The Bad Seed (1956)

Christine Penmark thought she had the perfect daughter. She is always polite, shows affection well and always considerate of others. But after her daughter comes in 2nd for a penmanship award, the truth starts to come out. The winner of the award, Claude Daigle is soon drowned in a lake and Rhoda is the last living person to see him alive. Christine can’t believe her ears when the school officials blame her daughter for the death but soon Christine starts to see the truth. But the truth becomes so clear to Christine she can’t believe her daughter murdered because of her environment. The parents never did anything wrong nor did they put Rhoda into any contact with danger. So why did Rhoda kill? Could it be related to heredity? Could Christine be unconsciously responsible for her daughter’s actions?           Overall: If there is one thing this film is known for, it’s the acting by the little girl. She did a tremendous job, without a doubt. The film though suffers from being entirely too long and spending way too much time debating anthropology and psychology. It’s ok to have a few minutes of discussion of whether murderous impulses are caused by environment or bad genes, but an hour?????? It’s really a decent film but just entirely too long. If I were you, I’d turn the film off after the hospital scene. I’m trying to avoid giving too much away but frankly the actual ending of the film is abysmal. But it wasn’t because they didn’t try for a real ending. The book ends as the film should end but given the morality codes at work in 1956, there was only one way the film would be allowed to end so to allow the film to be released the shot what they had to. A shame.           Comparison: The Omen meets Child’s Play

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