortense Daigle, drunk as before, returns to the apartment, seeking yet another confrontation, not only with Christine, but this time also with Rhoda. Hortense has by now tried to talk to Miss Fern a dozen times without result, and has also spoken to the lifeguard from the fatal picnic. What she now knows makes her firmly suspect Rhoda of something, though she is not even sure herself what she suspects. Hortense does not succeed in getting the information she seeks, or in scaring Rhoda (because Monica hastily takes Rhoda away on a pretext). But she does succeed in frightening Christine very badly before her husband finally shows up to take her home again.After Hortense leaves, Christine starts to call Col. Penmark, but despairs of having anything constructive to tell him. Monica returns and reveals that she allowed Rhoda to go out and buy another popsicle. Rhoda then comes back into the apartment, crosses to the music room, and starts again to play her favorite tune, "Au clair de la lune," on the piano over and over--slowly at first, and then faster and faster until she is playing it at break-neck speed. While she is playing, Christine hears a man's voice from below, screaming at the top of his voice for someone to let him out. She then hears a desperate knocking from inside the sloping cellar door, and then sees a cloud of smoke emanating from that cellar. Monica's brother Emory and Mr. Tasker, who is still staying in the house, try desperately to break the cellar door open, but before they can get in, the screams rise to a blood-curdling crescendo and then stop. The owner of that voice was Leroy, who has, quite simply, burned to death.Christine now suffers a nervous breakdown and starts to strike the dining-room table with her right hand and babble about being blind, and finally screams at Rhoda to stop playing that piano tune over and over. When Rhoda does come out of the room, Monica has to restrain Christine from striking Rhoda. Christine then collapses in tears as she confronts the realization that Rhoda has killed yet another person. But Christine blames herself, not Rhoda, because Christine is now fully convinced that Rhoda inherited her murderous tendencies from Christine herself.That night, she induces Rhoda to confess to killing Leroy, which Rhoda does, all the while insisting that the fault was not hers, but Leroy's, because Leroy shouldn't have scared her with his loose talk about police investigations, evidence, and little blue and pink electric chairs for children. Christine reveals at this point that she has dropped Claude Daigle's medal onto the pilings at the pier where he drowned.Finally, Christine gives Rhoda what she says are "new vitamins," but are actually sleeping pills, in an amount that is obviously an overdose. After putting Rhoda to bed, Christine shoots herself with Col. Penmark's revolver that they keep in the apartment. Two days later, Mr. Bravo and Col. Penmark, both returned from their respective cities, discuss the apparent attempt at murder and suicide. Rhoda recovers completely, but Christine must stay in the hospital to recover. Col. Penmark takes Rhoda home, but Richard Bravo asks the hospital doctor whether Christine had mumbled anything while he was attending to her. The doctor remembers that she kept repeating the phrase "bad seed" over and over. Mr. Bravo says that Christine was about to write a book about inherited criminality, but the doctor, as Mr. Bravo had done, totally rejects the theory, saying that no one would dare bear or adopt children if that were the case.Col. Penmark puts Rhoda to bed and then waits up. He takes a call from the hospital, as Christine desperately wants to confess to Kenneth that she has "sinned a great sin." The colonel says that whatever the problem is, they will face it together.Rhoda, meanwhile, has put on her raincoat and sou'wester and gone out of the house. She walks all the way to the Fern school grounds, and onto the wharf where Claude died. Rhoda wants, quite simply, to retrieve the medal. Using a flashlight, she spots the medal underwater, and takes an old fishing net to try to snag it. Lightning strikes her and knocks her into the water.The movie, as such, ends here--but then a casting-call sequence appears in which the actors playing the various parts introduce themselves. Rhoda appears next to last, and finally Christine--but then Christine steps toward Rhoda, seizes her, turns her over her knee, and gives her a sound spanking. The last frame is a plea to the audience not to reveal the "unusual climax."

Tags: cult, murder, melodrama

Review:
The Bad Seed makes excellent use of this dilemma, and the fact that it's incredibly easy to buy into the plot ensures that The Bad Seed prevails as an potently chilling film.The film is based on a stage play by Maxwell Anderson, and this comes across often as the film takes place in just a few settings and the whole thing is very stagy.
And the acting can be very overwrought (although the scene in which Mrs. Penmark is screaming in the apartment as Leroy screams outside--both counterpointed by Rhoda's untalented but very loud rendition of "Au Clair de la Lune"--is a moment of high camp horror on par with anything in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?") Still the movie works, largely because of Rhoda, the eerily self controlled little murderess who despite her sweet smiles always looks at though her hair is braided a bit too tight.
In "The Bad Seed", we see the tension and fear that build in the characters as the story develops, but events also unfold within an atmosphere that otherwise would be peaceful and normal, making for an interesting contrast that helps to maintain a good balance.Unlike the many banal movies made in recent years about serial killers and the like, "The Bad Seed" also contains some substance.
One reason for which this film works is due to the character of Rhoda herself, played by Patty McCormack.
Furthermore, you wonder how many people will eventually "come on to her" and become aware of whom she is, and how that knowledge will affect their fate.Another reason for which this film works is because of the mother, Christine, played by Nancy Kelly.
The first few times I saw the film, just as I felt that Patty McCormack's portrayal and dialog delivery were probably mere replicas of what she offered on stage, I felt that Nancy Kelly's performance was affected and probably lifted directly from her work on the stage (I've never seen a stage version, nor have I read the book, yet).
Heckart repeated her stage role in the 1956 film with Nancy Kelly and Patty McCormack as the mother and daughter.
Consequently, as a movie, "The Bad Seed" is little more than a filmed play, with the actors projecting to the rafters.
Though Flawed and Stagy, Still Chilling After all These Years - Part Two. Since the following paragraphs could not be included along with the rest of my review, here are my final thoughts.In the end, I think that this film works, and is definitely worth watching.
("You're the prettiest mother", "Give me back those shoes, Leroy", and "Good Morning, Miss Fern", while making a curtsy).Overall, I highly recommend this film, and it should be watched periodically over the years, because you'll always catch something new, and want to study each character's contributions and mannerisms, even though the film is clearly stolen by Patty McCormack, Eileen Heckart, and, most especially, Nancy Kelly..
It stars Nancy Kelly, William Hopper, Patty McCormack, Henry Jones, Eileen Heckart and Evelyn Varden.
It's this theory that drives LeRoy's movie, only here it's a young "butter- wouldn't-melt-in-her-mouth" girl who has murderous leanings courtesy of her Nana's iffy genetics.The theatre origins are very much evident, there is no hiding this fact, with the acting (some of the actors are held over from the play here) very much as if playing to an open auditorium, while at over two hours in length there's an over stretching of the talk heavy material.
Good acting all around, and unlike similar modern movies like Orphan, The Bad Seed gets better as it goes along instead of imploding into an absurd mess.
While the age of the protagonist (brilliantly played by Patty McCormack) may be a "stretch" (an advertised 8 year old), it nonetheless presents the contrast between a "good front" and "true evil." Rhoda is simultaneously the world's "perfect child" and evil incarnate, one minute pretending to host a "tea party" and the next, "palming" some matches to create more mayhem.Nancy Kelley superbly plays a mother who only begins to comprehend the depth of her child's psychopathology, and the neighbors (especially "Aunt Monica") remain delightfully "blind" to the "true Rhoda." Henry Jones (as "Lah-roy") plays a supposedly "simple-minded" yet crafty handyman who nicely sees through Rhoda's "false front." His creation of the fictitious "stick-dog" is unbelievable (yet somehow briefly frightening to Rhoda).Eileen Heckart, though she only has a few scenes, steals the movie portraying the bereaved mother of Claude Daigle.
The only other performance in the film I really liked was Henry Jones, who plays the Cajun maintenance man who is, at first, the only one smart enough to see that McCormack is evil.
Mervyn Leroy directed this campy melodrama that stars Nancy Kelly as Christine Penmark, a seemingly happy wife and mother who comes to believe that her daughter Rhoda(played by Patty McCormack) is a heartless killer after a schoolmate of hers(who had won a prize she felt was hers) is found dead at a school picnic, and she now has possession of it.
A more natural performance by over-the-top Nancy Kelly would have made this taut tale more believable, but Mervyn LeRoy has done nothing to tone down Kelly's overwrought portrayal of the mother who discovers her precious daughter is really the daughter from hell.Patty McCormack scores heavily as Rhoda Penmark, the pig-tailed blonde, blue-eyed beauty everyone thinks is an angel in disguise.
From all accounts, it DID work on Broadway as a play.Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack, Henry Jones and Eileen Heckart reprise their stage roles here.
Her two brief scenes are the only honest (and heartbreaking) moments in the film.Even director Mervyn LeRoy apparently hadn't the professionalism to alter the others' stage (and stagy) performances that had been set in stone during the Broadway run.Nancy Kelly's odd, idiosyncratic sing-song line delivery is pathetically "attention getting." "Watch me act the hell out of this," she seems to whine in every scene.
On Broadway, perhaps its most disturbing element was its ending -- yet that was jettisoned for the film version because of the "moral" dictates of the times.In the play, Mommy dies and Rhoda survives to kill another day.
"Penmark" and "penmanship medal?" It was that kind of play.) This bizarre sequence ends with Nancy Kelly mock-spanking Patty McCormack on the sofa.Presumably so the presumably terrified audience can presumably return to their normal lives after the presumed shocks of this presumed thriller.Even At 12, I knew I'd been ripped off.
Actually, it's hugely entertaining though the child's murderous streak never seems to be nay worse than a bad case of the tantrums and Patty McCormack as the nasty little tyke is very good at throwing them.
Directed by Hollywood veteran Mervyn LeRoy and adapted by screenwriter John Lee Mahin, the movie's lofty credentials lend substance to the story's central notion of nature versus nurture when it comes to absolute evil, although the entire venture never feels like it left the stage.The subject is eight-year old Rhoda Penmark, the unctuous pigtailed daughter of Christine, a nervous mother whose own origins have remained a mystery.
The supporting cast includes ham-fisted turns by Evelyn Varden as the irritatingly dense landlady upstairs, Henry Jones especially wild-eyed as slow-witted janitor LeRoy, and Eileen Heckart in the film's best performance as Claude's alcoholic mother Hortense.
Which is a shame as the first ending; quite apparent to the viewer, thank you Mervyn, is far better and much more satisfying.That said, this is still a stunning portrait of a child  Rhoda Penmark (played by Patty McCormack who so deserved all the accolades accorded her) who is a complete narcissist and sociopath.
And apart from the above mentioned tacked on Hollywood ending, this movie transitions well from stage to screen.For its time "The Bad Seed" shocked and appalled viewers.
No one was quite prepared to believe this angelic, beautifully dressed polite little girl was guilty of wreaking so much unfeeling horror.Nancy Kelly plays Christine Penmark her mother, who lends great depth to a part which calls for her to slowly descend into unbearable grief and madness.Eileen Heckart plays Hortense Daigle a grief stricken mother, who manages to ring every drop of pathos from the character and also give one of the best portrayals of a drunk ever recorded on screen.William Hopper, son of the famous Hedda, has a small role as the absent father and other wonderful Hollywood bit players complete the cast.
The Bad Seed is a great film that has a good cast which includes Nancy Kelly, Patricia McCormack, Henry Jones, Eileen Heckart, Evelyn Varden, William Hopper, Paul Fix, Jesse White, Gage Clarke, Joan Croydon, and Frank Cady!
Nancy Kelly, Patricia McCormack, Henry Jones, Eileen Heckart, Evelyn Varden, William Hopper and Paul Fix are really great here!
If you like Nancy Kelly, Patricia McCormack, Henry Jones, Eileen Heckart, Evelyn Varden, William Hopper, Paul Fix, Jesse White, the rest of the cast in the film, Horror, Thrillers, Dramas, and interesting classic films then I strongly recommend you to see this film today!.
What's a mother to do?Patty McCormack steals the show as calm, calculating, manipulative Rhoda, the charming, well-behaved little girl who acts the perfect child with most, unless you have something she _really_ wants.
Even dough-faced William Hopper (of TV's Perry Mason fame) manages to pull off his (luckily) small role as Rhoda's loving and completely duped father.This movie can be viewed as a camp classic and you can laugh at Rhoda's hijinks and requisite reactions from Mom, or accept it as the melodrama it is and feel the increasing tension between Rhoda and her mother as the story unfolds to its inevitable conclusion (except for the tacked-on "end").
It takes a long time to get used to the acting of Nancy Kelly, and for years I suffered through it to enjoy the rest of the movie, but now I see it as a fine bit of acting as a woman learns her child is a murderer.I've read the book this movie is based on, and as usual there are some plot changes, but it's a fabulous adaptation and I'm hard pressed to say which is better, book or movie.
At times she was just too believeable.Mervyn Leroy's direction along with the creepy music made the Bad Seed a Very Good Movie..
All I knew is that at the young age I was when I saw it, the concept of a little girl evil enough to make GOD strike her dead, scared the absolute Hershey squirts out of me!Most of the cast is from the original Broadway production, and though the acting seems more geared for the stage than screen and therefore appears to be overdone, I thought Nancy Kelly was fine as the emotionally disintegrating Christine.
Although, after 43 years (as of this writing), "The Bad Seed" tends to creak a bit, it still ranks with some of the best chillers of all time, and the stagebound, one-set atmosphere only adds to the suspense.The performances are what really make this film.
There are several scenes that put 8-year-old Rhoda beside the 'mean' gardener, which is very clever as it makes you go even more wide-eyed when the climax of THAT exchange unfolds.Overall, I applaud the writing, acting and direction in this movie, though I am a bit disappointed that it did not end a good ten minutes early at what I thought was a very dignified, thought- provoking conclusion, and instead proceeds to put poor Mrs. Penmark through more misery and everybody else through a lot more confusion..
It certainly had that effect on me, the breakdown of Rhoda's mother (Nancy Kelly) and the anguish of Mrs. Daigle (Eileen Heckart), mother of dead child Claude, coming as quite a shock given how unbearably happy everyone is at the start of the film.Extremely daring for the day, the film not only deals with the touchy subject of child murderers (rare, but not unheard of), but also depression, mental breakdown, alcoholism, and suicide, ultimately making it quite the traumatic experience despite the staginess of the acting.
Patty McCormack as Rhoda Penmark is an eight year old girl and the central figure in this film.
I think one can see why it is so popular.The film also received numerous Academy Award Nominations: Best Actress Nancy Kelly, Best Actress in a Supporting Role Eileen Heckart and Patty McCormack, and Best Cinematography (Black-and-White) Hal Rosson.
The moment we start watching the movie,we are quiet sure that the little girl is the 'evil one' or 'will do something soon'.So,let's not be delusive about the main plot.Thus,the movie boils down to acting & how well the suspense is held together.Rhoda,is an 8 year old,'perfect' child,born to Christine & Kenneth(a Col. in the US army) However,she doesn't have a friend circle,gets angry at high pitch & WANTS the medal!
Almost immediately,the audience asks,'Did Rhoda have anything to do with it?' This is followed by a heart wrenching scene involving the parents of the drowned boy,Miss Fern & Christine.However,the gripping factor of the movie comes a while later,when Christine's father arrives on the scene.Theatrical in approach,but very well acted,the soul of the plot resides in those moments.The movie also has another intriguing,but a bit stereotypical character,LeRoy,the cleaner.This is a guy who wants to see the bad side of the 'perfect girl' and is constantly after her: teasing & scaring her.But it doesn't end too well for him,as one of his narratives gets too close to reality.What follows is Christine's blind love for Rhoda,even as she continues to commit murders.This leads Christine to the verge of insanity,where she decides to liberate herself & Rhoda from the trouble..once & for all.The climax is very apt,and seems to be reminding us,"Justice will be done"The plot of the movie,rests pretty much on a conversation,that takes place near the mid of the movie.Can brutality be inherited?
The rest is left up to the audience.We are also shown how the lives of the ones at the receiving end,is affected.Eileen Heckart does a terrific job as a drunk,heart-broken,insecure but doting mother.'The Bad Seed' is an engaging watch,with a pretty nuanced performance from Patty McCormack.Underrated.Worth a watch.Verdict: 8.5/10.
It is a filmed Stage Play and for all its stiffness and exaggerated emoting, is still an unnerving experience.Bound by its attempt to explore trendy Freudian Psycho-Babble and the Nature vs Nurture argument, this is, despite itself, a timeless and disturbing evocation of Family Ties and twisted Minds.If you can allow its due as essentially a Theatrical Experience on the Screen, and compensate for some of the stuck in the Fifties mindsets, this can be a rather remarkable excursion to the Dark Side as it was available to Eisenhower Audiences.The best Scenes are truly amazing, like with the LeRoy/Rhoda confrontations and when Mother finally decides how to handle the uncontrollable urges of Her Little Girl.
Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack, Henry Jones, Eileen Heckart, Evelyn Varden, and Joan Croyden all came over from Broadway to repeat their roles.
Henry Jones made his film debut in The Bad Seed.When the film opens we see what looks like an all American family with father William Hopper leaving his wife Nancy Kelly and daughter Patty McCormack for some army detail that will take him away for a bit.
Nancy Kelly is reasonably good in the role of the mother, but it's surprising to me that she and a couple of co-stars were nominated for Academy Awards, including Patty McCormack, the child, who was mediocre.
To today's audiences weaned on grim films about killer babies, possessed children, evil toys, murderous pets, etc., the revelation that a sweet, 'innocent' young girl from a prosperous and loving family could be a cold-blooded killer is probably not much of a shocker, but at the time, the "The Bad Seed" considered jolting.
The somewhat stagy film stars members of the theatrical cast (including principal characters Christine Penmark (Nancy Kelly) and her daughter Rhoda (Patty McCormack)) all of whom are very good.
McCormack's 'good girl' delivery can get a bit grating at times but makes for an effective transition in the scenes where Rhoda drops the act.
Kelly acts up a storm as the mom, and McCormack doesn't have to do much but read her lines since her character is such a whack job to begin with, but it's Eileen Heckart in a smaller role as the mother of one of Rhoda's victims who steals the show.
Plays mother Nancy Kelly and the victim's mother Eileen Heckart since Needless to said played girl, Rhoda, Patty to that kind of cold, ruthless, cruel, irritable, irritability, capricious show incisively and vividly, it is no wonder that three people get the following year Oscar performance category was nominated.As the thriller do different.
Housewife Christine Penmark (Nancy Kelly) will be confronted with a chilling reality: the fact that her seemingly innocent daughter Rhoda (Patty McCormack) is actually a cold blooded killer.
Nancy Kelly reprises her stage role as a mother who discovers her daughter is really disturbed, disturbed enough to kill another person, in "The Bad Seed." I saw this in the late 1990s and I thought it was time to see it again and give it another shot, remembering my impressions of not liking it that much back then.
Tightly-wound Nancy Kelly (as Christine Penmark) thinks pretty preteen daughter Patty McCormack (as Rhoda) may be homicidal.
Kelly is good if a bit too mannered at times as the mother while McCormack is effective in her film debut as the bratty daughter.
There are many clues throughout the film that highlight Rhoda's dark secret- mainly objects given to her after their original owners die.Complete with a surprise ending, a brilliant plot and exceptional actors (Nancy Kelly and Patty McCormack are excellent!), The Bad Seed is beautifully played out.
Even so it was entertaining.A generally good supporting cast with outstanding performances by Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack and Henry Jones.