The Bad Seed (1956)
"Talk all you want about the man and the woman -- but please don't tell about the girl!"
ThumbScore
👍 87%audience score Estimated from TMDB user ratings and critic scores, calibrated to Google's former audience score. Google stopped publishing it in 2026.
Critics Score
🎬 58%
(RT: 64%, MC: 51) RT = Rotten Tomatoes (critic reviews). MC = Metacritic (weighted critic average). Critics Score is the average of both.
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Where to Watch
Streaming
Subtitles on OpenSubtitles.com: English · Español · Español (Latinoamérica) · Español (España)
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Cast
Nancy Kelly as Christine Penmark
Eileen Heckart as Hortense Daigle
Evelyn Varden as Monica Breedlove
William Hopper as Col. Kenneth Penmark
Jesse White as Emory Wages
Is The Bad Seed good?
Yes. 87% audience score, estimated from 276 TMDB ratings. Critics scored it lower at 58%, but audiences disagreed.
Overview
Air Force Colonel Kenneth Penmark and his wife, Christine, adore their daughter Rhoda, despite her secret tendency for selfishness. Christine keeps her knowledge of her daughter's darker side to herself, but when a schoolmate of Rhoda's dies mysteriously, her self-deception unravels. Wikipedia ↗
