"The Bad Seed" A 1956 psychological horror-thriller that still stuns audiences today

A true classic

The Bad Seed is a black and white 1956 American psychological horror-thriller film. It stars Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack, Henry Jones, and Eileen Heckart. The film is based upon the 1954 play of the same name by Maxwell Anderson, which in turn is based upon William March's 1954 novel The Bad Seed. Patty McCormick portrays eight-year-old Rhoda who has blonde pigtails and is always wearing a dress and patent leather shoes. She comes across as sugar and spice but she is definitely not everything nice. Rhoda becomes enraged when a classmate named Claude wins a medal that she believes she deserves and this is the beginning of all the trouble.

During a class picnic, Claude falls off a pier and drowns. Rhoda's mother suspects she had something to do with the boy's death when she finds his medal in her daughter's things. Rhoda lies and says the boy gave the medal to her, but her mother knows that this is not true. During the course of the movie, Rhoda's mom seems helpless in her inability to stop her daughter from committing crimes. During this kind of sort of horror flick there is a comedic air. At the most inopportune times, Rhoda begins playing the French tune, Au Claire de la Lune.

Midway through the movie the handyman Leroy Jessup. (Henry Jones) tell young Rhoda that he knows that she killed her classmate Claude and he has the shoes she was wearing as proof at the pier where the incident took place. He threatens to turn her in, to the authorities but the demon seed has other plans. Later as Rhoda is playing Au Clare de la Lune very slowly on the piano, her mother Christine is talking with the landlord, Monica. The two women hear screaming and see smoke and go to the window. Several men have shown up and go to the cellar door which is locked. Leroy who is on fire runs out down the street and dies.

Everyone believes he went to sleep while smoking but Rhoda's mom knows better. She begins screaming and crying and trying to explain to Monica, who does not understand. As the two women are talking, Rhoda begins playing her tune louder and faster as if attempting to drown 0ut all the noise. It's really quite annoying and eventually, Christine screams for her daughter to stop. That night, in a sugary sweet voice Rhoda tells her mother that Leroy had evidence and was going to have her put in jail. Christine hugs her daughter and agrees that she should not be locked away. Just before bedtime, Christine gives Rhoda a handful of vitamins from a bottle that Monica had given her earlier.

As Rhoda lies sleeping Christine shoots herself and ends up hospitalized. In the play Rhoda's mother dies from the gunshot wound. This was changed because the movie execs wanted a different outcome where the killer got what was coming to her. Rhoda's dad who was out of town on business returns to town and Christine calls him from the hospital to appologize. That night, when Rhoda's dad thinks she is asleep, she puts on a raincoat and hat then gets an umbrella and goes walking. It's pouring rain, thundering, and lightning. The music sounds frightening and the sky looks really ominous. The movie being in black and white only adds to the element of suspense. Rhoda gets to the end of the peer and reaches down to get the shoes she was wearing when she pushed Claude into the water.

At that moment there is a crack of thunder and lightning strikes the pier. The front part of it where the girl is standing disappears in a cloud of smoke. This is where the movie ends as the creepy music reaches a crescendo. Immediately after, there is a disclaimer about the harsh ending with the bad seed getting what many felt she deserved. The next scene has each of the main cast members walk out to the camera and smile or bow to the audience. The entire thing ends on a playful note as Nacy Kelly takes Patty McCormick over her knee and laughs as she spanks her. This was obviously the manner in which the writers and producers tried to soften what had just transpired.

For 1956 this was quite a shocking film and Patty McCormick says that her colleagues who are seeing it for the first time are stunned by The Bad Seed today. The element of suspense is what keeps things going as well as fact that no one ever sees Rhoda commit murder. Everything is implied which leaves much to the imagination. Leroy's screams as he is burning are horrendous and send chills up the spine. If you enjoy psychological thrillers that are filled with suspense and leave much to the imagination, I suggest you watch The Bad Seed.