The Bad Seed
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Movie Reviews of The Bad Seed
Movie Review: "The Bad Seed" Blossoms Nicely On DVD!
Summary: 5 Stars
Cool-as-a-cucumber Rhoda Penmark is not at all what she appears to be. Hiding underneath that sweet, perfect exterior exists an unspeakable evil. Patty McCormack is superb as Rhoda, the pig-tailed murderess. The whole cast, in fact, is first-rate here. Some chilling moments await the viewer of this film, including a classic ending! A very good music score accompanies the action, as well.
This film was originally a stage play, and this "stagy" feel somewhat comes through in the movie version as well. But the film's convincing and effectively-told story cannot be denied. I would have loved, however, to have been able to see the stage play version, which starred the same group of actors we see in the motion picture.
Patty McCormack was 10 years old when "The Bad Seed" was made in 1956. Patty was so good here, she received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She lost the Oscar to Dorothy Malone, however.
Two other "Bad Seed" actresses were also nominated for Oscars -- Nancy Kelly and Eileen Heckart. Heckart was heart-breakingly good in this movie, playing the mother of one of Rhoda's victims.
In my opinion, Henry Jones (as handyman "LeRoy") could very easily have been yet *another* Oscar nominee that year. Jones was wonderfully "offbeat" in "The Bad Seed", delivering lines with a relish that simply *must* be replayed multiple times when watching this DVD. They are just too good and humorous to only view once. Such as his witty warning to little Rhoda: "They've got a little blue [electric] chair for little boys; and a little pink chair for little gals!"
This DVD retains the originally-shown "actors taking a bow" ending, which (in a way) dilutes the fabulous conclusion of the story. But, I like having the original ending included here nevertheless. You can always turn it off before you get to the last few minutes, so that you'll be left with that great ending "on the pier".
Original poster art adorns the cover of this DVD. And while I really like the diabolical look on Rhoda's face on this package, I'm perplexed (for the most part) by the written passages that are shown. They don't seem to quite "fit" this movie, IMO. Most curious I thought. Well, anyway, at least Warner Brothers has given us some original artwork for the cover (which is nice).
DVD Specs ...... Video is the OAR (Original Aspect Ratio) as seen in theaters in late 1956 -- Full Frame (1.33:1). This actually kind of surprised me a tad bit. Because I thought this film just *might* have been shot in a Widescreen format (which was, by 1956, becoming commonplace among movie studios). But, obviously, I was mistaken. The Full Frame format is correct for this movie. .... Audio: 1.0 Dolby Digital Mono soundtrack (English only). The audio for the Commentary Track is in rich-sounding 2.0 DD Stereo, with excellent channel separation between the two channels. .... Subtitles: English, French, and Spanish.
The video quality on this disc is absolutely superb! Just perfect from what I can see. This B&W film has never looked better on your TV screen. Just a terrific DVD transfer.
DVD Special Features include an Audio Commentary Track and a 15-minute "Making Of" documentary ("A Conversation With Patty McCormack"). McCormack, who was 58 years of age when this DVD was produced, provides some interesting observations about the making of the film during the documentary and she also participates in the Audio Commentary Track as well. The Original Theatrical Trailer is also included on this disc. This trailer, which has a run time of 3:19, is in very good shape (picture quality-wise), and is of particular interest to me for the many "alternate takes" that are shown of various scenes from the film. Nearly every scene that is previewed in this trailer is a slightly different variant from what ended up in the final cut of the movie.
This 1956 suspense-filled treasure looks mighty fine on DVD. Pick up a copy of this Grade-A thriller and let little Rhoda come into your home any time of the day or night. Just make sure you don't kick the DVD around carelessly -- because Rhoda wouldn't like that. And when Rhoda is displeased, she gets slightly cranky. :-)
Movie Review: The bad seed--how will it grow?
Summary: 5 Stars
Patty McCormack won a nomination as Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her portrayal of Rhoda Penmark, the eight-year-old socio-pathic serial killer in the 1956 film, "The Bad Seed." The film shocked audiences then and still has an equal capacity to shock now.
In fact, the last eight reviews of the film were written in the last ten months, indicating the continued popularity of this controversial film. It raises the question: What causes killers--heredity or environment? Few would disagree with the influence of environment as a catalyst for the incubation of murderers. Horrible living conditions, brutal parents, absorbed violence from television and video games, neglect, the list goes on. But heredity? Does a murderer pass on murder genes?
Such is the gist of "The Bad Seed." The film is what some would call a "talking" movie, i.e. much of the background and foreshadowing are established through dialog. Basically, the plot reveals a happy family with kind and loving parents, Ken and Christine Penmark and a perfect little girl, Rhoda, who prefers dresses to jeans. Early on the viewer learns that Rhoda has crescent-shaped taps on her shoes to prevent the heels from wearing down. And the most important thing is that Rhoda did not win the coveted penmanship medal, which she most emphatically wanted!
I have seen this movie many times, but did not notice until this last viewing that Christine has been concerned about Rhoda a long time now. In fact, she and her husband think Rhoda too grown-up for her age and want her to be a little girl. Christine also worries that she herself is a changeling and that her father is not her father. But enough background.
Every detail, every sentence uttered is an important piece of information in the unraveling of the plot, in reaching that final scene. I've always considered the movie's ending perfect because it settles everything. As for that spanking, it's just a fun addendum to the introduction of the cast and not part of the plot. It becomes an "if this, then not that" scenario, but definitely not part of the movie.
An intriguing aspect of the story is the addition of the slightly mentally challenged LeRoy, the handyman who has free run of the property. It's as if his intellectual lessening heightens and intensifies his ability to read people, as he shows in several scenes. And of course, he knows Rhoda, but not well enough.
The premise of nature vs nurture is not the only controversial topic of the film. However, mention of two other equally explosive subjects would be a spoiler. Suffice it to say, viewers will want to plan time for a good discussion afterward.
Note: What ever happened to Patty McCormack? She went on to have a film, television, and film career, but not one of importance. However, her latest role is Pat Nixon in "Frost/Nixon."
Movie Review: Nice Shoes
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't know which is scarrier: folks so deeply analyzing this film that they lose sight of its simple brilliance; or that when I told my sister that I had purchased the bad seed on dvd she said, "Well, that movie pretty much sums up my childhood...".
As the name of Mufasa when spoken to Shenzi, the bad seed is full of tingles. Frankly I was blown away by it. Before becoming a film, it had completed over 200 showings as a stage production. The original cast is inluded in the film, which explains why everyone nails their character.
My favorite movie of all time, after seeing thousands of movies from modern to silent era, is Signs. One of the qualities of signs success at achieving creepiness and claustrophobia was the choice to keep 90 percent of the story in the house and its surrounding cornfields. As signs, a massive majority of the movie takes place within a spacious apartment and backyard, with a few exceptions.
Yes, the bad seed is black and white. Get over it. I have spent years defending the quality of older films, be it black and white or cinemascope. Drain the color from L.A. Confidential or Find Me Guilty for a cool treat. Frankly, if it's a problem for you... as I always say... you are missing it. Get on board. Hey, wouldn't it be cool to be the unique eccentric one in the group that actually knows James Cagney for his talent rather than Michaelangelo's impersonation in Ninja Turtles? I feel better now.
Acting, as afore mentioned, is superb. Yeah, put here all of the critical cliche's deserving of a great cast. One of the best drunks I have ever seen. A child star that near matches L. Blair (in a different way, yeah.) A mother that rides rollercoasters with her facial expressions and moods... its just cool really. It touches everything just right, and is entirely believable.
When originally released, the studio thought it was so disturbing that they had the cast take a bow after you see "The End". A cheerful voice appears from behind the words and reassures tha audience that no one was really burn-... I better not go there. Then after the bows, there is a funny obligatory moment, to show the actual humanity of the child star. And yes, it still holds that intensity. Also, reguardless that the reason was studio restrictions, it keeps true to the rule that the audiences imagination is a better tool than any special effect ridden death scene.
After seeing The Bad Seed again after nearly a decade, it is nice to see that it still has the effect on on me as an adult that it did when I was a child. All I wanna do is convince you to watch it, so forgive me for not including the usual theatrics included in the average review. The bad seed is creepy, and besides Descent, is one of the best thrillers I have seen in years.
Movie Review: FINALLY on DVD -- a must have!
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is still one of my all time favorites and wears well even by today's standards, albeit being (unintentionally) "campy" in several respects. It's a classic Greek Tragedy without the annoying chorus.
Little Rhoda Penmark, creepily/perfectly played by Patty McCormack, is a bit different than her peers. When she wants something she's willing to kill and does so without the slightest compunction. Christine, Rhoda's increasingly distraught mother, slowly realizes she has unknowingly passed on this "trait" to her daughter as she discovers the identity of her biological mother, an infamous serial killer. There are plenty of histrionics to go around as Nancy Kelley (Christine) wrings her hands and pounds on her womb at each moment of new terrible insight, and then there's Hortense Daigle. She's the mother of one of Rhoda's young victims and appears several times in various stages of inebriation and overwhelming grief. Eileen Heckart still brings tears to my eyes as Hortense, as maudlin as she is. Although all of the cast is excellent (even William Hopper, whose role is blessedly small, is OK as Rhoda's clueless dad), the one other outstanding character is Leroy, the apartment house handyman. Henry Jones is the semi-literate malcontent who takes glee in spraying a hose at Rhoda's feet and ploddingly uncovers the truth about Rhoda's avaricious habits while teasing her about her heartless apathy toward her classmate's death. Rhoda takes care of Leroy with only 3 kitchen matches and a nice pile of excelsior Leroy naps on in the basement.
Christine blows all her gaskets after Leroy is barbecued and gives Rhoda a fatal dose of a "new vitamins" (cautious Rhoda asks to see the bottle the soi-disant vitamins are in), puts the child to bed, then shoots herself in the head. Luckily little Rhoda is saved by the neighbors who hear the gun shot, and in the end of the play and novel Christine dies. Not so for Hollywood in the 50s, so there is an inane contrived ending with a lachrymose, mummy-wrap-headed Christine on the phone with hubby while sneaky Rhoda ventures out into the stormy night to retrieve the penmanship medal Mom tossed in the lake where her classmate/victim Claude drowned. Boom! God strikes Rhoda with a bolt from heaven and she goes up in a bright poof.
My biggest gripe with the DVD is the ill-conceived inclusion of Charles Busch on the film commentary with Patty McCormack. It's painfully obvious he's not even familiar with the movie and he adds nothing but a few really dumb questions/comments. The commentary by McCormack is great and she adeptly deflects some of Busch's stupidity but he's still an irritant.
Movie Review: A Basket of Praise for a Classic Cult Spectacular
Summary: 5 Stars
This cult favorite is an essential, if only because it's so often spoofed that to miss out on it would be to miss key undercurrents of popular culture. An early '90s Broadway play, "Ruthless! The Musical," which starred Britney Spears, was a direct parody of "The Bad Seed"; Nick Cave named his band "The Bad Seeds" after it, and I think I even caught a parody-nod to "The Bad Seed" in an episode of "South Park" the other day. In fact, little Rhoda Penmark, with her saccharine grins and gag-me-with-a-Sunday-school-prize curtsies, might also be a parody of sorts: a very pointed and devastating one directed at 1950s Leave-it-to-Beaver ideals.
With a tiny budget and a cast mostly composed of actors from the Broadway play, director Mervyn LeRoy bottled this explosive film inside a small if tasteful family apartment and turned mother (Nancy Kelly) and daughter (Patty McCormack) loose to seethe, steam-boiler like, within the four walls. The father (William Hopper) is predictably benign and clueless, not to mention forever absent on a lengthy business trip, the purpose of which is never explained.
Don't be deterred by the tendency of websites and video stores to sweep this film into the "Horror" category; while "The Bad Seed" may be partly responsible for spawning the mini-genre of child axe-murderer movies, "The Bad Seed" itself is actually straight drama, with a plot no less improbable than that of most mainstream pictures of its era. Kelly delivers the screen performance of her career--and it is mesmerizing, although it clearly belongs to the antique era of high-glamour and gilded studio powerhouses. Eileen Heckart more than deservedly took the Golden Globe for her turn as Mrs. Daigle; I think she should have won the Oscar.
As much as any movie made during the Eisenhower era, "The Bad Seed" takes the domestic paradigms of that era and stands them on their heads. Nothing is what it seems, and assumption upon assumption is shattered as the cherished homefront approaches the point of total collapse. In this way, the movie is both a nice piece of fifties kitch and a harbinger of the chaos of the sixties. There's also some not-so-subtle symbolism creeping around in the little apartment--for example, practically every scene depicts some sort of cross-shaped object in the background, or the cross of shadows from a window pane.
An important movie, a must for serious film buffs.