In Mervyn LeRoy's 1956 child-killer thriller The Bad Seed, sprightly, pig-tailed, 8-year-old Rhoda Penmark (Patty McCormack) kills a classmate and later a handyman who suspects her of doing it.
Her mother, Christine (Nancy Kelly), suspects Rhoda inherited evil genes from Christine's birth father, who she had discovered was a serial killer. Christine tries to dispose of evidence of Rhoda's crimes and then do away with herself and her daughter.
Kelly and McCormack were nominated for Oscars, deservedly so, because the picture (based on a stage play by Maxwell Anderson) explores in more surreal terms, at least to my mind, the complex dynamic between parents and their errant children.
The film's plot centers on the killing of one child by another but is actually about the nature of criminality and culpability. Christine's distress and confusion are highly relatable, while Rhoda's sociopathy would likely be alien to most people.
Even though film standards and audience tolerance for violence have evolved since the '50s, the picture still packs a wallop and not just because of McCormack's creepy performance. The troubling questions the movie provokes resonate.
Who is ultimately to blame when our children go "bad"? Is it an easy dodge to saddle parents with the responsibility for their children's behavior? Genetics? Media? Society? Satan?
These questions came to mind when I read this morning of three teenagers being charged with the shooting deaths of three others and injuring a fourth. A family court judge will decide if the 14-year-old accused shooter will stand trial as an adult, a determination that will suggest the teen acted with full knowledge and responsibility.
Can this ever really be the case for someone so young?
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