Tag Archives: The Bad Seed

My #NAM #NAAM 2021 Theme: A basket of….

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A couple of weeks ago I watched The Bad Seed for the I don’t know how many ths times, and each time I love it more and see more in it.  (This time around I was particularly taken by the impressive airy mid-century apartment; and I do believe that as I get settled in Corpus Christi I need to start a neighborhood psychology club. I don’t know why I never thought of this before, but thanks to Rhoda I’ve decided to adopt/adapt her famous tagline as a centering point. Rhoda:  What will you give me for a basket of kisses? Col. Kenneth Penmark: A basket of kisses? Why, I’ll give you a basket of hugs! In my case, however, I’ve changed it up a bit. Adoption Industry: What will you give me for a basket of kisses? Bastardette:  A basket of kisses? Why, I’ll give you a basket of fucks Now, I doubt if I will be mean all month. Even I can’t sustain that, but I’ll give it the Old Bastard try. And in case, anyone is wondering…I  decided to hashtag  National Adoption Month as NAM or maybe NAAM if I feel like–and not what I really call it — Continue Reading →

The Bad Seed: Give Me My Shoes!

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I got a really late start, so Ill just post a clip tonight from everybody’s favorite adoption film The Bad Seed.  This is one of my favorite scenes:  Our Rhoda figures out the jig is up.  One of Bastard Nation’s Founding Foundlings knew  this scene so well that she could perform it at the drop of a shoe. I’ve written about mp personal experience with Mrs Daigle here. RIP Clyde

ME AND MRS. DAIGLE

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I don’t remember the first time I saw the film The Bad Seed. Based on the 1954 William March bestseller and adapted for the stage by Maxwell Anderson, The Bad Seed had a profound effect on me as a child. By the age of 8, although I hadn’t articulated, it, I’d already determined that children are inherently evil, parents inherently stupid, and suburbia inherently fake. The film validated my deepest thoughts. Making it personal, Patty McCormick, who plays little killer Rhoda Penmark to near perfection, had been a favorite of mine in an edgy sort of way, when she played Ingeborg on the TV show I Remember Mama. I experienced a peculiar “ownership” of her when my doppelganger brat made it big in The Bad Seed on Broadway and then Hollywood. Oddly, Ingeborg and Rhoda were interchangeable with their long hard starched braids. Except for Ingeborg’s 1917 wardrobe, they were identical. Fast forward 30 years. I’m working at the Ohio State University Department of Theatre. Our alumni includes Eileen Heckart, the actress who created the role on Broadway and carried it to film, of Mrs. Daigle, the mother of hapless Claude Daigle, shoved in the lake and drowned by Rhoda Continue Reading →