* Spoiler Alert! Major plot points are divulged for critical discussion and analysis.
For the most part, I don't see anything inherently wrong in a film morphing
from one kind of entertainment into another over the course of its "screening life." By this, I mean movies—a populist entertainment /art form presumed of
a certain marketable topicality at the time of their release, are, by nature, vulnerable
to the vagaries of time. A movie can start out as one kind of entertainment...say, thoughtful social drama...but, due to changing public tastes, evolve into something that gives pleasure to countless hundreds in new, totally
unexpected ways (i.e., unintentional humor or high camp).
 |
| Rhoda Has Intimacy Issues |
Some movies, like John Huston's The
Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948) and George Stevens' A Place in the Sun (1951), feel as powerful today as I imagine when first released. Then there are those movies dismissed or misunderstood in their own time (Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter) that receive the benefit of revisionist reassessment.
But occasionally, a movie just seems to take its place in our collective consciousness as a work superficially cloaked
in the trappings of its time. Though they may be about such timeless human issues as love, death, survival, and hope, the matter in which those issues are addressed can brand the film as hopelessly dated.
 |
| For Adults Only - No One Will Be Seated During the Last 15 minutes A "Catch Your Breath" Intermission at Each Screening! |
One of the earliest legit films to actively advertise itself as suitable for "Adults Only," The Bad Seed was taken to task for what many perceived to be its sensationalist and misleading ad campaign. Criticism was leveled at the film's advertising copy and graphics that hinted at sexual impropriety being at the core of the film's big secret ("The most terrifying rock-bottom a woman ever hit for love!").
Not surprisingly, the type of movies most susceptible to becoming relics of their time are those most determined to be daringly up-to-date upon release. A surefire recipe for instant obsolescence is to take over-emphatic, up-to-the-minute immediacy,
multiply it by sensationalism, and add a dash of self-seriousness. The
result is usually something so mired in a particular time, place, and mindset that it becomes near-impossible to take seriously in any of the ways originally intended.
 |
| The Bad Seed's roots in old-fashioned theater are reinforced by its often stagy blocking |
When psychoanalysis was new, juvenile delinquency in its infancy, and post-war
conformity at its height, Maxwell
Anderson's Broadway 1954 play The
Bad Seed (adapted from the 1954 novel by William March) must have been
quite the eye-opener. A thriller about a sociopathic 8-year-old serial killer
sounds like a weed among the roses in a Broadway season that saw the premieres
of Peter Pan and The Pajama Game. But the chillingly
original premise and, by all accounts, remarkable performance of little 9-year-old anti-Shirley Temple, Patty McCormack, made The Bad Seed into a solid hit. Co-star Nancy Kelly won the Tony
Award for Best Actress that year. And in a rarity for Hollywood, virtually the
entire principal cast of the play was recruited to recreate their roles for the 1956 film
adaptation.
 |
| Nancy Kelly as Christine Penmark |
 |
| Patty McCormack as Rhoda Penmark |
 |
| Eileen Heckart as Hortense Daigle |
But not everything that plays well across the footlights survives the magnification
of the movie screen. Suffering from a perhaps too-faithful adaptation that had
characters standing around talking for fitfully long stretches while
engaged in a lot of theatrically fussy "stage business." The combination of the minimal action and close-up lens trained on The Bad Seed only served to amplify the dubious
premise of its plot (hereditary homicidal tendencies) while failing to add much in the way of either verisimilitude or spontaneity to the progressively melodramatic proceedings.
 |
| Henry Jones as Leroy Jessup |
 |
| Evelyn Varden as Monica Breedlove |
 |
| William Hopper as Kenneth Penmark |
Navy Colonel Kenneth Penmark and wife Christine seem to have the ideal
child in their little Rhoda: an angelic, near-perfect package of pigtails and
ruffles, blessed with girlish grace and good manners. But, when Kenneth is called
away to Washington for business, Christine (who appears to be wound a little tight from the
get-go) begins to suspect that Rhoda's immaculate façade isn't perhaps masking
a more disturbed, darker personality dysfunction. The mysterious death of a local schoolboy and
Christine's epiphanic discovery of her birth lineage lead her to believe
that little Rhoda might be a budding serial killer: a possessor of a hereditary "bad
seed" gene passed on to Rhoda by Christine herself. What to do? What to do? What to do?
 |
| Al Hirschfeld |
I make light of the preposterous-sounding premise, but quite honestly,
when removed from the gimmicky "serial killer gene" plotline, The Bad Seed is pretty solid thriller
material. It might have even tapped into the post-war/ McCarthy-era "banality
of evil" zeitgeist of Invasion of the
Body Snatchers (released the same year) had it managed to sidestep the theatrical
histrionics and showed more faith in presenting a dark vision of idealized suburban
perfection.
The Torment of Truth
 |
| Paul Fix as Christine's father, Richard Bravo -telling her she might want to table those plans for a family reunion- |
The Bad Seed was a sensation on stage, but almost too much for the screen. The play's original twist ending had to be retooled so that evil didn't prevail, plus a tacked-on coda was introduced that had the entire cast return (even those who didn't survive) to give the screen equivalent of a curtain call bow. When I was a kid and The Bad Seed scared me senseless, this "See, it's only make-believe!" addition did what it was supposed to do; save the film from being too disturbing and grim.
As an adult, that silly roll call ending just feels like such an odd choice, the way it wrenches you out of the drama before you're even ready.
Topically The Bad Seed benefits from the uniqueness of its narrative perspective. Though horror movie screens overflow with little monsters now, I can't readily think of another film before this that dared deal with the topic of a child being capable of murder. Despite this novelty, The Bad Seed is
ill-served by how deeply the plot (and far too much of its dialogue) is entrenched in then-novel, now-outmoded Freudian psychological
theorems. As a result, a great deal of emotional drama gets submerged beneath reams of expository dialogue. And while the suspense and tension are generally well-handled, its overall effectiveness is undermined by some of the performances' overwrought and overrehearsed theatricality.
 |
| Joan Croydon as Miss Claudia Fern Clearly, Miss Fern already harbors suspicions about Rhoda. But isn't that always the way...the parents are always the last to know their kid's a homicidal maniac |
I couldn't have been much older than Rhoda when I first saw The Bad Seed on TV (which is also likely the last time I ever took the film seriously), and I recall it being quite the shake-up experience. I was
raised in a middle-class neighborhood where kids were brought up to be seen and not heard. To be obedient and polite, to say "Please" and "Thank you," and to never,
but NEVER speak back to grownups. So it shocked the hell out of me to see a
little girl who could have stepped out of an episode of Father Knows Best or Leave it
to Beaver behaving so monstrously. The idea that a kid could exert any power over their own lives at
all was alien enough, let alone plan and carry out vicious murders with nary a
trace of remorse.
 |
| Jess White as Emry Wages / Gage Clark as Reginald Tasker |
Although I was a fan of horror movies as a kid and loved to be scared, I must say I didn't mind that the deaths of little
Claude Daigle or handyman Leroy were never shown in The Bad Seed. My fertile imagination furnished all the gory details. I remember being
very torn up by the grief of Eileen Heckart's Mrs. Daigle, and the sound of the
gunshot near the end nearly sent me flying off the sofa. My strongest memory is of Rhoda's final trip to the boathouse. It was spooky enough that she
was out alone at night in a rainstorm, but I thought maybe her maddeningly
clueless father would wake up and catch her red-handed with the medal. That bolt of lightning hit me like ...well, a bolt of lightning. OMG! I had NEVER seen a
kid killed in a movie before, and that image stayed with me for many a
nightmare.
 |
| Frank Cady as Henry Daigle A medal should be awarded to anyone who can see this actor and not think of General Store owner Sam Drucker of Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Petticoat Junction. I certainly can't. |
Youth and naiveté definitely have their advantages with some movies, so at least I
get to say that I had one pure, unironic experience of The Bad Seed before the unintentional laughs set in and The Bad Seed, almost imperceptibly, went from serious to hilarious
in my eyes.
Granted, the film's pitch had always been a little high, but with
maturity, the passing of time, and changing tastes, The Bad Seed started to look as dated and reactionary as one of
those "social guidance" films of the '50s and '60s.
The patent phoniness of Rhoda's "good little girl" act is so obvious it instantly brands the adults in the film as idiots. However, it also simultaneously turns Leroy into the film's clear-eyed hero and the collective voice of the viewing audience. Happily, the gradual inability to take The Bad Seed seriously only made the film more watchable, not less.
 |
| "Have you been naughty?" |
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THIS FILM
In real life, it takes little effort for me to see most children as monsters. But making them look menacing on the screen is extremely difficult. The 1976
film The Omen neatly sidestepped the pitfall
the wan 2006 remake fell into (headfirst) by framing the action in ways that left the child's evil nature ambiguous. In the original film, the child behaves normally, leaving the audience to project whatever it wanted onto his angelic, inexpressive pan. In the remake, someone got the bright idea to have the child actor perpetually scowl and glower into the camera...the result being the surely-unwanted
effect of making it look like little Damien is perpetually suffering from a devil of a tummy ache. What makes Patty McCormack so memorably creepy in The Bad Seed is that she's like a schoolyard bully dreamt up by Murder, Inc.
The only reason this scene gets laughs is that Patty McCormack is scarier than hell in it. Who'd ever think a little girl in pigtails and a pinafore could make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up?
These days, when the bratty behavior of children is endorsed, encouraged, and regarded as business-as-usual in
every sitcom and movie comedy, I wonder if a film like The Bad Seed would even work today. Indeed, the superb thriller We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) is an excellent example of how a "bad seed" scenario can be handled in a serious and dramatically compelling way.
But Rhoda Penmark is both a product of her time and a victim of it.
The ladylike decorum expected of little girls in the '50s is so passe, everything about Rhoda comes across as anachronistically comic, severely undercutting her intended menace. In movies today, little girls who look like Rhoda Penmark are the victims of girls who look like Wednesday Addams.
 |
| Monica Breedlove, the Freudian landlord, is a particular favorite of mine. |
The gift that keeps on giving when I watch The Bad Seed now is that Rhoda's brattishness calls to mind so many pop-culture icons of bad behavior...like Neely O'Hara and Alexis Carrington. Her outbursts and threats make me giggle, not just because one doesn't expect such malevolence coming out of a child kitted out to resemble a Chatty Cathy doll, but also because she's carrying on in a way we've long come to associate with grown-up entertainment industry brats and divas. Rhoda is rude, ruthless, selfish, self-involved, single-mindedly
determined to get what she wants, and impervious to the suffering of others. I'm thinkin' Madonna or Kanye West.
 |
| The Original Material Girl |
PERFORMANCES
Nancy Kelly and Eileen Heckart give the kind of robust, herculean performances
that usually garner Oscar nominations, and indeed both (along with McCormack) were, in fact, nominated for Academy
Awards. Both are really very good, though neither actress lets up "acting"
for even a second. Kelly's stylistic excesses and singsong way of conveying sincerity may
induce laughter, but her character's anguish is really affectingly played. Heckart has some great material to work with, and much of it she plays
with real poignance. But a little too much theatrical "drunk" shtick creeps into
the characterization for it to avoid the occasional lapse into overkill.
The film's true star...and what an absolute marvel she is...is 10-year-old Patty McCormack. Although her performance is over-rehearsed to within a hairsbreadth, her Rhoda is an alternatingly chilling and hilarious characterization that has deservedly become iconic. An audaciously dark depiction of youthful duplicity—imagine Leave it to Beaver's Judy Hensler as a serial killer—Rhoda absolutely refuses to listen to anyone's drummer but her own. The way she exploits and subverts the expectations of traditional gender roles to her personal advantage feels like an act of guerrilla rebellion against the impossible image of female perfection and passivity she only superficially embodies. Rhoda Penmark is one of cinema's classic villains.
 |
| Leroy, Sex Bomb In much of The Bad Seed's intentionally misleading publicity campaign, Leroy, the maintenance man, was presented in the context of some kind of sexual indignity suffered by the heroine |
THE STUFF OF FANTASY
No longer a viable suspense thriller (not for me, anyway), The Bad Seed does work remarkably well as a satirical
black comedy of American paranoia in the mid-'50s. McCarthyism took root when post-war America was just starting to look within its own backyard for threats
to the so-called "American Way of Life." What did it find? Well, juvenile
delinquency, for one. And what else is Rhoda but a steely-eyed juvenile
delinquent in Mary Jane shoes? (OK, a juvenile homicidal
delinquent, but I'm trying to make a point.) As the perfect little angel who'll
stop at nothing to get that coveted Penmanship Medal, Rhoda is camouflaged anarchy let loose on idealized "normalcy."
Like many a con man, crooked politician, or gangster throughout history, Rhoda manages to get away with murder
(heh-heh) by presenting a false but reassuring front of conformity. Everyone is so slow
to pick up on the rather obvious clues of Rhoda's guilt because….well, little
girls just don't do that sort of thing. The reliability of appearances and the rigid adherence to societal roles were very real in the '50s, making it easier to accept that everyone buys into Rhoda's too-good-to-be-true act.
The screenplay of the wholly forgettable 1985 TV remake of The Bad Seed failed to consider how much society's perception of childhood had changed post-Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, and The Exorcist, making the updated version come across as more antiquated than the original.
A better remake, in spirit, if not in actuality, is The Good Son, a 1993 against-type departure for the unaccountably popular Macaulay Culkin.
 |
| You Gon' Die |
Despite its daringly original premise and first-class credentials, I'm
afraid the movie that once promoted itself as "The most shocking motion picture
ever made!" containing "The most chilling moment the screen has ever unleashed!"
is, for me, now mostly an enduring camp staple. And though I'm aware that The Bad Seed continues to freak out entirely new generations of first-time viewers fortunate enough to catch it while they're still of an impressionable age (before their cynic genes kick in), my joy comes from familiarity. Make that overfamiliarity.
I still watch The Bad Seed often, each viewing being a somewhat home-grown MST3K experience where my partner and I talk to the screen, recite lines of dialogue, and affectionately laugh at the self-seriousness of it all.
In her adult years, actress Patty McCormack has embraced The Bad Seed's cult/camp status. She frequently appears at
screenings, judges Rhoda look-alike contests, and answers questions about making the film (her DVD commentary offers a wealth of behind-the-scenes info). Mining the camp factor, the play version of The Bad Seed has become a favorite of 99-seat theater productions, often with an adult male cast as Rhoda. People seem
to have a deep affection for The Bad Seed, either due to childhood exposure to the then-frightening film, or a later-in-life cult appreciation for the way the laughs come at the expense of the film's sincere over-earnestness and '50s mindset, not the performances.
 |
| In the Censorship Code-sanctioned denouement, Rhoda returns to the pier to retrieve the coveted Penmanship Medal and gets more than she bargained for. In the play, Rhoda survives while her mother commits suicide. |
Some time ago, I saw a stage production of The Bad Seed and was surprised to discover that one of the big shocker set pieces of the play was a nocturnal walk through the house by a restless Christine after the death of Leroy. It's a stormy night full of thunder and lightning, and as Christine moves to close an open window, a flash of lightning reveals the charred corpse of Leroy lunging out at her. It must have been a big "gotcha" moment back in its day. But on the night I attended, the actress playing Christine had so much trouble lifting the window blind, she was ultimately obliged to politely hold the stubborn curtain aside to facilitate her own persecution. Matters weren't helped by Leroy missing his key light, leaving him thoroughly in the shadows, resulting in Christine appearing to be engaged in hand-to-hand combat with her living room curtains.
 |
| The Bad Seed opened on Broadway on December 8th, 1954 |
Scene from "The Bad Seed" 1956
BONUS MATERIAL
Popping up now and again on YouTube and definitely worth the watch is the fabulous 1963 Turkish remake of The Bad Seed titled Kötü Tohum. Starring real-life mother and daughter Lale Oraloğlu and Alev Oraloğlu, it's a very well-made adaptation that hews closely to Maxwell Anderson's play but deviates from it in the most compelling ways.
.jpg)
More shocking than anything you'll see in the film itself is this bit of mind-blowing behind-the-scenes cheesecake showing prim Nancy Kelly keeping the crew "entertained" between setups (more likely, giving her gams some air on the hot set). Meanwhile, Joan Croydon (Miss Fern) fails to get into the spirit of things.
Possibly the most egregiously off-the-wall of the many misleading ads concocted to market what was apparently very a difficult-to-market movie. Seriously, what were they thinking when they dreamed this one up?
Copyright © Ken Anderson 2009 - 2012
The review should probably have a big "spoilers" tag under the heading, but then again, it's hardly surprising that several of the characters "get it" along the course of the film.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I had no idea about this movie before you posted your review (the rest of which I shall get back to reading after I see the movie). So I'm very grateful that you've posted about "The Bad Seed". I'm definitely going to look for it the next time I'm at the DVD rental store.
I'm glad that you made the reference to Don Sigel's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", because the first thing that I thought about when I saw the title "The Bad Seed" and its release year (1956) was "Invasion".
"The banality of evil" is something that I think a lot of people don't get these days, and of course, the "passage of time" does alter how some films are perceived. With those thoughts in mind, I recommend the anti-Communist short film "Red Nightmare", starring Jack Webb. It's one of those "social guidance" movies you mentioned (made with help from the US Department of Defense!) that is deadly serious in tone but is absolutely hilarious with the benefit of hindsight.
I immediately looked up "The Bad Seed" in the Leonard Maltin film guide, and it's available on DVD; the guide also directed me to a film entitled "Mommy" (1995) starring a grown up version of Patty McCormack playing a "bad seed mother"(there is also a sequel, "Mommy 2: Mommy's Day").
Again, thank you for reviewing the film--I'll get back to you if/when I locate and watch it on my next trip to the DVD store. I'll also look out for "Mommy"; I may need to order that on special import.
Aw Mark, very sorry that your exposure to The Bad Seed might be spoiled by what is divulged in this post, and indeed, I did consider tagging it with a “spoilers” heading (the poster for the film pleads “Talk you want about the man and the woman, but please don’t tell about the girl!”) as I did with my post on The Mephisto Waltz; but that set a precedent I won’t be repeating. As I don’t consider myself to be either a reviewer or a critic, my posts are just personal essays about certain films that mean something to me. Depending on what observations I want to make, the full content of a movie has to be open for me to examine. On review, I see all of my posts contain major spoilers, but the practice is especially dicey with thrillers.
DeleteI’m certain The Bad Seed will become one of your favorites, and if you’ll take a little advice from a guy whose seen it, don’t waste your money exporting Mommy…it’s super low-rent and an embarrassment that McCormack even participated in it. Thanks Mark
Well, I certainly see you as a reviewer/critic! Please don't sell yourself short, Ken! Newspapers and magazines would be extremely fortunate to have you write for them.
DeleteWow! Thanks, Mark. I'm aware that you've actually been motivated to seek out and view many films you might not have otherwise known about on the strength of my posts, so I will give the spoilers issue a consideration... especially when it comes to thrillers. I love the discovery aspect of films. Do you know how rare you in not being familiar with "The Bad Seed" in the first place? I envy that you get to experience the film with "somewhat" fresh eyes. As always, glad that you enjoy the site!
DeleteYou cover far too many of my favorite films here. I'll definitely be back often. Great work!
ReplyDeleteThanks very much, Thombeau! If you like my blog even a little, it's a small way of paying you back for all the hours of gut-busting laughs and "What were they thinking?" shocks I've enjoyed at your blog "The Redundant Variety Hour"
Deletehttp://ultimatevariety.blogspot.com
A site that makes me both proud and ashamed to be a dancer!
Really enjoyed your terrific post on one of my favorite camp movies. I particularly liked your point about Rhoda as both a precursor of Madonna (and what does THAT tell us about Madonna?) and as a guerrilla rebel girl - There's something remarkably subversive about our little darling in her forthright non-niceness and in her determined sense of what she's entitled to; you almost find yourself envying her confidence. No doubt, she has the makings of a CEO. I recall when I first saw the film that its 'shock' ending induced belly laughs in me - I was not prepared for it, and yet it was so entirely over the top that I nearly fell off the couch in hysterics. The film, like you say, is so theatrical and over-rehearsed that it can only be approached as prime camp. I will say, though, that the novel is actually quite good and quite chilling (and does NOT make you laugh). If you haven't read it, I do recommend it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your personal response to the film's "shock ending"...I swear, everyone has a different story based on how old they were when they first saw the film. Your reaction (hysterics) reflects most of what I hear, accounting for the film ranking so high on everyone's "must see" camp lists. I think I will take you up on getting a copy of the novel...Hello, Amazon! Thanks for writing and I am looking forward to exploring your film blog, Grand Old Movies. I see you discuss many films i'm unfamiliar with... perhaps a new favorite is lurking there somewhere.
DeleteI adore those backyard scenes with Rhoda and Leroy. I've got the DVD, so I can revisit them whenever it's been awhile. "You can Waaassh and you can Waaassh, but there's always some [incriminating blood spatters] left." I'd love to have heard Henry Jones talk about playing Leroy. Both he and Patty McCormack are soooo terrific in their roles, it really is a Clash of Sociopathic Titans when they come up against one another.
ReplyDeleteI think, over the years, I've become more appreciative of just how exceptionally talented McCormack was. She does things that simply amaze me, coming from an actor that young. Like when her [Rhoda's] mother's reminding her of the old lady who once lived above them and of her fateful relationship with Rhoda...and meantime, Rhoda just sits there with her back turned like it's something she's heard a million times before, coming out with a perfectly bored "Yes, Mother [sigh]."
An excellent review, Sir, by the way. I've already forgotten how I stumbled on this blog, but I'm very glad I did.
Thanks, Rennieboy.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you about those scenes with Leroy and Rhoda. Their characters are so evenly matched in depravity that you always wish the scenes would go on longer. McCormack and Jones play off of each other so well;
each giving as good as they get in a verbal volley and battle of wits. Patty McCormack's performance is indeed one of those that is so remarkable for one so young. Especially when you read about how Peter Bogdanovich had to stitch and paste Tatum O'Neal's performance together in "Paper Moon", you really get a sense of how talented McCormack is. Thanks so much for the comment and compliment!
Sorry, but I forgot (a bad habit) to mention just possibly my favourite line of Rhoda's in the whole movie. It's when Leroy unwittingly signs his own death warrant by telling Rhoda he's got the murderous shoes. He then desperately tries to pass it off as just kidding, but there's no fooling Rhoda.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the keys to effective film acting is not only what you say, but how you say it...the overall impression you give. At one point in Rhoda's increasingly threatening confrontation with Leroy, McCormack has the line "They're mine [meaning the shoes]. Give them back to me."
Your description of Rhoda as "a schoolyard bully dreamt up by Murder, Inc" is wonderfully apt. That line is delivered perfectly - and I mean "perfectly." The truly menacing but still controlled emphasis McCormack gives to "mine" and "back" cooks Leroy's goose right there. What Rhoda looks like and who she really is - masterful creativity!
Ha!
ReplyDeleteWell, I think you nailed it. A prefect description of just what would make a grown man recoil in fear from an advancing little girl. The big flaw in the TV remake was that they gave the little girl the words, but you could totally tell she had absolutely no idea what she was saying or why. You're spot-on in noting McCormack's modulated emphasis that speaks volumes and REALLY gets under the skin. Leroy doesn't have a chance.
I've never seen the TV remake, Ken, but yeah, it's those relatively little things (you might think) like tone of voice, inflection, facial expression; they're so much a part of McCormack's power - and Rhoda's credibility.
ReplyDeleteFinally, I got around to taking a look at this movie. They just don't make them like this anymore. As a rather pleasant surprise, the film featured one of my favourites things--spoken credits!
ReplyDeleteIt seems like these days, horror films fall into one of three categories: (a) zombies rising from the grave, (b) demented slasher, or (c) hideously inventive forms of torture--some movies promise two or all three of the above in various combinations and measures. Usually they involve a bunch of callow youths getting lost somewhere in a forest. Haven't we been there (many) times before?
"The Bad Seed" leaves so much unseen and therefore leaves it down to viewer imagination. You don't get that very often from movies these days.
Who did the drawing of the cast of characters? It's also worth looking at the full-colour publicity pictures of Patty McCormack mugging like crazy for the camera at Internet Movie Database.
Great to hear the hometown mentioned in this one!
Yay! Welcome to the land of "The Bad Seed." perhaps now you'll get a chance to see a stage production of it sometime and see how it differs. I've seen two different productions and nothing sins it faster than a Rhoda who's not up to the job. It a tough role to pull off.
DeleteAs per your comments about movies today, it seems people are somehow so benumbed in their experiences that they need movies to throw jolts at them every two seconds in order to elicit any kind of response from them. Ergo, films today are so hyperactive and needlessly explicit when a little bit of subtlety would go a long way to really tapping into the difference between suspense and shock.
The late, great Broadway caricaturist, Al Hirshfeld did the drawing. Did you see the movie on a big screen or on DVD? The commentary by Patty McCormack is priceless. She get's the movie's camp appeal, but she also knows it's a well-made suspenser. Now...remind me who mentions your hometown and when? Was it Rhoda's windbag grandfather?
I watched the movie on DVD and the copy looked like it came from Japan--it seemed to have what looked like kanji all over the box. I'm not certain if there was a commentary; probably not on the copy that I saw.
DeleteYes, Melbourne is mentioned by the grandfather as the place where Bessie Denker wound up after moving to Australia. It's always good to hear Melbourne mentioned in foreign movies and know that we're not all that obscure to the rest of the world (it's not a small place, but it's also not what you'd call a "world city").
Just remember, "On The Beach" was filmed here! But what really makes me laugh is that some scenes were filmed in a place called Geelong!
actually, i would have preferred the original ending, the betty-crocker-bites-it version in which mom fails to survive, and the crinolined devilress prevails. people WILL insist that virtue triumph in these things, even insisting on REMAKES so that it can be forced to.
ReplyDeleteHi Gus
DeleteThanks for stopping by! I think it would have been fun to see the film with the original ending. It certainly would have been a shocker back in 1956, but I honestly think they could have gotten away with it. To me, killing a child (even one as rotten as Rhoda)was more traumatizing than what the original plot contrived.
Now, the murderer getting away with it is a common twist (The Omen).
Terrific recap of a very conflicting picture. Is it a quality recapturing of what was surely a riveting stage presentation or a stinky piece of overripe cheese? As you said as time moves on it's really both and entertaining either way it's approached.
ReplyDeleteHaving read the book, seen the remake (pallid but Blair Brown is worth watching in most anything) and watched this several times I have to say I find the movie ending satisfying but the original ending more chilling and true.
Having watched it several times as I said I was struck by the performance style of the various players. Viewing now you can see some players understood the difference in mediums between the stage and screen and some never would.
Nancy Kelly, who should have had that understanding since she got the big push from Fox in the 40's although unsuccessfully, gives a operatic full blown playing to the rafters performance that must have been gripping on stage but is far to big for the room on screen. Eileen Heckart hits the middle ground somewhat, some of her scenes are pitched a bit to big but she is terrifically affecting at others. When she hugs Christine and tells her she knows that Christine knows something it's heartrending. It's two of the main supporting players who knew how to bring down the work to the proper level, Henry Jones is venal and creepy as Leroy but is always contained in the scene: he's fighting with or tormenting Rhoda not playing to the crowd. The other is Evelyn Varden, so great as Icey Spoon in Night of the Hunter, who modulates her part of Monica Breedlove to a realistic level. Monica is a bit of a chattering good-hearted buttinsky so any overly big gestures are more organic to her part than others but the actress still keeps them within range of the screen. She probably would have had a quite successful supporting career in film and TV had she not died suddenly a few years later.
That leaves Patty McCormack who gives a great chilling performance surely formed over months of continuous reenactments on stage. Within itself it's masterful but limiting work and I think is a fine example of the difference between a talented child performer who doesn't make the transition to adult star and one who does.
ReplyDeleteTo go off point of the movie for a minute, McCormack and another equally talented although quite different child star Margaret O'Brien shone brightly if briefly but I think what stood in the way of their making the difficult leap to adult stardom is that what was special about them disappeared as they matured. Watch them in later work and there's no connection to that childhood figure. When you see Margaret O'Brien in Heller in Pink Tights there is no resemblance to the winsome overly weepy child she was. I remember being shocked when I saw in the credits list of Frost/Nixon that Patty had played Pat Nixon, she's unrecognizable. True that is several years on but even in the early 80's when she was in The Ropers she looked like someone else. She's had a steady respectable career but hardly a remarkable one.
On the other hand when you watch any of the big five, Natalie Wood, Judy Garland, Jodie Foster, Deanna Durbin and Elizabeth Taylor, that made the successful move across that tenuous road in their childhood roles or their adult ones they are readily identifiable and there is a clear remnant of their younger selves in the woman they had become. Perhaps that's the key-a sort of in born magnetism, rare and present from birth, that defines true star quality. Maybe it's not fair to compare her to Judy and especially Deanna, choosing as she did to withdraw into anonymity, who had their great musical gifts to carry them over although other talented childhood singers faded in maturity but the other three ladies had and still have an innate charisma that jumps off the screen at any point in their careers. Patty does not, even in her big follow up vehicle Kathy O' where the studio tried to sweeten her she makes minimal impact.
Okay off my soapbox and back to the film. I've read that both Bette Davis and Rosalind Russell were considered for Christine before Warner's decided to go with the stage cast. Both are intriguing possibilities, two such different actresses but I can see both in the part although what divergent interpretations they would have given. I could see Bette's being closer to Nancy Kelly's but more modulated while Rosalind's would have been a more suppressed anxiety along the lines that she played in The Velvet Touch. Have you seen that? It's an awesome little suspenser with a brilliant ending that besides Roz has Claire Trevor, Leon Ames and Sydney Greenstreet in the cast.
One last thing, the closing credits when they introduce the cast are such an odd thing. I completely love them but they also break the entire mood of the picture and are now one of the things that firmly move it into the cheese factory.
Hi Joel!
DeleteThanks again for stopping by and for such an info-filled comment! I especially like the observations you make about child stars and what qualities are retained or lost as they transition into adult roles.
i had no idea of either Rosalind Russell or Bette Davis being considered for this film, although Russell seems the best fit (Bette looks EXACTLY like someone who would pass a homicidal gene down to her kid)..
I have seen "The Velvet Touch" and was delightfully surprised by what a good film it was given its relative obscurity.
As always, I get a big kick out of reading what you think about these films. Thanks for taking the time!
OMG, Joel, I shudder at the thought of Bette Davis as Christine Penmark. Many people complain about Nancy Kelly's "overly-theatrical" performance; imagine what Davis' would have been like, since she had long before descended into mannered self-caricature. In addition, Davis had aged prematurely as a result of lifestyle choices, and she would have been more suitably cast as Monica Breedlove.
DeleteInspired casting, that. I think Bette and her stylistic excesses would have indeed made a better fit for Monica Breedlove.
DeleteAs not only a dear friend, but also co-star of my TV pilot HAVE YOU MET MISS JONES? It was an absolute honor for my creative partner and I to have Patty McCormack accept the role of Connie -- a part that was written for Patty herself! The TV pilot is currently on Youtube for people to watch and the producer and star James Di Giacomo is presently in talks with a couple major Hollywood studios -- hoping to get this witty dramedy on a major cable network.
ReplyDeleteIf you loved Patty as "Rhoda," then you will most definitely love her as Angelina's mother, Connie. Patty plays a fouled-mouthed married-to-the-mob type character who carries a gun a in her purse!
See Patty McCormack in this original comedy series for free on youtube.com/missjonesshow and follow the show on Facebook and Twitter to get up to date info about their progress @MissJonesShow
Ken, I swear you must be a long lost brother! You spotlight so many of the films my sisters and I discovered on the Late Show. (Thsnk goodness my parents were movie buffs!). The Bad Seed was a particular favorite for us.
ReplyDeleteAs usual your evaluation of the film is astute. There is no hiding the stsgebound feel, and mannered stylistic choices made by the cast at different points, or thosevthat were allowrd (encouraged?) By the director. (Would have been interesting to see how a top flight director could have shaped the film.)
The fact remains that this film works on a visceral level more than masny other movies my sisters and I saw as children. In short we were scared to death! Both Rhoda and Leroy haunted us, even as we'd replay the "give me those shoes" scene over and over in our backyard. Rhoda's complete amorality was somehow understood by us as children, and I think it instinctively awakened in us a sense that once we were old enough to venture out into the world we'd have to be afraid of the monsters in our midst, not the ones from outer space.
I may be in the minority here, but I actually found Nancy Kelly very compelling. I realize that she does come cloes to going over the top, but I think the truth of her portrayal of Christine's anguish keeps her from crossing over into camp. Partly, I think I'd be a lot more over the top if I was in a similar situation in real life. (But then again I slide into sheervterror at the sight of a spider!). Also, I think that the husky undertone to her voice is effective especially late on the movie as it sounds as if she has shed many tears over her situation. She also makes an interesting choice of a gesture repeated throughout the movie. In several instances she pounds her hand down sideways, not with a flat palm as one would expect, or in away that would convey a position of authority. Instead, the gesture makes her hand appear limp, silently falling on her lap in a way that mirrors the helplessness Christine must feel.
Finally, I think no one can underestimate the effective, chilling use of the piano piece that Rhoda plays over and over again, each time underscoring the mounting tension. It is played aetlessly with so semblance of feeling -- no wonder it becomes Rhoda's theme song. To this day, my sisters and can hum that tune to each other as a clue to calm down and act human again.
Thanks as always foryour sophisticated take on movies I love, and those you've tantalized me into wanting to see!
Hi Roberta
DeleteHa! Even after all this time I still find myself somewhat surprised when someone expresses a taste in movies similar to my own.
Reading your comments about the film reminds me that there was once a time I too felt the same about Nancy Kelly's performance. I've seen the film so many times I think I fail to appreciate some of those aspects of her performance that really work. Your description of what you like about her is nicely detailed and insightful.
I also like what you say about understanding, as a child, Rhoda's amorality. The level of her self-interest is right in line with what is common among children. Rhoda has just taken the selfishness of an only-child to homicidal levels.
I love that you are still able to retain your youthful reaction to this film, and have not allowed it to so completely slide into camp.
It is great having parents who are film buffs (in my case, a film buff older sister) because they expose us to so many movies we might not have ever taken it upon ourselves to seek out.
Fun to know too that you and your sister did what I'm now sure a great many young film fans do, which is act out scenes and share inside joke quotes and references.
Glad you enjoyed the post and very happy to have your family memories of the movie (and kindertrauma) as part of our comments section!
Ken!
ReplyDeleteThere's a soapy kinda male "Bad Seed" version...:
If you can take a look at Abner Biberman's "Flood Tide" (1958) with British Michel Ray as the 'Little Darling', German Cornell Borchers as the loving mother and George Nader as the guy who tries to get things right...
Richard...what an impressive gift you have for finding intriguing obscurities! And such treasures, too. I looked at clips from this and it appears to be right up my alley. I mean, what a bizarre plot! Thank you, again!
ReplyDeleteHey Ken,
ReplyDelete(I'm in the midst of a re-read of many of your past posts this weekend.) :)
When I was 13, I started reading plays. I had seen "Sleuth" on TV and loved it so much that I wanted to read the original script and that was the catalyst for my life long enthusiasm for play reading. "Bad Seed" was in the anthology where I found "Sleuth" and I read that as well. It creeped me out - the idea of a child psychopath in the banal and "safe" environment of a friendly neighborhood like the one I was living in and not an urban wasteland or far-flung exotic locale was a shocking concept to me at the time. And, as you mentioned above, the play ended with the kid getting away with it!
One can see why a Hollywood version would want a much tamer ending - but having Rhoda pretty much "blow up real good" by lightning is hilarious overkill. I forgot when I first got around to seeing this movie version (it was long after I had read the play), but I know I was sitting there with mouth agape like the theater-goers in "The Producers."
I've always wondered whether the curtain call bit where Kelly spanks McCormick was also done during the actual Broadway curtain call.
Mark R.Y.
Hi Mark
DeleteThat's very interesting how you developed an interest in reading plays. Movies inspired me to read plays as a youngster as well. The theater section of the local library always had several of those "The Best Plays of..." collections, and it was fascinating to read and let my imagination create all these plays I wasn't likely to ever see.
I didn't read the play version of THE BAD SEED until I was an adult, but I was fascinated by the small changes and minor opening up the film did.
I laughed imagining what it must have been like for you to see the film version for the first time. It was so startling to me as a child, I think I was disappointed that the theater version didn't end that way.
And that's an interesting question you pose about the stage production...whether that whole curtain call spanking might have been lifted from the theatrical run. It never occured to me!
Certainly audiences in those days would have welcomed a bit of release, for as you mentioned, the idea of a child psychopath was unprecedented. Thanks for this comment and for re-visiting a past post or two. I appreciate it!
Yes, "The Best Plays of 1976-1977," "1981-1982," "1964-1965" and so on. I devoured those like crazy from the age 13 to...uh, still to this day. What a detailed exploration of each New York theater season those books are!
DeleteWatched the movie last night for the first time in many years. It has, I think, some of the most awkward exposition in the history of drama. All of the scenes with Evelyn Venable ("It's the effusive landlady from upstairs!" and Christine's father are just painful to listen to. I love the fact that the father is prepared to let his daughter die without revealing that she's the child of a notorious serial killer ( "It won't change anything."). Venable played pretty much the same part in The Night of the Hunter and she was brilliant. In this movie I wanted her to get shoved off the roof in the first scene.
ReplyDeleteI also wish Eileen Heckart had been allowed to play the second scene sober. To have Rhoda's main accuser putting the pieces together would have made the murder/suicide all the more inevitable and given Heckart something more to play than a repeat of the exact same drunk scene.
Finally, the lightning bolt at the end is hilarious, but they could have kept the original ending and still have Rhoda get her comeuppance by having Christine leave a suicide note with the medal for her husband. He has a few anguished moments, picks up the phone to call the police when Rhoda walks into the room. He pauses for a moment, tells Christine he wants her to play the piano for him, and while she's banging out Claire de la Lune one more time, he starts talking to the police chief...
Hello Kip
DeleteIt's always a kick reading about what particular elements of a dated film stand out for someone who hasn't seen the movie for some time. Your noting of the clumsy, exposition-filled dialogue aptly tops the list, as is the curious notion of adoptions always being treated as a big, dark secret a parent is willing to take to their grave if they can (The Ann Blyth movie "Our Very Own" comes to mind).
And I wholly agree about Eileen Heckart's "encore" drunk scene. It really does feel like the same scene done twice.
The struck by lightning ending is a hoot, but it plays better in my mind each time I’m confronted with anything other than the play’s original ending.
I think your idea is dramatically intriguing, dramatically well-structured (the twist of her piano playing covering her OWN undoing is a nice touch) and suspenseful. But if this were a story meeting, the one stalling point would be the question of if a doting father (blind to Rhodas faults) would ever call the cops on his daughter (maybe a psych hospital), and how it would play after the scene in which Rhoda begs her mother "Don't let them hurt me" concerning her fear of being arrested or taken away.
I think it was smart for the filmmakers to consider (especially back in the 50s) that no parent they hope to depict as sympathetic could participate in the harming of their own child…even a homicidal child
So, for me anyway, allowing "Divine Intervention" serve the moral needs of the Production Code get the parents off the hook and saves viewers from having to grapple with the moral messiness of imagining what would be the humane way of dealing with a child who poses a threat, but (given the film's it's-all-in-the-genes plot device) is not really responsible for her actions.
I very much enjoyed reading your observations and well-considered thoughts on THE BAD SEED.Thank you for reading this post and for taking the time to contribute. Cheers!
Why was Frank Cady "snubbed" from the cast call at the end of the movie. He certainly had more lines than Bill Hopper
ReplyDeleteThat's right! He deserved to be there. My first thought was "bad agent"...it's hard to think at least they didn't at least film a curtain call for Cady. His absence is so conspicuous.
DeleteThat's a great question for someone to ask McCormack at one of those BAD SEED Q & As she does (Watch the reason behind it be something benign like the day they filmed it he was unavailable).