The Bad Seed (1956 film)
| The Bad Seed | |
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| Directed by | Mervyn LeRoy |
| Produced by | Mervyn LeRoy |
| Screenplay by | John Lee Mahin |
| Based on |
The Bad Seed by Maxwell Anderson The Bad Seed by William March |
| Starring |
Nancy Kelly William Hopper Patty McCormack Henry Jones Eileen Heckart Evelyn Varden |
| Music by | Alex North |
| Cinematography | Harold Rosson |
| Edited by | Warren Low |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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Release date
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Running time
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129 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1 million |
| Box office | $4.1 million (rentals) |
The Bad Seed is a 1956 American horror-thriller film with elements of film noir directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring 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. The play was adapted by John Lee Mahin for the screenplay of the film.
On her piano, eight-year-old Rhoda Penmark (Patty McCormack) plays the French song "Au clair de la lune", while her father (William Hopper) says his goodbyes to her and his wife, Christine (Nancy Kelly), as he goes away on military duty. Their neighbor and landlord, Monica Breedlove (Evelyn Varden), comes in with a present for Rhoda – a locket. Rhoda, looking pristine and proper in her perfect pinafore dress and long, blonde pigtails, thanks Monica for the gift. She then tap dances on the hard floor. Monica notices Rhoda's tap shoes, and Rhoda says that adding the metal taps to the shoes was her own idea. They then discuss a penmanship medal competition that Rhoda lost to her schoolmate, Claude Daigle; Monica speaks of it as a childish disappointment, but Rhoda's face darkens with fury. Christine and Rhoda leave for the school picnic at a nearby lake.
Later, Christine is having lunch with Monica and friends when they learn on the radio that a child has drowned in the lake where Rhoda's school was having their picnic. Christine worries that the drowned child could be her daughter, but a follow-up report indicates that it was Rhoda's schoolmate, Claude, the penmanship winner. Relieved that Rhoda is alive, Christine worries that her daughter might be traumatized by seeing the boy’s corpse. When Rhoda returns, however, she is unfazed by the incident and goes about her daily activities.
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