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Anyone who has been on here long enough does not have to ask who these two are. They, of course, are Nancy Kelly and Patty McCormack, in their signature roles as that dynamic mother and daughter duo in "The Bad Seed!!!!!!' Which, since it was released in 1956, turns 60 this year, and is the campiest yet!
It is too bad that Dorothy Malone's campy turn as toreador pants clad, dancing on record covers to bongo drums character of May Lee in "Written On The Wind" beat out Patty McCormack for the Oscar. Any other year, I would have gone with Malone; you can't beat her for camp! But Patty is not only over the top nasty, she set the standard for child sociopaths in drama. Without Rhoda Penmark, there would be no Alice Manning.
"The Bad Seed" stands the gold standard, the ground breaker for all evil child stories! Next to Patty's antics are Nancy Kelly's! Oh, my God! When she practically drools clinging over the chair, "Oh, God help me! God help me!," it is too much. My mother and I could have played it on Broadway!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then when she clings to a post in her house and cries, like a lamenting Medea, "Why couldn't I have just died in the orchard, and end the agony???????" And nothing beats when she pounds her own uterus as she cries out about "That evil woman! My mother!!!!!" And how about when she smashes her hands on the table, as Leroy dies! It is a wonder she did not break any bones!
This film has it cornered for high handed hysteria!!!!!!!!!!!! To think when we were young, we actually thought it was shocking! So did 1956 audiences!!!!!!!!!!! Now, while the truth of it is real, its dramatic execution is such a camp hoot that among film mavens, gay or not, it makes for a riotous, popcorn filled evening!
Sixty years of "The Bad Seed" can only be congratulated by a wish for sixty more!!!!!!!!!!!
Rock on, Rhoda!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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