No Wonder Rhoda Is So Pissed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                               Darlings, if I were she, I would be mad, too!  Everyone wants to remake her iconic story, "The Bad Seed," refusing to understand that it was perfect the first time around!  And cannot be topped!

                                Back in 1985, director Paul Wendkos tried, with a 1985 television movie, show on ABC.  Blair Brown played Christine Penmark, who, here, is a widow, so there is no Kenneth Penmark.  Wonder if the daughter did him in?  Lynn Redgrave and David Ogden Stiers played siblings Monica and Emory Breedlove.  Richard Kiley played the grandfather, Richard Bravo, and the title role was played by a nasty looking thing who went nowhere, named Carrie Wells.  She underwent a name change--Rhoda is now Rachel--and she plays the whole thing like a Jewish American Princess bitch.  Not a sign of pathology anywhere.   The best performance was actually given by David Carradine, as Leroy, who put his own, genuinely creepy spin on a performance equally as creepy by Henry Jones, in the original.
                               .

                                   Wenkos did do some interesting things.  For instance, all the murders, done offstage or off screen, are shown.  The film opens with the murder of who all us "Bad Seed" aficionados know as Mrs. Clara Post.  A child actor, named Chad Allen, who went out of the business, and into gay activism, played murder victim Claude Daigle, who was sure sorry he won that penmanship medal!!!!!!!!  Again, there is a name change; Claude Daigle becomes Mark Daigler.  Why?????  Rachel is seen menacing him on the beach, and chasing him onto the wharf.  I don't recall if she is shown hitting Mark with the shoes, but already more is being shown than in the original.

                                    In the novel, Christine writes a series of letters to Kenneth, detailing the experiences she has been going through, explaining what Rhoda is, and why.  She ultimately burns them, so they are never seen.  Blair Brown does the same thing, presumably writing to her father.

                                     The most interesting change involves Christine and the dream involving her real mother, Bessie Denker, a female serial killer.  Which turned out to be not a dream, but a buried memory.  The dream is described by a memorably distraught Christine, played by Nancy Kelly.  We see what happens in our imagination.  Nothing is left to that, here.  There is a haunting image of a dream sequence, with an unidentified woman, dressed in black, stalking through some marshes, calling out "Christine! Christine!," while holding a scythe.   If you look up the credits for this version, you will see the character, Rachel's grandmother, is identified as "Rhoda Penmark."  So, this version skips one generation?  Or two?  Why the name change, anyway?  Though, I will say, the dream sequences are the most haunting, and memorable thing about this version.

                                        Two actresses who never went anywhere, Ann Haney and Carol Locatell, play Miss Fern, whose name here is changed to Alice, not Claudia, and, in the Eileen Heckart role, Locatell plays  is called Rita Daigler, and, with a black wig, resembles an older Carolyn Jones, who, had she
still been alive, would have perfect for the Heckart role, and would have nailed it better than these two do theirs.

                                          Inconceivable as it may now sound, Rachel, while she does play the piano, does not play "Au Clair De La Lune."  Instead, here, it is Beethoven's "Fur Elise."  Not nearly as haunting.

                                          In this version, Christine dies.  With Daddy dispatched, Gramps is to take her.  Is he for in a surprise.  But the moment is ruined.  Rachel emerges from the French doors of her apartment, comes to her grandfather, as bored and detached as can be.  The camera moves in for a close-up, and she says, "I'm ready."

                                           "That's IT?"," I said, when I saw this, back in 1985.  Despite some interesting changes, all the juice was taken out of this story.  Wells played a petulant child, not a pathological one.  Rachel just needed a good smack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                           Now, wait, things get a bit more interesting.  Eli Roth, who made "Inglorious Bastards," "Hostel," and "Cabin Fever," has, for years, been talking about doing a remake of "The Bad Seed," laced with blood and gore.  It has not happened, yet, so I guess those he pitched it to had the good sense to watch, or recall, the 1956 film, and told him, "Are you kidding?"

Now, wait, darlings, because things are about to get even more interesting. Rob Lowe, who mistakenly thinks he can do it all, plans to remake "The Bad Seed" for Lifetime.  If this happens, no matter how badly it turns out--and it will--I have GOT to see this.

The two actresses pictured above are McKenna Grace, of "Designated Survivor," and who played young Tonya Harding in "I, Tonya," and Patty McCormack, the original Rhoda herself, now in her early Seventies.  They have been tapped for the Lowe remake, which he will star in and direct, and which will be rewritten by some writer named Barbara Marshall.  And wait till you hear what they plan to do with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess it will be set in the present day.  No surprise there, so was the 1985 version.  There is another name change; the little sociopath is now to be called Emma.  Forget that Grace looks too sophisticated above; that is just a publicity photo.  When I heard Patty McCormack was to be in it, I thought, of course she would be playing the Eileen Heckart role, just like she did in a stage production of the play, directed by her nephew, on Staten Island, years back.

But, no, here she is playing a child psychiatrist, who is treating Emma.  So, is this a re-imagining of Reginald Tasker, or what?  Sounds more to me like the Jacqueline Brookes role in the 1993 Macaulay Culkin thriller, "The Good Son."  My God, that was 25 years ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and get this!  The gender of the parent is being changed, which lessens the concept of the original story.  The mother, having a uterus, blamed herself for carrying on and passing evil, within it.  What can Lowe as a father do?  Blame his swimmers?  I am sorry, it does not have the same, if any, emotional impact.  It would give a new meaning to the title "The Bad Seed."

When will people leave enough alone?  Leave "The Bad Seed" to all of us who love it the way it is!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe instead of being called aficionados, lovers of this story should be called "Seedlings!"

I'm the Head Seedling, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!