8 Chilling Old-Hollywood Movies You Need To See
6. The Bad Seed (1956)
Warner Bros. 1956 adaption of the 1954 novel The Bad Seed certainly tests the boundaries of cinematic acceptability at the time.
The film follows mother Christine Penmark as she comes to the grim realisation that her 10 year-old daughter Rhoda is in fact a violent, sociopathic killer. Seeing the grief her child is causing, she is torn between protecting her loved ones and doing what is morally right.
The Bad Seed wonderfully skirts around the limitations of the time by not actually showing the audience any of young Rhoda's more shocking deeds. Merely hearing about her beating a fellow child into unconsciousness with a pair of tap shoes is disturbing enough.
Instead the film chooses to focus on the aftermath of such events - how grief and despair can drive one to extremes. The standout performance here is actress Eileen Heckart in her role as a mother turning to alcohol after the death of her young son. Heckart heartbreakingly confides drunkenly in the mother of her child's killer and earned a very deserved Oscar nomination.
The Bad Seed dares to question the rigid morals of the time, broaching harm to children, children's understanding of right and wrong and the ultimate moral taboo... Can a mother kill her own child?