The Bad Seed
Warner Bros. | Release Date: September 12, 1956 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
Taken from Maxwell Anderson's stage play, adapted from William March's novel, the film remains more of the theatre than of the motion picture field. Nonetheless, it is well done within that qualification. Read full review
50
TimeStaff (Not Credited)
Director LeRoy has been overly faithful to the play script. Actors march on and off the screen just as if they were making stage entrances and exits. Read full review
50
Village VoiceRonald B. Rogers
So you have here a film version of a chilling novel and interestingly repellent stage play that defeats its own purpose with a static recording of the stage business and some of the most elaborate eye-popping and facial mugging since the last effort by the Three Stooges. [12 Dec 1956, p.5]
40
Chicago ReaderDave Kehr
Overlong, stiff, and about as suspenseful as a detergent commercial, The Bad Seed has one small asset, Patty McCormack as the child, but that's about it. Read full review
40
The New York TimesBosley Crowther
Mervyn LeRoy, who produced and directed, has lost a great deal of the bite of the play. He has done it in a style of presentation that is ostentatious and often insincere. Read full review
40
Time OutStaff (Not Credited)
1956 was way too soon for an unfettered treatment of the central premise: an 8-year-old serial killer. On the other hand it was too late in Mervyn LeRoy's career for him still to command enough speed and style to overcome the staginess of it all. Read full review
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