| The Bad Seed | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Mervyn LeRoy |
| Screenplay by | John Lee Mahin |
| Based on | The Bad Seed byMaxwell Anderson The Bad Seed byWilliam March |
| Produced by | Mervyn LeRoy |
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography | Harold Rosson |
| Edited by | Warren Low |
| Music by | Alex North |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 129 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1 million |
| Box office | $4.1 million(rentals)[1] |
The Bad Seed is a 1956 Americanpsychological thriller film directed byMervyn LeRoy and starringNancy Kelly,Patty McCormack,Henry Jones andEileen Heckart, about an eight-year-old girl whose mother begins to suspect that she might be a psychopathic killer.[2]
The film is based upon the1954 play of the same name byMaxwell Anderson, which in turn is based uponWilliam March's 1954 novelof the same name. The screenplay was written byJohn Lee Mahin.
Kenneth and Christine Penmark dote on their eight-year-old daughter Rhoda. Kenneth leaves on military duty. Monica Breedlove, the Penmarks' neighbor and landlady, visits. Rhoda, pristine and proper in herpinafore dress and blondepigtails, tells her about apenmanship competition that she lost to her schoolmate Claude Daigle. Rhoda then leaves for her school picnic at the lake.
Christine is having lunch with friends when they hear a radio report that Claude has drowned in the lake. Christine worries that her daughter might be traumatized, but Rhoda is unfazed by the incident. Rhoda's teacher Miss Fern visits Christine, revealing that Rhoda had been seen grabbing at Claude's penmanship medal and was with the boy just prior to his death. She hints that Rhoda might have some connection to Claude's death and adds that Rhoda will not be welcome at the school after the current term ends. Claude's parents barge in, and Mrs. Daigle is distraught and drunk, accusing Miss Fern of withholding information. When Christine finds the medal in Rhoda's room, she demands an explanation. Rhoda tells Christine that Claude gave it to her.
Christine's father Richard visits. Haunted by confusing memories about her own childhood, Christine confronts him and he reveals that she was adopted. Christine is horrified to learn that she is actually the daughter of a notoriousserial killer. She worries that her origin is the cause of Rhoda'ssociopathy and that her behavior is genetic. Richard tries to convince her that it isnurture, not nature, that primarily influences such behavior.
Christine catches Rhoda trying to dispose of hertap shoes in the household incinerator and realizes that Rhoda must have hit Claude with the shoes, which had left odd crescent-shaped marks on his face and hands that could not be identified. Alternately feigning tears and angrily blaming Claude, Rhoda admits that she killed the boy for his medal and confirms Christine's suspicion that, to acquire a keepsake, she had previously murdered an elderly neighbor when they had lived inWichita, Kansas. Christine orders Rhoda to burn the shoes in the incinerator.[3]
The next day, the caretaker Leroy teasingly tells Rhoda that he believes that she killed Claude. After Rhoda angrily tells him that she burned her shoes, Leroy opens the incinerator and finds the remains. A drunk Mrs. Daigle returns and tells Christine that she believes that Rhoda knows what happened to her son.
Realizing that Leroy knows the truth, Rhoda sets hisexcelsior bedding ablaze and locks him in the basement. After some men break open the basement hatch, Leroy runs into the yard aflame, ultimately burning to death. From the window, Christine and Monica see him die, which makes Christine hysterical. That night, a strangely calm Christine tells Rhoda that she dropped the penmanship medal into the lake where Claude's body was found, then gives her daughter a lethal dose ofsleeping pills. Christine attempts to kill herself with a gunshot to the head. However, the gunshot alerts the neighbors and Rhoda and Christine are taken to the hospital. They both survive, although Christine is in a coma. Kenneth arrives and takes Rhoda home.
At bedtime, Rhoda excitedly tells Kenneth that she will inherit Monica's petlovebird. She also mentions that she and Monica plan to sunbathe on the roof soon. When Kenneth tells her that lovebirds don’t live as long as people, it becomes clear that Rhoda will murder Monica to make sure she gets the lovebird. Christine regains consciousness and is expected to make a full recovery. She calls Kenneth and tells him that she must pay for her "dreadful sin" but Kenneth assures her that they will work on their problems together.
At night, Rhoda sneaks away during a thunderstorm and attempts to retrieve the medal from the lake using adip net. A sudden bolt of lightning strikes her, presumably causing her death.
After the success of the book, Geoffrey Shurlock of theProduction Code Administration (PCA) sent a letter toJack Warner stating that “the property violated the spirit and letter of the Code.” Shurlock’s office wrote toParamount Pictures,Columbia Pictures andUniversal Pictures to caution them against the property. Although the studios had not yet formally inquired about it,Buddy Adler,Frank McCarthy andDore Schary were interested in producing the film. After a bidding war, Warner purchased the film rights for $300,000 (equivalent to $2,990,086 in 2021).[4][5]United States Pictures stated that it would only produce the film forWarner Bros. Pictures upon approval by the PCA. Adler contacted Shurlock demanding to know why approval had been given. Shurlock responded that directorMervyn LeRoy had devised atreatment "that seemed to do what the office thought was impossible."[4]
Although the novel and play conclude with Christine dying and Rhoda surviving, theMotion Picture Production Code did not permit perpetrators of crime to remain unpunished.[6] The film's ending thus reverses the deaths of the mother and daughter, with Christine's life saved and Rhoda killed by a bolt of lightning. In another move to appease the censors, Warner Bros. added an "adults only" warning to the film's advertising.[7] The film softens the shocking ending with a segment in which an announcer introduces the members of the cast. It concludes with Kelly lightheartedly spanking McCormack for her character's misdeeds.
The Bad Seed was one of the larger 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 finished among the year's top 20 at the box office in the United States and among the ten most popular box-office draws in Britain in 1956.[7][8]
The film received favorable reviews from critics, and review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 63% based on27 reviews, with a rating average of 7.00/10.[9]
| Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | Best Actress | Nancy Kelly | Nominated | [10] |
| Best Supporting Actress | Eileen Heckart | Nominated | ||
| Patty McCormack | Nominated | |||
| Best Cinematography | Harold Rosson | Nominated | ||
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture | Eileen Heckart | Won | [11] |
| Patty McCormack | Nominated |
The film is recognized byAmerican Film Institute in these lists:
McCormack starred in the 1995 low-budget filmMommy as a psychopathic mother and inHouse of Deadly Secrets in 2018. Some consider both films as unofficial sequels toThe Bad Seed.[citation needed]
The first act of the 1992 off-Broadway musicalRuthless! is inspired by the film.[citation needed]
The 1993 filmThe Good Son is partly inspired byThe Bad Seed.[13]
In 2024,Paste Magazine listed Rhoda 3rd among "the best portrayals of cinematic sociopaths", in 2011Slate Magazine called Rhoda "the perfect psychopath", andPsychology Today in 2023 wrote that the novel on which the movie is based "exposed the risk ofpsychopathy in children".[14][15][2]
The Bad Seed wasremade for television in 1985, adapted by George Eckstein, directed by Paul Wendkos and starring Carrie Welles,Blair Brown,Lynn Redgrave,David Carradine,Richard Kiley andChad Allen. The remake employs the original ending of the March novel and its stage production but was panned by critics and poorly received by its television audience.[16]
In June 2015, it was announced thatLifetime would be doing a remake. In December 2017, Deadline.com reported thatRob Lowe was to direct and star in the remake withMckenna Grace, Sarah Dugdale, Marci T. House,Lorne Cardinal, Chris Shields,Cara Buono and a special appearance by McCormack as Dr. March.The film aired in September 2018.[17]
