Nature brought her here, and nature took her away!
DIRECTOR: Mervyn Le Roy
When Mervyn LeRoy first saw Maxwell Anderson’s play The Bad Seed, he instructed screenwriter John Lee Mahin to adapt it with minimal changes. His main task became toning down the performances—no small feat, given that the central character is Rhoda Penmark, a little girl in a pinafore dress and blonde pigtails who embodies pure, unblinking evil.
LeRoy brought most of the Broadway cast to the screen intact: Nancy Kelly (Oscar‑nominated for Best Actress) as Christine Penmark, the mother slowly unraveling as she realizes the truth about her daughter; Patty McCormack (Best Supporting Actress nominee) as Rhoda, the eight‑year‑old sociopath who murders her classmate Claude Daigle for winning the penmanship medal she believes is rightfully hers; William Hopper as Col. Kenneth Penmark, Rhoda’s father, conveniently away for most of the film; Eileen Heckart (Best Supporting Actress nominee) as Hortense Daigle, Claude’s grief‑stricken, alcohol‑soaked mother; Frank Cady as Henry Daigle; Henry Jones as Leroy Jessup, the caretaker who knows too much; Evelyn Varden as Monica Breedlove, the neighbor who spoils Rhoda; and Paul Fix as Christine’s father and Rhoda’s grandfather. The film preserves the play’s theatrical intensity, for better and for campier.
In many ways, The Bad Seed is a quintessential gay‑movie experience. It runs cartwheels around every definition of camp outlined by Susan Sontag. The film is a high‑wire act for both director and actors, and Nancy Kelly is ON from the first frame to the last straddling the twin minefields of camp and drama and somehow managing to deliver both simultaneously. Her performance directly influenced later genre classics such as Robert Aldrich’s Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and Brian De Palma’s Carrie.
And then there is Patty McCormack, whose sweet‑as‑pie killer has given the queer lexicon immortal lines like Give me those shoes—they’re mine.
How do we know that Little Claude Daigle was gay?
- He won a medal for best penmanship.
- He let a girl beat him up.
- He let a girl beat him up a second time.
Two performances, however, play as straight drama: Eileen Heckart, heartbreaking in both of her big scenes as the dead boy’s mother, and Henry Jones, quietly devastating as the simple caretaker who knows Rhoda’s secret and pays dearly for it. Jones’s character was later lifted almost wholesale and transported to Seattle in the form of Ernie Hudson’s role in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
THE HAYS CODE AT WORK
The Bad Seed is a clear example of the enduring power of the Hays Code in 1956, resulting in a change in the movie’s ending compared to the stage play.
Stage Play Ending (1954)
- Written by Maxwell Anderson, adapted from William March’s novel.
- Christine learns her biological mother was a serial killer, fueling her fear that Rhoda inherited murderous tendencies.
- In the climax, Christine attempts a murder-suicide, giving Rhoda sleeping pills and then shooting herself.
- Christine dies, but Rhoda survives because Monica Breedlove hears the gunshot and intervenes.
- The play ends with Rhoda unpunished, her father returning home unaware of her crimes.
Film Ending (1956)
- Hollywood censors (the Hays Code) required that evil must be punished.
- Christine attempts suicide but survives.
- Rhoda sneaks out during a thunderstorm to retrieve incriminating evidence (the medal she stole from Claude Daigle).
- Rhoda is struck by lightning and killed, a supernatural punishment imposed to satisfy moral guidelines.
- The film closes with a theatrical curtain-call sequence, even including a comic moment where Nancy Kelly (Christine) spanks Patty McCormack (Rhoda) to soften the tone.
