Synopsis
Rhoda (Patty McCormack) is a well-mannered 8-year-old little lady – and an efficient, unfeeling killer. And in this spellbinding chronicle of evil, whatever Rhoda wants, she ruthlessly gets. Her mother Christine (Nancy Kelly), reluctantly made to see her child’s moral blindness at work, is heartrendingly torn between mother love and grief for Rhoda’s victims.
The creepy thing about this story is that it starts off so darn innocent. You have a lovely little girl who has two very stereotypical 50s parents. Her mom, Christine (played by Nancy Kelly) is a loving housewife. Her father, Colonel Kenneth Penmark (played by William Hopper) is a well-groomed, loving father and devoted husband. Literally, you’re a couple of kids shy of The Donna Reed Show. As soon as you get comfortable with the family and the situation then BAM! The sunlight turns to dark clouds, and you begin to see what Rhoda really is, which is a very methodical killer. It’s all put together quite well, as the build up to the slow, then sudden reveal is done with meticulous care.
Director Mervyn LeRoy’s ability to set up the situation, and suck the audience into the same web as everyone else in the film is in when it comes to Rhoda, is breathtaking. You honestly can’t see how this innocent blonde girl is capable of all the horrendous acts being thrown at her. He puts together the perfect cast to surround Patty McCormack’s character, and John Lee Mahin’s screenplay to ensure that the audience is continually fighting itself on what to do about this ‘bad seed’.
LeRoy’s vision was helped by Maxwell Anderson’s stage play by the same name. Anderson put together Rhoda’s character like a doll maker handcrafts the perfect doll. He made sure that she was endearing, sweet and most of all trustworthy — until the murders start rolling in. Outside of the main character, you can also tell that Anderson’s play had heavy influence on the film version. The film takes a page from Anderson’s play with limited locations, lots of back and forth dialogue, and fantastic character development. For example, there is a heavy amount of clever dialogue, especially between Rhoda and Leroy Jessup (played by Henry Jones), the handyman who is the only one who knows what Rhoda is in the film. Generally, scripts don’t dabble too much in dialogue which is made up through onscreen visuals. The Bad Seed goes against that protocol, which shows you how much influence was taken from the play.
The only complaint I have about this movie is the incredible amount of overacting from Nancy Kelly and several other characters outside of Patty McCormack’s Rhoda. There were times where they’re overacting actually hurt the film a little bit. Again, I realize this was by nature a play, but it was goofy at times thanks to the overacting.
With that said, let’s get back to the positives of the film.
At the end of The Bad Seed there is a beautiful twist, something that was uncommon for this time period in movies. While I won’t give it away, it’s memorable and makes The Bad Seed good enough to be called one of the greater terror/suspense/thrillers during this time period in film history. Disturbing and unusual, the film really does deliver a web of terror through one little girl.
Shifting gears a bit, let’s talk about the Blu-ray.
The visuals for this 1956 suspense/terror/thriller are much better than its DVD counterpart. I’ve only seen about 3-4 films on Blu-ray and this one is somewhere in the middle in terms of high quality transfer. While there are some fantastic scenes (mostly outside) that make the black and white picture really shine, such as the park footage before Rhoda takes her first victim, the majority of the film is plagued by graininess. This problem of graininess can be probably be credited to bad lighting at the time, as it only shows up during soundstage scenes that suffer from heavy shadows (and dark rooms). Regardless, the footage is still better than the film or the DVD versions. There’s enough ‘clean’ in this Blu-ray to say that it’s been transferred well. It’s no Mutiny on the Bounty, which looked superb on Blu-ray, but again it’s much better than the original 2004 DVD release. As for the sound, it’s still in mono, but it’s a DTS-HD mastering.
As for the features, you get some very interesting commentary from Patty McCormack and Charles Busch, a great featurette called Enfant Terrible: A Conversation with Patty McCormack (she’s got a lot to say) and a theatrical trailer. Not bad for a Blu-ray that’s only $19.98.