"What would you do if you were cursed with...the BAD SEED

Meet 8-year-old Rhoda Penmark. She's a well-mannered, sunny-faced, perfect golden braids, and a winning smile. She's also an efficient, unfeeling killer. She's the Bad Seed. And in this spellbinding chronicle of evil, her twisted mind follows a straightforward doctrine: what Rhoda wants, she ruthlessly gets.

Christine Penmark, who adores her daughter Rhoda but has long been troubled by her icy, controlled demeanor, discovers that her little girl has killed and will kill again. Horrified, Christine eventually learns a terrible secret: within herself she carries the "bad seed," an inherited moral blindness that has leaped her generation to burst into dreadful bloom in the next. Torn between love for the child she bore and grief for Rhoda's victims, Christine must make a harrowing decision.

Based on Maxwell Anderson's Broadway success. The Bad Seed ticks away with the nerve-snapping suspense of a time bomb in the skilled hands of producer/director Mervyn LeRoy (The Wizard of Oz, Mister Roberts, Gypsy). Veterans of the stage production accounted for three of The Bad Seed's four Academy Award nominations: Nancy Kelly (recreating the role that won her a Tony), Eileen Heckart and young Patty McCormack.

They make sure that once you've met Rhoda, you'll never forget her. Not as long as you live."