The Bad Seed is a 1956 Academy Award-nominated horror/thriller film directed by Mervyn LeRoy. It is based upon a play (of the same name) by Maxwell Anderson, which in turn is based upon William March's 1954 novel The Bad Seed. The play was adapted by John Lee Mahin for the screenplay of the film. It stars Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack, Henry Jones, Eileen Heckart, Evelyn Varden, William Hopper, Paul Fix, Joan Croydon and Jesse White.
The Bad Seed was nominated for four Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Nancy Kelly), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Eileen Heckart and Patty McCormack, separately) and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White.
Plot
Rhoda Penmark (Patty McCormack) plays on her piano while her father (William Hopper) says his goodbyes to her and his wife, Christine (Nancy Kelly), as he goes away on military duty. Their neighbor and landlord, Monica Breedlove (Evelyn Varden), comes in with a present for Rhoda (a locket). Rhoda, looking pristine and proper in her perfect dress and pigtails, thanks Monica for the gift. She then tap dances on the hard floor. Monica notices the tap shoes and Rhoda says the shoes were her own idea. They then discuss a penmanship medal that Rhoda lost to her schoolmate, Claude Daigle, and how infuriating it was for her to lose. Christine and Rhoda leave for the school picnic at a nearby lake.
Later, Christine has lunch with Monica and friends when they learn on the radio that a child has drowned in the lake where Rhoda's school was having their picnic. Christine panics that it could be Rhoda but a follow-up report indicates that it was Rhoda's schoolmate, Claude Daigle. Relieved that her daughter is alive, Christine now worries that her daughter might be traumatized by seeing a dead body. When Rhoda returns, however, she is not fazed by the incident and goes about her daily duties.
Rhoda's teacher later visits Christine and reveals that Rhoda was the only one seen with Claude that day on the wharf, and was also seen grabbing at Claude's penmanship medal. The two women are then visited by Mrs. Daigle (Eileen Heckart), who drunkenly accuses Rhoda of knowing something that she isn't telling anyone.
Later that night, Christine finds the penmanship medal in Rhoda's room and orders an explanation. Rhoda lies that Claude let her have the medal after winning a bet. Later on, however, Christine catches Rhoda trying to dispose of her tap shoes and Christine figures out that Rhoda must have hit Claude with the shoes, which explains the half-moon shaped bruises on his forehead and hands. A tearful Rhoda admits that she killed the boy, and also reveals that she murdered a neighbor lady when they lived in Wichita. Christine orders Rhoda to burn the shoes in the incinerator.
A subplot reveals that Christine was the natural daughter of a well-known serial killer, Bessie Denker, and was adopted as a baby by her current father. Christine then worries that she is to blame for Rhoda's sociopathy, and that her bad behavior is genetic, not influenced by parenting.
The next day, when Rhoda is playing in the garden, the janitor, LeRoy (Henry Jones) heckles her that she killed Claude with her shoes and that he took the burnt shoes as evidence. In a panic, Rhoda sets LeRoy on fire to keep her secret under wraps. Christine and Monica watch from the apartment as LeRoy gets burned alive. That night, Christine tells Rhoda that she dropped the medal into the lake and gives her a lethal dose of sleeping pills. She also attempts to kill herself with a gunshot to the head (in the book and play she does kill herself). Instead of killing them both, however, Rhoda and Christine survive in a hospital. In the middle of the night, during a storm, Rhoda sneaks out in a rain slicker and goes to the lake to try and find the medal out on the wharf. Lightning then suddenly strikes her, killing her instantly, unlike in the novel and play, and the movie quickly ends.
Nancy Kelly spanks Patty McCormack at the end of the credits.
Following the end of the movie, the cast is introduced during a theatrical-style curtain call. After her credit is read, Nancy Kelly delivers a spanking to Patty McCormack. The spanking continues as the film fades out; a screen card then requests that the audience not divulge the ending.
Censorship
Although the novel and play had the mother dying and the evil child surviving, the Hays Code did not allow for "crime to pay." The ending of the film thus has it the other way around, with Christine's life being saved by the local hospital and Rhoda being struck down by lightning while trying to retrieve the penmanship medal from a lake.
Remakes
The Bad Seed was remade for television in 1985, adapted by George Eckstein and directed by Paul Wendkos. It starred Blair Brown, Lynn Redgrave, David Carradine, Carrie Wells, Richard Kiley, Chad Allen and Christa Denton. This version used the original ending as in the March novel.
Eli Roth was set to direct a new remake of the film, as stated by MovieWeb.com. Roth promised a new take with a modern horror sensibility. "The original was a great psychological thriller, and we are going to bastardize and exploit it, ramping up the body counts and killings," said Roth. "This is going to be scary, bloody fun, and we're going to create the next horror icon, a la Freddy, Jason and Chucky. She's this cunning, adorable kid who loves to kill, but also loves 'N Sync."
Popular culture
Miriam Linna used the title Bad Seed for her magazine about juvenile delinquent fiction. Linna featured covers from her collection of 500 juvenile delinquent novels in her book, Bad Seed: A Postcard Book (Running Press, 1992). The band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds is named after the novel, play and film.[1]
References
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