http://ambival.net/movies/the-bad-seed-1956 Just another WordPress weblog Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:22:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 http://ambival.net/movies/the-bad-seed-1956#comment-1586 Ambival.net » Movies » The Children’s Hour Fri, 02 Feb 2007 18:41:44 +0000 http://ambival.net/movies/the-bad-seed-1956#comment-1586 [...] This makes an ideal companion to The Bad Seed – in fact, I’d go so far as to say that Karen Balkin’s Mary deserves The Bad Seed’s admittedly silly “spanking” ending even more than Patty Duke’s Rhoda, she is easily the most evil child I’ve ever seen in a movie. I don’t think any scene in cinema has ever made me hate a kid so much as when she craftily threatens Veronica Cartwright’s Rosalie – right in plain sight of the adults – over the missing bracelet, to get her to say what she wants her to say … it’s absolutely excruciating. But where The Bad Seed took a slightly blackly comic approach to its unsettling material – I’d personally go so far as to say that movie is almost straight comedy, it’s hilarious – this one is much more tragic and serious about it. The ending is emotionally shattering and the performances – from the children to the stars Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine – are grittier than most you’ll find from the time. The homosexual side of things is hardly Brokeback Mountain but that’s kind of beside the point – this is a story more about hearsay and the damage it does than an issue in itself, and you only need look at the cast to know there isn’t gonna be much controversy. As a counterpoint to the dozens and dozens of movies that say little girls are all sugar and spice and everything nice, though, it’s pretty much beyond compare. Sure, there’s Damien and Regan and the Children of the Damned etc … but this girl is real and you absolutely believe at every turn that someone could genuinely be so cruel, and that’s what’s so unsettling about it. [...] [...] This makes an ideal companion to The Bad Seed – in fact, I’d go so far as to say that Karen Balkin’s Mary deserves The Bad Seed’s admittedly silly “spanking” ending even more than Patty Duke’s Rhoda, she is easily the most evil child I’ve ever seen in a movie. I don’t think any scene in cinema has ever made me hate a kid so much as when she craftily threatens Veronica Cartwright’s Rosalie – right in plain sight of the adults – over the missing bracelet, to get her to say what she wants her to say … it’s absolutely excruciating. But where The Bad Seed took a slightly blackly comic approach to its unsettling material – I’d personally go so far as to say that movie is almost straight comedy, it’s hilarious – this one is much more tragic and serious about it. The ending is emotionally shattering and the performances – from the children to the stars Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine – are grittier than most you’ll find from the time. The homosexual side of things is hardly Brokeback Mountain but that’s kind of beside the point – this is a story more about hearsay and the damage it does than an issue in itself, and you only need look at the cast to know there isn’t gonna be much controversy. As a counterpoint to the dozens and dozens of movies that say little girls are all sugar and spice and everything nice, though, it’s pretty much beyond compare. Sure, there’s Damien and Regan and the Children of the Damned etc … but this girl is real and you absolutely believe at every turn that someone could genuinely be so cruel, and that’s what’s so unsettling about it. [...]

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