In what might be a feeble attempt to appear legitimate, I decided to watch and review The Bad Seed, a classic psychological thriller from 1956. Mervyn LeRoy (Little Caesar and Gypsy) handles the directing duties here which comes as a bit of a surprise as this isn’t something I would expect from LeRoy. Starring is Nancy Kelly (Jesse James and Frontier Marshall) as Christine and Patty McCormack (The Master and Frost/Nixon) as Rhoda a mother and her eight-year-old daughter. Christine loves her daughter Ronda but she discovers her little girl just might be a murderer.
Also appearing as Leroy Jessup, the family gardener, is Henry Jones (Vertigo and 9 To 5) who constantly picks on Ronda and features in some of the most uncomfortable scenes in the film. I’m also going to mention Paul Fix (El Dorado and Night of the Lepus) who portrays Christine’s father Richard Bravo. Richard gives Christine information that leads her to believe that her daughter is a killer even more than she did before. What might be the biggest surprise in the film however is the role of Hortense Daigle as portrayed by Eileen Heckart. Mrs. Daigle is the mother of a little boy who drowns in a lake while on a school picnic. Heckart won a Golden Globe award for best supporting actress.
The Bad Seed never really makes you wonder if little Ronda is in fact the killer or not. She is, for sure. But she’s such a cute little pig tailed killer. Will that be enough to allow her to get away with murder? Now I mentioned earlier that Heckart won a Golden Globe, but she was also nominated for an Academy Award as well. Also nominated was Nancy Kelly for best actress and McCormack was nominated for supporting actress along with Heckart. Harold Rossom was also nominated for cinematography. The Bad Seed was a box office as well as a critical success mostly due to the fact that there was nothing else like it before. A psychopathic child committing murder? Unheard of! I will go three and a half pairs of tap shoes out of five for a movie that not only walked a fine line between what was allowed and what wasn’t but was also years ahead of it’s time.
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