Average Rating: 
Rating:  - I've seen some mean little gals in my time...
...but you're the meanest! These words were spoken by LeRoy, the handyman, concerning the devilish 8-year-old Rhoda Penmark: murderer and penmanship champion wannabe. And quite possibly the inspiration for Little House On the Prairie's Nellie Oleson. Of course, that's just my own opinion. This little girl is mean indeed! She's about as mean as they come. After coming home from a school picnic in which her classmate has mysteriously drowned, Rhoda decides it's the perfect time for a tasty peanut butter sandwich and an enjoyable skate in the warm sunshine. When LeRoy asks her how she can possibly be enjoying herself at such a time, she replies, "Why should I feel sorry? It was Claude Dagel that got drowned, not me!" Don't expect any top-notch performances from this movie. Most of the acting is way overdone, passing the characters off more as mere caricatures. But this was a famous play before it was a famous movie (and a famous novel before either of those two), and, as I understand it, most of (if not all) the actors from the play were used in the movie as well. There are a few good performances, like Mrs. Dagel, LeRoy, and at times even you-know-who. You-know-who is, of course, Rhoda Penmark, the only daughter of Colonel and Mrs. Penmark, and the center of the story. Why is she referred to as "the Bad Seed"? Well, that expression in this film refers to a child who is born without a conscience, or without the ability to decipher between right and wrong; a child who is incapable of feeling any kind of remorse. And that's our girl! With Dad away on military business, Mom is left alone to raise up Rhoda in the way she ought to go, so that when she's older she will not depart from it (to use a Biblical reference). But little by little, one by one, the hints of Rhoda's foul play start to close in on her mother. But by the time Mom finds out about the evil lurking beneath Rhoda's disarming smile and innocent disposition it may be too late to redeem her daughter. By then Mom might be in need of her own redemption. I've criticized the acting, I have no other complaints against this film. The storyline is never dull and never boring. Even if you're sharp enough to predict the outcome, you'll still enjoy the ride. From the very beginning, the story builds and builds into what finally becomes a suspenseful climax. (And if you can appreciate a little dark humor, you'll get some of that too.)
Rating:  - SWEET AND DEADLY LITTLE MISS PENMARK.
Although it's very "stagey", this movie is creepy in that the main character is a picture perfect little girl with blond pigtails. Rhoda apparently is the Bad Seed of the title; she inherited her traits from her mother's people. The mother (Nancy Kelley) was adopted -which she found out when she bluntly asked her esteemed teacher-father. She had a dream of pippens falling from trees and someone yelling at her in German. These were the murderous people whence she came. Patty McCormick played Rhoda on stage and her characterization is truly chilling and Eileen Heckhart does her usual great job as the alcoholic mother of the unfortunate little boy, Claude. Whatever ineptness the film does have is strangely irrellevent - excepting the embarassing curtain call!
Rating: - The Bad Seed - Great Performances and Fun Camp!
If you want to see a movie that is marvelously acted by ALL cast members, see this one! Rhoda, played by Patricia McCormack, is absolutely so believable as a child without any understanding of the value of human life. She kills without any remorse and shows this "void" in her several times throughout the movie to the shock of everyone. Nancy Kelly, the mother, is fabulous, too. Her performance when she realizes that Rhoda has "done it again" to the groundskeeper, LerRoy, is just a RIOT, and also very convincing at that.The understated REAL STAR of this show is Eileen Heckart as the grieving drunken mother of a murdered child (done by Rhoda, of course!) If you want to see acting like you've never seen before, just watch this show for the 2 marvelous scenes that she appears in. I have watched this movie again and again just to see her in all her glory! You can't beat this one for the fun of watching all the great actors and for its campy 50's period feel.
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