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Sunday, September 24, 2006

38. THE BAD SEED

38. THE BAD SEED
(1956)
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy

Children can be nasty, can't they? Even seemingly sweet kids can be shockingly cruel to other children and, as we find out in "The Bad Seed", sometimes they can be dangerous to full grown adults as well. The notion that a kid can be born wicked is not a pleasant one for parents to consider but the truth is that children have been responsible for some ghastly crimes. How young is too young to be a sociopath? Little Rhoda Penmark (Patty McCormack) is eight years old and when our story begins she's already killed at least once. "The Bad Seed" was first a novel and then it was adapted to the stage before being turned into this esteemed film version. Visually the movie is very simple and more often than not just seems like a taped version of a theatrical performance what with it's static camera shots, a plot driven almost entirely by dialogue and only a couple basic sets. Still, it's strength is it's story and the marvelously sinister/sweet performance by the young McCormack (who had also played the pig-tailed killer in the stage version). Especially delightful are the exchanges she has with creepy caretaker LeRoy (played with greasy acumen by Henry Jones) who makes the mistake of finding out too much about the little girl's crimes and gets burned alive by her as a result. I think part of my ongoing fondness for this movie is that it was released in the ultra-conservative family value 1950's and it shook people up. Shaking people up is important, after all, especially when they've been lulled into suburban complacency. Since "The Bad Seed" there have been many evil children movies but this, friends and nervous parents, is the original.

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