The Bad Seed Video

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starring: Nancy Kelly, Patricia McCormack directed by: Mervyn LeRoy

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Average Rating: Rating: - My Favorite Horror Movie of all Time I personally feel that this is one of the greatest horror movie made. Forget all of that blood and guts and popping out of the bushes to scare people. That fear only lasts for a second...This movie plays with your mind and lasts forever. Nothing is scarier than polite Miss Rhoda Penmark. This movie contains brilliant direction and an amazing cast. Many people feel that the acting is overdone and that they act like they are still in the stage version, entertaining an audience in a theater but that is the way it was meant to be made. Making it look like a regular movie would ruin the essence of the evil, 8-year old killer. Nancy Kelly is truly amazing as Christine. Her "breakdown" scenes are heart wrenching and done very well. She is most-natural and does a wonderful job in playing a woman going through the delemma of whether or not she should hate or love her daughter. Her performance is beautiful, "She killed him! But she's my little girl...and I love her!". The highlight of her acting is when Rhoda just kills one of her victims (I won't say who) and Rhoda is playing the song she always plays on the piano faster and faster and faster. It is such and amazing scene. She deserved the Tony she won during the play and the Oscar nomination. Now, there is Patty McCormack who is definatly chilling in this role. Her perfect smile is just as scary as her evil ways. When she describes the way she killed the little boy I always shudder ,"But he told me that he was going to tell on me...SO I HIT HIM WITH MY SHOES AGAIN!! I hit him harder that time." After the scene where she confesses her murders and Christine tells Rhoda to throw her shoes down the incinerator, the shot of Rhoda's sillouette tossisng the shoes while Christine just sits in the backround and watches with fear, as Rhoda smiles, brings chills down my spine. Her acting gets an A+ and she also deserved the Oscar nomination as well as Kelly. Another, nominated for an Oscar for her role, was Eileen Heckart for the role of (which I think is one of the greatest characters in theatrical history)Mrs. Dagel..the grieving mother of one of Rhoda's vicitms. Although only appearing in two scenes, she makes just as big of an impact as Christine and Rhoda do. Heckart is brilliant in the role and it would be almost imposible to find someone who could do as good of a job as she did. Her beautiful monolougues are truly amazing and heartfelt. Other great performances are that of Henry Jones, the creepy Leroy who is the only one who realizes that Rhoda is evil, Evelyn Varden, as the housekeeper, Monica, who spoils Rhoda terribly, Miss Fern (I can't quite think of her name), as the teacher at The Fern School, and Christine's father (I can't think of his name now either), who is a former mystery writer with a big secret that he is keeping from Christine, which has to do with why Rhoda is a bad seed, something inside of Christine that she passed down to her daughter. There is a lot of controversy over the ending curtain call and the happy spank that Christine lays on Rhoda. I feel that the curtain call and spanking gives the audience a sese of relief since the movie is so disturbing. I reccomend this movie to everyone that can handle a plot that is different and disturbing. Don't blame Rhoda for her murderous acts. It isn't her falt, she is just a bad seed. Rating: - Why would I tell and get killed? This movie is simply a masterpiece. There are no better words to describe it. The chilling morbidity of Rhoda Penmark, and the emotional ringer Christine goes through...it is wonderful! I am a fourteen year old girl who doesn't like the Varsity Blues and Scream movies of my generation, I love the Bad Seed. Most of my friends, however, have never heard of it and don't want to see it. I try to explain to them what a wonderful movie it is, but most of them just don't care. All my generation has grown up seeing slasher films. None of them can truly appreciate The Shining, Psycho, or the elusive simplicity of the Bad Seed. I have seen it many times and know it word for word. It's not a stupid slasher film, or even just a simple murder mystery. It is a solid psycological thriller. I adore it. I love LeRoy and his wonderful ability to be droll, I love Monica and her "I know everything" frame of mind, I love everything about the movie! My dream is to be in the play. Who knows? It could happen... :c) Rating: - SWEET AND DEADLY LITTLE MISS PENMARK. Although it's very "stagey", this movie is creepy in that the main character is a picture perfect little girl with blond pigtails. Rhoda apparently is the Bad Seed of the title; she inherited her traits from her mother's people. The mother (Nancy Kelley) was adopted -which she found out when she bluntly asked her esteemed teacher-father. She had a dream of pippens falling from trees and someone yelling at her in German. These were the murderous people whence she came. Patty McCormick played Rhoda on stage and her characterization is truly chilling and Eileen Heckhart does her usual great job as the alcoholic mother of the unfortunate little boy, Claude. Whatever ineptness the film does have is strangely irrellevent - excepting the embarassing curtain call!

The Bad Seed Video

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