The Bad Seed (1956)

Little 8 years old Rhoda Penmark (Patty McCormack) has bitched and killed her way into my heart! "The Bad Seed" is about our gal Rhoda (working pigtails, a pinafore skirt and shiny patent leather shoes in one outfit!) who has no sense of right or wrong but knows how to bewitch everyone around her to get what she wants. And if not... let's say she finds a way to convince you! Her mother (Nancy Kelly) starts suspecting that something is wrong with her little angel. Boy is she in for a treat!

I will kill you while wearing my fabulous sunglasses!

The movie is based on a Broadway play by James Maxwell Anderson, which again is based on a novel written by William March. The reduced sets and the few characters are directly adapted from the Broadway play. I think this works surprisingly good as it puts the focus more on the great interplay between Rhoda and her mother. I have to admit that most of the time I'm annoyed by child actors because.... well they can't act! Not so our dear Patty, she does a great job playing the child from hell and it seems like she has a lot of fun doing so! Leroy (Henry Jones) the lazy janitor is another great character and the only one mistrusting our little Miss Sunshine right from the start. Watching him and Rhoda having their occasional bitch fights is hilarious!

Leroy: You ask me and I say you don't even feel sorry for what happened to that little boy.
Rhoda: Why should I feel sorry? It was Claude Daigle who got drowned, not me!

The Bad Seed" is a cult classic you must watch! At times campy... Well actually most of the time, the movie manages to stay absorbing even through some of the longer talk sequences (this is no X-Men movie kiddies... no music video cuts whatsoever!).
There has been a remake produced for television in 1985 and I remember seeing it a long time ago. It wasn't bad either, but you just can't beat Patty McCormacks performance. Another thing I liked about the original one is the fact that we never really see Rhoda comitting her crimes, which in my opinion just strengthens the tension. The remake however shows the murder and therefore kind of loses some of the appeal the story had. As far as I know there is another remake planned directed by Eli Roth ("Hostel"). Rhoda gone torture porn? I don't know...

Don't mess with me Eli Roth!!!!

Attention: Spoiler! Spoiler! Spoiler! Spoiler! Spoiler! Spoiler! Spoiler! Spoiler! Spoiler! Spoiler!

Produced during the height of the Hays Code the original film demanded a "moral" ending. Unlike the one in the book Rhoda was not allowed to get away with her evil doings. The director Mervyn LeRoy found a "glamouros" way to get rid of the evil brat by letting god fry her with lightning... How toasting an 8 year old girl seems more "moral" is beyond me. Whatever! Rhoda will always have a special place in me heart! And you should love her too... Otherwise she will give you "a basket full of hugs"! Ouch!