The Bad Seed is a 1956 American psychological horror-thriller film with elements of melodrama and film noir, directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Nancy Kelly, Patty Cormack, Henry Jones, and Eileen Heckart.
Plot[]
Air Force Colonel Kenneth Penmark (William Hopper) and his wife, Christine (Nancy Kelly), dote on their 8-year-old daughter, Rhoda (Patty McCormack) - as does their lonely landlady, Monica Breedlove (Evelyn Varden).
Unfortunately, Rhoda is a cold-blooded killer, and her mother Christine suspects she's responsible for the death of one of her classmates. Christine also experiences childhood memories of her mother searching for her.
Christine's father tells her that her biological mother was a notorious serial killer, and Christine realizes that Rhoda inherited her grandmother's madness.
Cast[]
- Nancy Kelly as Christine Penmark
- Patty McCormack as Rhoda Penmark
- Henry Jones as LeRoy Jessup
- Eileen Heckart as Hortense Daigle
- Evelyn Varden as Monica Breedlove
- William Hopper as Col. Kenneth Penmark
- Paul Fix - Richard Bravo
- Jesse White - Emory Wages
- Cage Clarke as Reginald 'Reggie' Tasker
- Joan Croydon as Claudia Fern (as Joan Croyden)
- Frank Cady as Henry Daigle
- Don C. Harvey as Guard in Hospital Corridor (uncredited)
Production[]
After the success of the book, Geoffrey Shurlock from Production Code Administration (PCA) sent a letter to Jack Warner stating that “the property violated the spirit and letter of the Code.” Shurlock’s office wrote to Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures and Universal Pictures to caution them against the property although none had inquired about it.
After a bidding war, Jack Warner bought the film rights for $300,000 (equivalent to $2.9 million in 2021). United States Pictures owned by Milton Sperling stated that they would only produce the film for Warner Brothers Pictures upon approval by PCA. Adler contacted Shurlock demanding to know why approval was given. Shurlock responded that director Mervyn LeRoy was able to come up a treatment "that seemed to do what the office thought was impossible".
Although the novel and play conclude with Christine dying and Rhoda surviving, the Motion Picture Production Code did not allow for "crime to pay". The ending of the film thus reverses the deaths of the mother and daughter, with Christine's life being saved and Rhoda's ultimately being struck down by lightning. In another move to appease the censors, Warner Bros. added an "adults only" tag to the film's advertising. Finally, the film diffuses shock of the ending with a coda in which an announcer introduces the members of the cast. It concludes with Kelly lightheartedly spanking McCormack for her character's misdeeds.
Reception[]
The Bad Seed was one of the bigger hits of 1956 for Warner Bros., earning the company $4.1 million in theatrical rentals in the U.S. against a $1 million budget. The film was one of the year's top 20 at the box office in the United States and among the 10 most popular box-office draws in Britain in 1956.
The film received favorable reviews from critics, and Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 64%, based on 28 reviews, with a rating average of 7.00/10.
External links[]
The Bad Seed (1956) at the Internet Movie Database- The Bad Seed (1956) at AllMovie
- The Bad Seed (1956) at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Bad Seed (1956) at Wikipedia
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This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at The Bad Seed (1956). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Horror Film Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |