One of the most gruesome films ever put on screen is The Bad Seed. But as terrifying as it is, The Bad Seed teaches a lesson that has to be reinforced every so often. That pure evil does indeed exist and there are no root causes in environment for it's being found. You find it here in the amoral child Rhoda Penmark, and you will find it in real life in such disparate individuals as Osama Bin-Laden or Charlie Manson.
We are fortunate indeed to have all the principal cast members from the Maxwell Anderson play that ran 334 performances on Broadway during the 1954-55 season. Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack, Henry Jones, Eileen Heckart, Evelyn Varden, and Joan Croyden all came over from Broadway to repeat their roles. In the case of Nancy Kelly she won a Tony Award for her performance as the overwrought army wife who comes to the horrible realization she's raising an amoral monster. 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. The family lives off post with landlady Evelyn Varden.
McCormack is a strange child who doesn't seem to show real emotion like most of us though she makes a big show of affection when it suits her needs. When a boy from the school she goes to drowns and later a medal that boy won for spelling is found in McCormack's possession, Kelly is frightened out of her mind.
The acting in The Bad Seed goes to levels of excellence rarely attained by a whole cast. It's as if the cast were a functioning machine, each part reinforced by the other. They all feed off each other's excellence.
Nancy Kelly was nominated for Best Actress and Patty McCormack and Eileen Heckart were nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Heckart rules when she's on screen as the distraught mother of the drowned boy who's doing a little drowning herself in gin. Kelly, Heckart, and Joan Croyden who is the school principle all have suspicions about McCormack, but no one can prove a thing.
Henry Jones who played so many delightful rustics on the screen is an evil handyman who suspects McCormack of the foul deed also. But it's different with him because it's a case of takes one to know one. He gets dealt with in an interesting fashion.
The Bad Seed is a timeless classic, it could be updated and play today, tomorrow, the next century, the good and the bad nature of humankind doesn't change. The best summation of this film was actually delivered in another film, The List Of Adrian Messenger by George C. Scott when he comments that, "evil is, evil does exist".
We are fortunate indeed to have all the principal cast members from the Maxwell Anderson play that ran 334 performances on Broadway during the 1954-55 season. Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack, Henry Jones, Eileen Heckart, Evelyn Varden, and Joan Croyden all came over from Broadway to repeat their roles. In the case of Nancy Kelly she won a Tony Award for her performance as the overwrought army wife who comes to the horrible realization she's raising an amoral monster. 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. The family lives off post with landlady Evelyn Varden.
McCormack is a strange child who doesn't seem to show real emotion like most of us though she makes a big show of affection when it suits her needs. When a boy from the school she goes to drowns and later a medal that boy won for spelling is found in McCormack's possession, Kelly is frightened out of her mind.
The acting in The Bad Seed goes to levels of excellence rarely attained by a whole cast. It's as if the cast were a functioning machine, each part reinforced by the other. They all feed off each other's excellence.
Nancy Kelly was nominated for Best Actress and Patty McCormack and Eileen Heckart were nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Heckart rules when she's on screen as the distraught mother of the drowned boy who's doing a little drowning herself in gin. Kelly, Heckart, and Joan Croyden who is the school principle all have suspicions about McCormack, but no one can prove a thing.
Henry Jones who played so many delightful rustics on the screen is an evil handyman who suspects McCormack of the foul deed also. But it's different with him because it's a case of takes one to know one. He gets dealt with in an interesting fashion.
The Bad Seed is a timeless classic, it could be updated and play today, tomorrow, the next century, the good and the bad nature of humankind doesn't change. The best summation of this film was actually delivered in another film, The List Of Adrian Messenger by George C. Scott when he comments that, "evil is, evil does exist".