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starring: Nancy Kelly, Patricia McCormack directed by: Mervyn LeRoy

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Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 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: - I'll give you a basket of hugs One of the absolutely best "camp horror" movies out there. It's a shame MST 3K didn't do a send up of this one before the show went off the air. In case you don't know, the plot centers on a woman who must decide what to do when she finds out that her lovable little adopted daughter is a murderer. Although the play on which the film was based was heavily deterministic in its philosophy and included an essay at the beginning defending its views (that criminal tendencies are inborn), the film version almost plays like a parody of determinism. I also think that perhaps Patty McCormack (who was, incidentally, along with Nancy Kelly and Eileen Heckart, nominated for Academy Awards) was getting a bit too old for the role as well, which adds a bit to the unintentional humor. It's one of those films that, although the subject matter is intended to be dead serious (in 1956, Warners only allowed Adults into the theaters to see it), you'd be hard pressed not to chuckle at some of the scenes (especially a scene where Nancy Kelly and Evelyn Varden are arguing, while Patty McCormack continues playing the same chords over and over on a piano faster and faster . . it ends with Kelly giving in and bursting into tears, pounding her fist on the table to the rhythm of McCormack's playing). I can't watch Kelly's performance as the highly strung mother without imagining that Carol Burnett must have at some point done a parody of this film on her show (for me it's reminiscent of her soap opera parody "As the Stomach Turns"). It's also interesting to me that the janitor's name is pronounced, "le-ROY" not "LEE-roy" - maybe a subtle joke on the director's last name (?) I wholeheartedly recommend it . . it'll either freak you out or you'll die laughing- maybe both. Rating: - Problem Child. This is a totally engrossing and horrifying film, that remains unique even today. Taken from the stage play, and starring many of the actors from their original stage roles, this movie of a child murderess with a heart of stone is scarier than almost any horror film. That is largely due to the performance of Patty McCormick as "Rhoda", who appears so icky-sweet & well mannered, but in actuality is Hell on roller-skates. Nancy Kelly is fantastic as her mother "Christine", who, as she learns the truth about her perfect little child, so effectively unravels before your eyes that you may need a valium. The fact that this pint-sized monster wreaks all this havoc and mayhem, without a murder actually being shown, says alot for the way a good movie is crafted. All the other actors are very convincing in their roles, the stand out being Eileen Heckert as "Mrs. Daigle", the mother of the "drowned" little boy, who deals with her inconsolable grief by staying drunk. I have never seen anyone so effectively portray a rip-roaring drunk, yet there is nothing comical about her performance, on the contrary, her pain is so real, it will break your heart. Eileen Heckert was one of my favorite character actresses, and I don't know if she received an Oscar for her portrayal here, but she should have. This movie also has several famous lines which, at least for film buffs, have entered our pop culture vocabulary. Many have accused this film of being too "over the top", too stagey, too Hollywoodized....blah..blah....Forget that! This is a great film that will so "involve" you, you may be a wreck afterwards. But isn't that the fun of movies?? Some versions have the original "postscript" at the end, basically a curtain call, which some criticize as corny, but I find kind of campy, not to mention that it brings you back to reality after having had your emotions put in a blender for two hours!! This subject matter has never been remotely effectively duplicated, and why would they try? The original can't be topped. A classic.

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