The Bad Seed: What will you give me for a basket of kisses?

Cafe Society
1

They’re showing it on TCM right now–*golly *how I love this movie (“They got li’l *pink *electric chairs fo’ girls, an’ li’l *blue *electric chairs fo’ boys!” “You lie all the time, all the time!”).

Some feel it’s bad acting, but I think of it as **BIG **acting. Remember, this was the original Broadway cast, and they are giving the same performances that were meant to be seen from the first balcony, not toned down one iota. What I would give to see them live! Nancy Kelly must have been black and blue.

Also, I *want *Nancy Kelly’s hairdo–and have you seen Patty McCormack lately? She is still working, and looks fabulous.

2

I love it, too!

When I want to give my son a facetious reproval, I often say, “Oh, Rhoda, Rhoda, Rhoda!”

3

I love that movie. It was so bizarre and scary to me when I was growing up. I’d watch it every time it came on TV and even with the shiny happy “take a bow, then spank Rhoda” ending I’d still have nightmares. I feared becoming a Rhoda (didn’t!), because I was so bullied at school my rage would become white hot. Most of the time* I was able to keep it under control, but I always wondered if I would be capable of killing someone if they pushed me too far. Luckily I never had to find out. Of course, that’s a lot different from Rhoda’s situation. She was just evil and killed for material gain or to avoid getting into trouble. Still, a depiction that a child could kill freaked me right out. Also that a mother could (attempt to) kill her child and herself, wow. That was my first exposure to murder-suicide and that added an extra level of freak. Nowadays it’s just campy, but I still feel traces of those old chills it used to give me.

Have you heard this fun song? It’s called “Leroy” by the group Fibonaccis.

*I did beat up a girl once, but got pulled off her. Another time I took a pair of scissors to a girl’s coat, tore it to shreds. For some reason I didn’t get in trouble for the first one, and no one ever found out it was me in the second one. After that I never did anything else Rhodaesque.

4

Oh, that is getting fowarded to everyone!

I always turn the set off at the gunshot–that’s where the movie should end. It’s not a “movie,” I tell people, it’s “grand opera.”

5

I’m glad you like it! Here’s another version I just found with a girl lip-syncing interspersed with scenes from the movie.

Didn’t the studio force the filmmakers to add the “happy” endings? (what happens after the gunshot, and the actor roll-call)

Off-topic if you like Fibonacci: Here’s a couple other songs by the same group. “Old Mean Ed Gein” (yep, about that guy), “Romp of the Meiji Sycophants” (fun instrumental).

6

My father used to call my sister Rhoda sometimes. More often, though, he called her Veda.

7

God, that movie scared the bejeebers out of me when I was a kid, and I’v no idea why. My mom used to tell me I was like the Bad Seed and I so didn’t want to be!

8

Great movie!
Also, you might like to hear the cast album of the show Ruthless - The Musical

The show spoofs Broadway musicals, like Gypsy and Mame, and movies such as The Bad Seed and All About Eve. The musical premiered Off-Broadway in 1992 and featured Natalie Portman and Britney Spears as understudies.

9

This movie has permanently spoiled that otherwise charming little tune which Rhoda plays on the piano. Whenever I hear it nowadays, I get the mental image of her playing it loudly to drown out the agonized screams of Leroy who she burned to death.

And BTW, if anyone could upstage Patty McCormack, it was the actor who played Leroy.

10

The kid with the medal was kind of asking for it. When you’ve been hit with a shoe and thrown in the water, don’t threaten to tattle.

I kept expecting Patty to give her mom a little wicker basket with a bunch of severed lips in it.

Eileen Heckart was, deservedly imo, nominated for an Oscar for her role as the alcoholic and grief stricken mother.

11

Leroy, too–he was going to sic those stick bloodhounds on her!

12

Henry Jones(Leroy) had a great career: worked with everybody, never stopped working until he was in his 80s, lots of great roles, probably got recognized everywhere but never typecast, and always made you smile a little when you saw him on a show/in a movie/on the stage. Kind of like Leo McKern, only completely different.