Reviews (70)

My Favorite Horror Movie of all Time
I personally feel that this is one of the greatest horror movie made. Forget all of that blood and guts and popping out of the bushes to scare people. That fear only lasts for a second...This movie plays with your mind and lasts forever. Nothing is scarier than polite Miss Rhoda Penmark.
This movie contains brilliant direction and an amazing cast. Many people feel that the acting is overdone and that they act like they are still in the stage version, entertaining an audience in a theater but that is the way it was meant to be made. Making it look like a regular movie would ruin the essence of the evil, 8-year old killer. Nancy Kelly is truly amazing as Christine. Her "breakdown" scenes are heart wrenching and done very well. She is most-natural and does a wonderful job in playing a woman going through the delemma of whether or not she should hate or love her daughter. Her performance is beautiful, "She killed him! But she's my little girl...and I love her!". The highlight of her acting is when Rhoda just kills one of her victims (I won't say who) and Rhoda is playing the song she always plays on the piano faster and faster and faster. It is such and amazing scene. She deserved the Tony she won during the play and the Oscar nomination. Now, there is Patty McCormack who is definatly chilling in this role. Her perfect smile is just as scary as her evil ways. When she describes the way she killed the little boy I always shudder ,"But he told me that he was going to tell on me...SO I HIT HIM WITH MY SHOES AGAIN!! I hit him harder that time." After the scene where she confesses her murders and Christine tells Rhoda to throw her shoes down the incinerator, the shot of Rhoda's sillouette tossisng the shoes while Christine just sits in the backround and watches with fear, as Rhoda smiles, brings chills down my spine. Her acting gets an A+ and she also deserved the Oscar nomination as well as Kelly. Another, nominated for an Oscar for her role, was Eileen Heckart for the role of (which I think is one of the greatest characters in theatrical history)Mrs. Dagel..the grieving mother of one of Rhoda's vicitms. Although only appearing in two scenes, she makes just as big of an impact as Christine and Rhoda do. Heckart is brilliant in the role and it would be almost imposible to find someone who could do as good of a job as she did. Her beautiful monolougues are truly amazing and heartfelt. Other great performances are that of Henry Jones, the creepy Leroy who is the only one who realizes that Rhoda is evil, Evelyn Varden, as the housekeeper, Monica, who spoils Rhoda terribly, Miss Fern (I can't quite think of her name), as the teacher at The Fern School, and Christine's father (I can't think of his name now either), who is a former mystery writer with a big secret that he is keeping from Christine, which has to do with why Rhoda is a bad seed, something inside of Christine that she passed down to her daughter.

There is a lot of controversy over the ending curtain call and the happy spank that Christine lays on Rhoda. I feel that the curtain call and spanking gives the audience a sese of relief since the movie is so disturbing.
I reccomend this movie to everyone that can handle a plot that is different and disturbing.
Don't blame Rhoda for her murderous acts. It isn't her falt, she is just a bad seed.

THE PERFECT LITTLE GIRL.....
Based on the famous Broadway play, "The Bad Seed" should be just fine on DVD. This chiller about the "perfect" Rhoda Penmark with her long blonde braids and cold, cold heart stars most of the play's cast---Patty McCormack as Rhoda, Nancy Kelly as her mother, Henry Jones as Leroy the apartment handyman and Eileen Heckart as the mother of one of Rhoda's schoolmates. While her pilot husband is away, Mrs.Penmark begins to suspect there's something wrong with her perfect little girl. You bet there is, she's a cold-blooded killer! As Rhoda's list of victims grows, so does her mother's terror as she begins piecing together the clues and facts. The film, shot in stark black & white, appears stagy but this works fine because it's all about the performances. They're brilliant. Mervyn LeRoy allows the characters to remain like they were on stage for maximum impact. The only complaint, Hollywood tacked on a dumb second ending to allow the characters their bows and to say "See? This was only a movie!" because in 1956 the subject matter (and original climax and ending) was quite shocking. But the film is still a classic of it's kind and very much a must see for those who havn't seen it. Watch for it.

a little blonde classic monster
I have seen this movie so many times, and it just keeps getting better as time goes by. Little Patty Mcormick is execlent as Rhoda Penmark and the chemistry she has with Nancy Kelley and Henery Jones is beyoned words. I get chills when I see the scene where she confronts Leroy about giving back her shoes!!!
Its about time this classic is comming out to DVD

A Basket Of Kisses.......
Over the years, there have been so many female villains, it's easy to lose track. Anne Baxter(ALL ABOUT EVE), Ann Blyth(MILDRED PIERCE), Joan Bennett(SCARLET STREET), Bette Davis(THE LITTLE FOXES to name one of many), Gene Tierney(LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN), the list goes on. But I think they all would have been more a little unnerved to get in the way of Rhoda Penmark. This movie is one that is so impish in it's own delight, it's impossible not to smile & go along for the ride. Originally a play, the film does tend to lose it's strength with all the psychobabble & it does occasionally get caught up in it's own pretentiousness, but fear not. For any & every minute that Rhoda(played to the absolute hilt by Patty McCormack)is on the screen, you BAD SEED virgins out there will wonder how this film is unknown to you.
Nancy Kelly delivers what would have to be one of the most over-the-top performances in the history of cinema as Rhoda's unsuspecting mother & Evelyn Varden's overbearing landlady, Monica, chews enough scenery to last a lifetime. But it's all about Rhoda. Evil, ruthless, determined, selfish, sweet, & yes, at times, loving. The sheer joy of watching this film is being secure in the knowledge that no matter how sweet this girl is to those around her, unlike us, & eventually her Mother, she's got them fooled.
Nancy Kelly was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her work here & both Miss McCormack & Eileen Eckhart(as the mother of one of Rhoda's victims)scored Supporting nods. Nobody makes films like this anymore..and why? Nobody could.......

The Play's the Thing!
The stage version of "The Bad Seed" was brilliant with an equally brilliant ending.
The movie is much too stagey, a bit too Broadwayesque in its presentation, that is, practically filming a stage show with all its limitations, including the stage-acting..a tad pompous. Except for Patty McCormack, the other characters should have been re-cast. ... Read more

Reviews (125)

Three-Dimensional Menace
It is as difficult to describe this film as it is to forget it. The only film directed by Charles Laughton, with James Agee's screenplay based on Davis Grubb's novel of the same title, The Night of the Hunter explores the ageless conflict between pure goodness and pure evil. The former is represented by the two Harper children and especially by their resolute defender, Rachel Cooper (Lillian Gish). Pure evil is represented by Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), a psychopath who claims to be a preacher. I can think of few other films in which script, direction, acting, cinematography (Stanley Cortez), and musical score (Walter Schumann) work so well together. Credit must obviously be shared. What saddens me is the fact that Laughton was so discouraged by initial reactions to the film that he never directed another. The plot is rather straight-forward and consists of three phases: Powell's arrival and subsequent marriage to widow Willa Harper (Shelley Winters); her death and the gradual revelation of Powell's true nature; and finally, his pursuit of Rachel Cooper and the two children after they flee from him. It would be a disservice to those who read this brief commentary for me to say any more about the plot.

Paradoxically, this is among the most beautiful and most frightening of films. Mitchum's portrayal is among his greatest performances. According to some who were associated with the production, he also agreed to direct Billy Chapin and Sally Jane Cooper because Laughton despised child actors. If true, Mitchum reveals an off-screen talent I wish he had developed further. For me, the only problematic performance is Gish's. Perhaps it is because it seems (to me) derivative of an acting style more appropriate to a previous era when she was featured in so many other films. Those who have not as yet seen this film are urged to do so. It is in so many ways an "original" which deserves the acclaim denied it when first released in 1955.

Deserves to be ranked with "Citizen Kane."
Charles Laughton, one of the greatest actors of Hollywood's Golden Age, made his directorial debut at age 56 with "Night of the Hunter." The film flopped so badly with critics and public that Laughton was never allowed to direct a movie again. It's hard to tell which is worse: the tragedy for the cinema, or the idiocy of the critics and the public. "Night of the Hunter" deserves to be ranked with "Citizen Kane" and the works of Pabst and Murnau among the great Expressionist film masterpieces. Its artiness probably meant it would never be a great popular success, but it deserves to be more than a cult favorite. Its combination of stark realism and extreme stylization, of magical beauty and Hitchcockian suspense, has never been replicated in any other movie. The performances are all superb and, in the cases of Robert Mitchum and Lillian Gish, extraordinary. Mitchum pushes the envelope just enough as the evil preacher Harry Powell, giving a performance that might seem way over the top if a scene were taken out of context, but which masterfully evokes diabolical menace as a whole. As for Gish, she creates an unforgettable character in Rachel Cooper, whose prim, strict exterior barely conceals a combination of wisdom, backbone and moral splendor rarely found in the cinema. Shelley Winters is also very fine as a woman blinded by desire and guilt. Too little, I think, has been said of the supporting players in "Night of the Hunter." Billy Chapin is very touching as the little boy Powell menaces, but the standouts have to be Don Beddoe and Evelyn Varden as Walt and Icey Spoon, a sort of Richard and Hyacinth Bucket gone to seed. Icey is all idiot compliance with the loathsome Powell, taking his protestations of piety at face value while imagining herself the arbiter of morality and common sense. Walt, her henpecked husband, occasionally voices doubts but is quickly brought into line. So when Powell is revealed as the murderous monster he is, who leads the lynch mob? Why, Walt and Icey, of course! There are hundreds and hundreds of Walts and Iceys in small-town America. I know that firsthand.

Surreal Mitchum
I've always been a fan of Robert Mitchum's stoic style. But he's anything but stoic in this very unique film. The atmosphere created by Laughton's direction - and apparently his rewriting of the script - is as surreal as it gets. Once you realize you're watching an adult fairy tale about good and evil, you'll be mesmerized. This film is one artist's only offering, and worth the time to watch.

Sappy & crappy.
I adore Robert Mitchum and I do not disagree with much that has been written here, but the religion was laid on with a trowel. So hokey. So corny. The angelic voices, the hymns...Lillian Gish looking up to heaven...please! What I thought would be film noir turned out more like a rally for George Bush Jr.!

"I'm out of patience children. I'm coming to find you now."
Charles Laughton's "The Night of the Hunter" is one of the most notable atmospheric films ever made. One wonders what other works may have followed had Laughton decided to further pursue a career in directing. The dream-like visual imagery he employed in "The Night of the Hunter" is groundbreaking, beautiful, haunting, and breathtaking all at the same time.

Reverend Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) arrives in a small town one day with the letters H-A-T-E and L-O-V-E tattooed on his knuckles. Powell has learned of $10,000 in hidden money which was stolen by a man who used to live in the town. Seeking out the man's widow, Willa Harper (Shelley Winters), Powell hopes to find the hidden money and keep it for himself. The widow's two children, John (Billy Chapin) and Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce) know the location of the money but refuse to tell the mysterious preacher where it is. So begins a cat-and-mouse game between Powell and the children.

Laughton was ahead of his time in making such effective use of visual imagery. The shadows and lighting he employed added deeper layers of meaning to the proceedings. Especially noteworthy are the moments in the bedroom set and the shot depicting Willa Harper's final fate - both scenes still astonish to this day. When the children drift down the river while escaping from Powell, the wonder and darkness of nature is filmed in so graceful, mysterious, and absorbing a manner that one is reminded of the techniques of modern-day directors Terrence Malick and Tim Burton. Mitchum is amazing in what is easily the best performance of his carreer. Child actors Chapin and Bruce are also great as is Winters in a tragic role. The inclusion of screen legend Lillian Gish in the second half of the film is only icing on the cake for an already impressive production. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Good ideas, bad form
Pinky shows the conflicted views of a black woman passing as white. We see her search for some identity while she is torn between the world of blacks and her heritage and the world of whites, those who persecute her ancestors.However; the film was a bit dull. There was an overall lack of action, and the ending was abrupt and poorly constructed. The ideas behind the movie were good, but the plot was almost too simple, and her internal conflict was resolved too quickly. They also neglected to show her lasting emotions for Tom, and it is unrealistic to think that she could drop contact with Tom so quickly and recover so well.

Pinky was a landmark film
And "Pinky" came 10 years before "Imitation of Life."

The criticism of casting "lily-white Jeanne Crain" for the part of Pinky is quite unjust.

I was born and raised in the South and and I saw nothing unbelievable in casting Ms. Crain in this part. Genetics - skin color, eye color and other physical characteristics are capable of being quite capricious.

The fact that this film was banned in the South should tell us something about the power in this movie "Pinky."

The movie itself was a wee bit over-acted as old dramatic flicks sometimes are, but I really enjoyed it. A lot of substance in the message - about how to define what we really are and how to define what makes a family and the power of unconditional love to heal and to save.

But my favorite character was Ethel Waters (the Aunt who raises Pinky). She was an incredible actress and completely believable in this role. Humble, gentle, self-sacrificing and ever-loving - while enduring her thankless jobs as nursemaid to a grouch and washwoman who worked for pennies - her part stole the show.

The white Negro and the concept of freedom
To be Negro does not always mean to be black, nor a black skin need remain black any more, nowadays...

Elia Kazan's irreverent and pervasive humour marks skin colour as a matter of the person's spiritual choice, between the world and one's own self-the spirit of temptation is again a character test ...

A natural white Negro is pressed (tempted) to forget (lose) oneself , stay on the better part of the world, reserved for "whites", and avoid the pains of conflict -- the same way professionals (not only actors) assume roles, wear new faces, cut new teeth and confront the lights with broad, lying smiles, thus becoming "images"...

The tragedy is that in one's quest to avoid pain, sometimes will suffer deep, and weep more, inside a persona encrusted on person and soul...

Human rights of a white Negro.

But in this film we follow a naturally white Negro girl who returns home (a town in the South), now a graduate nurse. She is angry, --- and her education allows her enough freedom to express her anger articulately --- for the social predicament in which she has to re-lapse, as a poor Negro woman, despite her brilliant education.
But, because of her rampant anger and her acquired quick reflexes to the challenges she faces, she fails to see other, fundamental aspects of life, that transcend the race-difference concept through which she experiences life, so painfully. This counts as a failure to communicate with her grandmother and friends. ("Nobody hates you, Pinky!")

This is one main theme of the story: Concepts, as the title of the film itself, ("Pinky") which is the name of the heroine, true to the reality of her skin colour, which can fit either of two races.
So, a white woman (as Pinky is taken for on appearance) is pressingly offered two white males' unsolicited patronage to exit the territory she is not supposed to walk about alone, in the Negro neighbourhood, for fear of molestation by the blacks. But when Pinky says she is in her very neighbourhood, there immediately arises the threat and violence of molestation by the white "protectors"-- the end concept being that woman is the Negro of the world, in any case...

These two women figures, the white mistress and her black faithful servant have evolved closely together, despite their colour, their class and even their educational differences. They seem different , but their spirit is revealed to be kindred.

They both care for Pinky, and they succeed to help in her spiritual development in their way.

As the grand mother says,"When you grow so old there is no such thing as a place you have to keep», you move to a unity that has no colour or class concept to keep people apart. So the old teacher, to whom Pinky near forcibly becomes a nurse, bequeaths her estate to her-to compensate her for her service-or/and to give her a reason to fight, an outlet for her anger-or/and to make a place for her in her own world , which she was so tempted to abandon, along with a part of her own self...

Pinky addresses the best in the lawyer who will defend her case in court. And though the trial is seen as preoccupied with the white peoples' view, the judge finally finds for the defendant, and admonishes the town folks who would not tolerate a Negro with substantial property among them.

Justice is done "but the community issues have not been served".

Now that her anger has been atoned, Pinky will answer the question what she really wants to do. She will not marry nor follow away the Yankee doctor she thought she loved, because she will not abandon the "black" part of her soul.

She stays, turns the house she inherited to a nurse school, thus finding her purpose of life.

These are the three main characters of the film, Pinky, the angry white Negro woman, her grandmother, the illiterate voluminous negro Mother who, by serving others and by the pains of her love, has earned wisdom; and the frail, brittle yet imperative white teacher, who little by little has earned the wisdom of the essential, to know the truth.

There are many lesser but memorable characters in the narrative:

The loving fiancé, who is ready to make big sacrifices for his love, Patricia, even when he discovers that she is Pinky, a Negro. He is a big-city man, ready to move away from "home", to another state, to avoid gossip about the "dark background" of his woman; there they can both "lose themselves" among an indifferent crowd, who need not know them...

Educated member of the community, the lawyer, a southern gentleman with a deep sence of honour, loyalty and duty, who makes sure Pinky receives a fair trial, and finally full justice, although he doubts if other matters of the community have been served by this confrontation.

There is also the vulgar and greedy, ripe yet dumb "belle", who would have inherited, who makes a spectacular point of putting Pinky in her place, of a coloured woman, in case she had forgotten or anyone else had not noticed...

There is the pathetic Negro clever dick, who "lives by his brains", serving the powerful and oppressing the needy.

Most comical is the scene of the arrest, by two policemen, who haste to protect a lady (Pinky) from the blacks that mistreat her. But when they are told that Pinky is black herself, their attitude becomes equally violent to all, regardless of sex...

As vivacity and functionality of a society is not just a matter of a corpus of legislation on oh Human Rights, but these qualities are measured by their fruits, the alleviation of pain and the incorporation of more individuality, we can reconsider the Yankee externality in comparison with the southern holistic interest in the person, when this is achieved of course, as in this story.

Kazan in this film must have had a hilarious ball, by miss- arranging all social preoccupations and certainties, north and south, to add at the end that people need love as they also need the law.

An elaborate, well articulated with real issues and dilemmas film by the genius director Elia Kazan, whose every film is a host of critical social matters, demanding philosophical examination.

Accept who you are...
I love the fact that when she came back home that she didn't hide her heritage. Pinky, who called herself Patricia when 'passing' as white. Came back to her hometown to see her grandmother and a patient, (who is her grandmother's employer) tells her to accept who she is. And that the black side of the town needed medical attention,and schooling young,black women to
become nurses also.

TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE...
This is a landmark film, as it tackled issues that were considered to be taboo at the time. Race hate, miscegenation, and passing for white are some of its themes. Unlike "Imitation of Life (1934), which in its own fashion dealt with the themes of passing for white and the unequal opportunities afforded blacks, this is not a sentimental tearjerker of a movie. Rather, there is an undercurrent of anger and righteousness that permeates it, and rightly so. It is a hard edged, no holds barred type of film. There is nothing sentimental about it.

Controversial in its time, the film is about a young bi-racial woman known as "Pinky" (Jeanne Crain), sent up north by her southern granny (Ethel Waters), so that she could receive an education. While up North, she begins passing for white inadvertently, as that is how she is apparently perceived, and makes no move to correct that perception. She studies and works hard, becoming a nurse. She then meets white Dr. Thomas Adams (William Lundigan), and they fall head over heels in love. He has no idea, however, of her background and knows her as "Patricia" not "Pinky".

Pinky, leaving him behind, returns home to the South one last time to confront her past and her personal demons. She ends up meeting bigotry head on, as down South where Pinky is known she is treated as blacks are treated, and does not like it one bit. It hardens her resolve all the more to return North and continue passing for white. She would like nothing better than to put as much distance as is possible between herself and her racial heritage. Helping out her grandmother, however, she ends up playing nurse to Miss Em (Ethel Barrymore), a crotchety, crusty, and ill eighty year old former plantation owner who has come down on hard times.

When Miss Em dies, she wills her estate to Pinky, creating a controversy that rocks the town when the will is challenged by distant relatives, the Wooleys. They are outraged and claim that the "colored girl" used undue influence over the elderly Miss Em. This galvanizes Pinky to stand up for her rights, enduring a mockery of a trial. Moreover, when Dr. Adams comes looking for her, Pinky finds herself taking a position with respect to their relationship that is a revelation to herself.

This is a film that at the time was highly controversial, due to its themes. It was a film that was certainly daring for its times. Why they cast a white woman for the part of a biracial character may seem puzzling to those of us in the twenty first century. I presume that this casting was mandated because there were love scenes between Pinky and her fiance, Dr. Adams, and this type of scene would have been forbidden in those days, if the actress cast for the part of Pinky were other than white. While a bi-racial woman was cast for the role of Peola, the woman who passed for white, in "Imitation of Life" in 1934, it was a safe bet to do so, as she had no love scenes with which to contend. Notwithstanding the casting of Jeanne Crain in the role of Pinky, this film was cutting edge stuff in 1949.

Wonderful performances are given by the entire cast. Ethel Waters, Jeanne Crain, and Ethel Barrymore all received Academy Award nominations for their roles in this film, though none of them won. While Jeanne Crain's casting was a stretch for her as an actress, she did give it her all, letting the viewer sense Pinky's discomfort and angst over the racial divide. Ethel Waters is superb as the hard working, humble soul who did the best that she could for her beloved Pinky. As the imperious Miss Em, Ethel Barrymore was perfectly cast and gives a superlative performance, imbuing the character with a humanity that a lesser actress may not have. All in all, this is a movie that lovers of classic films should enjoy and one that should be in any serious movie lover's collection. ... Read more