RE: Rhoda Penmark: The Gold Standard of Evil Movie Children
Annoying kids are easy to pull off.
Creepy kids are easy to pull off.
Scary kids, on the other hand, take some real panache to get right. The only immediate rival to Patty McCormack's Rhoda I can come up with is Bill Mumy's turn as little Anthony Fremont in the Twilight Zone episode, "It's A Good Life". Even then, Anthony's only a scary kid because of the incredible powers he possesses and his lack of understanding the difference between right and wrong. Rhoda's terrifying because she gets away with her shenanigans using nothing but her natural ability to charm and manipulate the adults in her life.
I knew The Bad Seed was based on a novel, but never that it was a stage play. I've not read the book, so I didn't realize just how drastically they changed the ending for the film! Yeah, I don't see studios of the day being willing to accept Rhoda "winning" as an end to the story. :D
Good points as always! Rhoda was also scary because she had zero cognition that people were more important than her whims. I mean, she could have started a lemonade stand or something to earn money to buy herself a locket, but no, she just kills the old lady instead. She could have resolved to practice her penmanship so she could win the medal next year, but no-o-o-o, it's better to just beat and drown your classmate to death instead...if she had lived (in the film version), she would have gone on killing anybody whenever they waved a trinket she liked in her face. As I said, Zero Fucks Given.