The Bad Seed
The Bad Seed is a 1954 novel by American writer William March, the last of his major works published before his death. Nominated for the 1955 National Book Award for Fiction, "The Bad Seed" tells the story of a mother's realization that her young daughter is a murderer. Its enormous critical and commercial success was largely realized after March's death only one month after publication. In 1954, the novel was adapted into a successful and long-running Broadway play by Maxwell Anderson and into an Academy Award-nominated film directed by Mervyn LeRoy in 1956 . Synopsis. Eight-year-old Rhoda Penmark appears to be what every little girl brought up in a loving home should be. Outwardly, she is charming, polite and intelligent beyond her years. To most adults, she's every parent's dream: obedient, well-groomed, and compliant. She reads books, does her homework, and practices her piano scales, all without being asked by her parents. However, most children keep their distance from her, sensing there is something not quite right about her. This is especially true for the students at Fern Grammar School, her new school in a small town named Benedict . Rhoda is the only child of Christine Penmark and her husband Kenneth, who goes away on business. Christine begins to notice that Rhoda acts strangely toward Claude Daigle, one of her classmates, who mysteriously drowns at a school picnic later. She then notices that Rhoda is indifferent to the boy's death, which is presumed accidental, albeit with one unexplained detail: His face was imprinted with crescent-shaped marks. Christine learns that Rhoda quarreled with Claude over a medal award for perfect penmanship that the boy won, but which Rhoda believed she deserved. She also lied about the last time  she saw Claude. Faced with Rhoda's deception, Christine begins to reevaluate troubling incidents from the past. After Rhoda had begged her parents for a pet dog, she quickly became bored with it, and the animal died in what she described as an "accidental fall" from the window. Clara Post, an elderly neighbor, had promised her a special snow globe upon her death, and soon after, suffered a fatal fall while babysitting Rhoda, who now proudly owns the trinket. Additionally, Rhoda was once expelled from a school for repeatedly being caught lying to teachers and staff who described her as  a "cold, self-sufficient child". Disturbed by the idea that her daughter might indeed be the one behind all these tragedies, Christine begins investigating and discovers that she was adopted by her parents, including investigative journalist Richard Bravo, when she was found as the sole survivor of a murdering spree. Her birth mother was Bessie Denker, a notorious serial killer who died in the electric chair, and of whom Christine has vague memories. Christine blames herself for passing on the murderous "bad seed" gene to her child, yet clings to the hope that Rhoda might have killed Claude by accident . She writes a series of tortured letters to her husband about Rhoda but never mails them in fear of what may happen if someone reads the letters and goes to the authorities. In all this investigation, Christine slowly begins to deteriorate and become a shell of her former self, which is immediately noticed by Monica Breedlove, Christine's friend and neighbor. Leroy Jessup, the maintenance man who lives and works at the Penmarks' apartment complex, is the only other adult besides Christine who sees through Rhoda's facade. Believing she simply has a mean streak, Leroy relentlessly teases her, pretending  to believe that she is responsible for Claude's death. Leroy's wife Thelma warns him about harassing the girl, but he refuses to listen. Rhoda is unfazed by his teasing until Leroy teases that she must've used her cleated shoes to beat Claude, explaining the crescent-shaped marks left on the boy's face. Immediately after, he realizes he stumbled onto the truth by the way Rhoda reacts to his accusations. Afraid he will expose her, she waits until Leroy is asleep and lights his mattress ablaze before locking him inside. A horrified Christine witnesses the murder from  a distance; it occurs so quickly she has no time to get help. Others believe his death to be accidental, from falling asleep while smoking, thus starting the fire. Christine confronts Rhoda, who initially attempts to lie and manipulate her mother before finally confessing to killing Claude, Leroy, and Clara Post, all the while expressing no remorse. Christine fears her daughter will end up like Bessie Denker in the electric chair. In a desperate attempt to prevent Rhoda from killing anyone else, Christine secretly gives her sleeping pills so she will die painlessly in an overdose. She then shoots herself  in the head with a pistol that was in her nightstand. Christine later dies in the hospital. However, a neighbor hears the gunshot and saves Rhoda. A heartbroken Kenneth returns home, believing Christine had suffered a nervous breakdown. Because Christine had destroyed her unsent letters and other evidence, Rhoda is free to kill again. Primary theme. Nature versus nurture. In the decade the novel was published, juvenile delinquency began to be far more common, or at least more extensively reported and documented. Compared to earlier history, the idea of child crimes was a new phenomenon. A controversy about nature and  nurture arose as psychiatric explanations were proposed for juvenile delinquency, with the debate being whether inborn tendencies ("nature") are more or less important than environmental factors ("nurture") in explaining deviant behavior. Supporters of the “nature” side suggested that some people are born evil or with malicious tendencies. The idea that nature prevails over nurture is implied in "The Bad Seed". March incorporates the notion that a murderous genetic trait is being passed down through the generations. Within the plot of the story, Rhoda is a serial murderer just like her grandmother, having inherited the murderous gene. Rhoda had been brought  up as a privileged child; she was nurtured emotionally and physically and thus a broken home life was not to blame for her actions. Tasker hints and suggests at the idea of nature taking effect when he quotes that "some people are just born evil", when discussing Denker with Christine. Psychologist Robert D. Hare, who argues that the evidence suggests psychopathy is an inborn trait, discusses "The Bad Seed" in his 1993 non-fiction book "Without Conscience". A lengthy quote from the novel opens Hare's book, describing in March's words how most decent individuals are not by nature  suspicious and thus unable to understand or anticipate the acts of evil and depravity that some people are capable of committing. Later in his book, Hare argues that March's novel is a "remarkably true to life" portrayal of the development of psychopathy in childhood, illustrating both Rhoda's callous use of others to serve her own ends as well as Christine's growing helplessness and desperation as she realizes the extent of her daughter's behavior. Adaptations. Broadway play. Maxwell Anderson adapted the book for the stage almost immediately after its publication. Anderson had previously won the New York  Drama Critics' Circle Award in 1935 and 1936 for his plays "Winterset" and "High Tor", as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1933 for his play "Both Your Houses". Reginald Denham directed the play using Anderson's script. The play opened on Broadway on December 8, 1954 at the 46th Street Theatre (now the Richard Rodgers Theatre), less than a year after the publication of the novel. On April 25, 1955, the play transferred to the Coronet Theatre (now the Eugene O'Neill Theatre), where it completed its successful run of 334 performances on September 27, 1955. Nancy Kelly , the actress who played Christine, won the 1955 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. The audience made claims that Patty McCormack, the child actress who played Rhoda, was the most memorable character. 1956 film. Mervyn LeRoy was the director of the 1956 movie. In LeRoy's Hollywood career, he produced and or directed over 70 films including "Little Caesar" and "Little Women". Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack and most of the original cast acted in the 1956 movie. The ending of the 1956 film was changed from that of the novel and the play to comply with the Hollywood  Production Code. Rhoda is suddenly struck and killed by lightning when she goes back to the scene of her crime to retrieve the medal (allowing an interpretation of divine intervention), while Christine survives her suicide attempt. During the closing credits, LeRoy added a light-hearted sequence of Nancy Kelly, Christine, holding Patty McCormack, Rhoda, over her leg and spanking her –possibly to remind audiences that this is just a play. 1985 film. "The Bad Seed" was remade as a television movie in 1985, adapted by George Eckstein and directed by Paul Wendkos and kept the novel's original ending but  changed other details, including some forenames (i.e. Claude Daigle → Mark Daigle, Hortense Daigle → Rita Daigle, Claudia Fern → Alice Fern) and added a scene in which young Christine escapes into a cornfield from her own sociopathic mother, Bessie Denker. This version starred Blair Brown as Christine, Lynn Redgrave as Monica, David Ogden Stiers as Emory (whose character is hinted to be a closeted homosexual), David Carradine as Leroy, and Chad Allen as Mark Daigle (whose character was never seen before, only referenced). Carrie Wells played the title character, whose name was changed from Rhoda to Rachel. The TV -movie version was considered inferior to both the play and original film by critics. 2018 film. In December 2017, "Deadline Hollywood" reported that Rob Lowe would direct and star in a television remake for the Lifetime network. This version of "The Bad Seed" first ran on Lifetime on September 9, 2018, and was watched by 1.87 million viewers, placing it in the top ten most-watched cable programs on that date. However, the production received mixed reviews. Potential remake. Eli Roth was set to direct a new remake of the film.