The Bad Seed 1956

Seeing the film the other night for the first time in years, the first thing I thought was that time did not improve this stage bound adaptation that was high pitched and hysterical. It’s a camp delight for sure with all the performances over the top and delicious. Shot on the back lot of Warner Bros in black and and directed by Mervyn LeRoy whose film career goes back to 1927 and who made many classics including “Little Caesar”, “I Am A Fugitive From A chain Gang” & “Gold Diggers of 1933”. He was also a producer at M.G.M during its hey day in the 30’s and 40’s  and is most famous for producing and uncredited for directing The Wizard of Oz.   Mervyn directed right up to the mid 60’s making Esther Williams musicals along with big budget biblical epics and Gypsy. An impressive Hollywood character for sure.  

The plot is remarkable in its pushiness and craziness and is filled with pop psychology, ideas about heredity, DNA, adoption and murdering serial moms along with this little 10 year old brat with pigtails knocking off anyone who gets in her way with what she wants. Played by our Patty with scary goodness, and get a load of the looks she gives with those eyes. Nancy Kelly who plays her mother had a minor film career early on doing mostly B movies including “Murder In The Music Hall”, “Song of The Sarong” and “Tarzan’s Desert Mystery” and spent most of her acting time in television and the Theatre. Her most famous role was in The Bad Seed  which she won a Tony award for and also got herself an Oscar nomination for repeating her performance for the film.  She had a nice voice and was attractive in the role in which she pretty much bounces off the walls and works her way up to a nervous breakdown. No one can blame her, after all her daughter is a serial killer. This was serious stuff back in the 50’s and it can still  send shock waves up and down an audience’s spine.  Most of the cast from the play repeated their performances including Henry Jones as the hapless and annoying handy man, Evelyn Varden as the landlady of the apartment house where Nancy, Patty and her often missing army husband live, and Eileen Heckart as the mother of one of Patty’s victims. She is startling from the minute she makes her impressive clumsy drunken entrance and has only two taking no prisoner scenes, which got her a supporting actress Oscar nomination. The ending is appropriate for 50’s audiences considering all of the shock and awe that came before it, but the tacked on cast taking bows is very tacky and the spanking of McCormick by Kelly is embarrassing, and is a cop out that was meant to assure movie goers that it was only a movie.  With a score by by Alex North and cinematography by Hal Rosson who received an Oscar nomination in the black and white cinematography category.