Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786300270275 Format: Black & White, NTSC ISBN: 6300270270 Label: Warner Home Video Manufacturer: Warner Home Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Warner Home Video Release Date: May 03, 1993 Running Time: 129 minutes Studio: Warner Home Video Theatrical Release Date: September 12, 1956 Sales Rank: 1605
Amazon.com: "A basket full of kisses for a basket full of hugs." Those are chilling words, at least when uttered by that ice princess, Patty McCormack. As Rhoda Penmark, she is as pretty as a porcelain doll but drips venom with each curtsey and polite response. Little Rhoda's mother is terrified she has passed on her own mother's corruption. Oops, turns out she's right. This passes the test of time, as it still gets under your skin. The character development is tight and the story very involving. Not even Freddy Krueger had the ability to scare like tiny McCormack, looking just like a little adult while she literally beats out the competition for a penmanship award. However, director Mervyn LeRoy's hands were tied over the ending, which was changed from the source material--Maxwell Anderson's hit Broadway play. A supposedly more appropriate, and moral, ending was demanded by the studio. This was remade (badly) in 1985. --Rochelle O'Gorman
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - educational standpoint
If you are teaching media concepts (lighting, drama, characters, play, scenes) then this is a great movie to complement your lesson. As a high-school teacher for English foundations, I try my best to ... Read More
Rating: - Professionalism in Acting
Acting at it's best. So well written and So well performed. Outstanding movie with and outstanding ending. Recommend to all. It was written and performed for the stage and brought to the screen. Many ... Read More
Rating: - Captivating
When asked the movie from childhood I remember best, this is the one. The Birds, The Blob,
even Baby Jane and Sweet Charlotte did not have the impact of Patty McCormack's stellar performance in this ... Read More
Rating: - The Bad Seed: Not So Bad At All
"What will you give me for a basket of kisses?" This quote becomes quite memorable as it is repeated throughout the 1956 movie The Bad Seed. The main character is Rhoda, a pigtailed eight-year-old ... Read More
Rating: - Aunt Monica dodges a bullet this time
Christine Penmark has a loving husband and a picture-perfect daughter named Rhoda. Christine knows that Rhoda can be stubborn and greedy and a bit of a kiss-up, but that's not all that worries her after a ... Read More
- educational standpoint
- Aunt Monica dodges a bullet this time