The Bad Seed

An adaptation of playwright Maxwell Anderson's Broadway and West End success about an irredeemably evil eight-year-old child, played on stage and here on screen by the brilliant Patty McCormack. Also imported from the Broadway production are Nancy Kelly as the girl's mother, Eileen Heckart as the mother of one of the girl's schoolfriends and a particularly effective Henry Jones as the venal caretaker (a part played brilliantly in London by Bernard Bresslaw). This is Grand Guignol stuff, really, but veteran Mervyn LeRoy directs effectively. The film was X-certificated on its release here, but watch out for an unbelievable censor-placating ending.