The Bad Seed

For little Rhoda, murder is child's play.
The Bad Seed
24K ratings
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Format:  DVD
item number:  YVH6
Brand New

DVD Details

  • Commentary by Patty McCormack and Charles Busch
  • New Making-Of Documentary Enfant Terrible: A Conversation with Patty McCormack
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Subtitles in English, French & Spanish
  • Rated: Not Rated
  • Closed captioning available
  • Run Time: 2 hours, 9 minutes
  • Video: Black & White
  • Encoding: Region 1 (USA & Canada)
  • Released: August 10, 2004
  • Originally Released: 1956
  • Label: Warner Home Video

Performers, Cast and Crew:

Starring
Performer: , , , , , &
Directed by
Screenwriting by
Original story by
Composition by
Director of Photography:

Entertainment Reviews:

Fresh63%

TOMATOMETER
Total Count: 27

Upright83%

AUDIENCE SCORE
User Ratings: 8,620
This melodrama about a child with an inbred talent for homicide is pretty unpleasant stuff on its own. Full Review
Variety
Oct 23, 2008
Rating: 3/4 -- The dark drama that launched a genre of evil-kid movies. [Blu-ray] Full Review
Groucho Reviews
Oct 14, 2011
[The film] offers a classy dose of macabre melodrama...
Premiere
Jul 1, 2004
Rating: 8/10 -- The 'secret' villain is the missing father - or we should say, the mother for trying to child-rear by herself ... The bad seed is dead - but single parents, be warned.
Film Threat
Oct 31, 2011
[C]hilling...
Los Angeles Times
Aug 8, 2004
1956 was way too soon for an unfettered treatment of the central premise. Full Review
Time Out
Jan 26, 2006
Rating: 5/10 -- ...it's hard now to see what all the fuss was about. Full Review
Movie Metropolis
Oct 1, 2011

Description by OLDIES.com:

Rhoda Penmark (Patty McCormack) is a well-mannered 8-year-old little lady - and an efficient, unfeeling killer. And in this spellbinding chronicle of evil, whatever Rhoda wants, she ruthlessly gets. Her mother Christine (Nancy Kelly), reluctantly made to see her offspring's moral blindness at work, is heartrendingly torn between the love for the child she bore and grief for Rhoda's victims.

From Maxwell Anderson's stage hit, The Bad Seed ticks like a time bomb under the skillful direction of Mervyn LeRoy, who cast several Broadway production originals, including Kelly (recreating the role that won her a Tony), McCormack and Eileen Heckart. Their harrowing performances captured three of this suspenseful movie's four Academy Award nominations - and make this thriller one of the great ones.

Product Description:

The plot of William March's successful novel was tailor made for Hollywood. Combined with beautiful black-and-white photography and fabulous performances, THE BAD SEED is one of the eeriest films of the 20th century. The scientifically dubious theory behind the title is that an evil disposition can be an inherited trait. Patty McCormack plays Rhoda Penmark, a seemingly sweet, beautiful, smart grade school girl who is in attendance at a school picnic in which a classmate dies. No one suspects that the accident was the result of murder except for Rhoda's apartment building janitor, a simpleton named LeRoy (Henry Jones). But when Rhoda's mother, Christine Penmark (Nancy Kelly), finds out that her real mother is a cold-blooded killer, she begins to suspect her own daughter. Her fears of what Rhoda might do conflict with her protective instincts as a mother, forcing Christina to make terrible decisions--decisions that themselves might be too late.

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Movie Lovers' Ratings & Reviews:

Customer Rating:
Based on 24551 ratings.
Write an online review to share your thoughts with other customers.
Very good movie. Movie Lover: from Jackson, TN -- June, 26, 2010

I love this movie. I even brought it on dvd. She seems like a angel, but she's really the devil's daughter. This movie will keep you on the end of your seat. You won't know what she will do next. She makes the little boy in the movie," The good Son", look like a alter boy. It's creepy! Take a chance and buy, or rent it. It's a very movie.


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Product Info

  • Sales Rank: 7,127
  • UPC: 085393352424
  • Shipping Weight: 0.25/lbs (approx)
  • International Shipping: 1 item

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