The Bad Seed

1956 American film by Mervyn LeRoy
Movie film Q164008
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Summary

The Bad Seed is a film[1]. It ranks in the top 3% of film entities by monthly Wikipedia readership (20,432 views/month).[2]

Key Facts

  • Director: Mervyn LeRoy[3]
  • Screenwriter: Maxwell Anderson[4], John Lee Mahin[5]
  • Composer: Alex North[6]
  • Genre: film noir[7], drama film[8], horror film[9]
  • Based on: The Bad Seed[10]
  • Cast member: Nancy Kelly[11], Patty McCormack[12], Henry Jones[13], Eileen Heckart[14], William Hopper[15], Jesse White[16], Evelyn Varden[17], Paul Fix[18], Frank Cady[19], Dayton Lummis[20]
  • Producer: Mervyn LeRoy[21]
  • Production company: Warner Bros. Entertainment[22], Warner Bros. Pictures[23]
  • Director of photography: Harold Rosson[24]
  • Original language of film or TV show: English[25]
  • Distribution format: video on demand[26]
  • Review score: 7/10[27], 51/100[28], 64%[29]
  • Color: black-and-white[30]
  • Country of origin: United States[31]
  • Publication date: January 1, 1956[32], September 12, 1956[33], September 28, 1956[34]
  • Distributed by: Warner Bros. Entertainment[35], Netflix[36]
  • Film editor: Warren Low[37]
  • Nominated for: Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress[38], Academy Award for Best Actress[39], Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White[40]
  • Title: The Bad Seed[41]
  • Duration: 117 minutes[42]
  • Capital cost: 1,000,000 US dollars[43]
  • Production designer: John Beckman[44]
  • CNC film rating (France): no age restriction[45]

Why It Matters

The Bad Seed has Wikipedia articles in 16 language editions, a strong signal of global cultural recognition.[46] It is known by 27 alternative names across languages and contexts.[47]

References

Programmatic citations — every numbered marker resolves to a verifiable graph row below.

Direct Wikidata claims

  1. [3] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  2. [4] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  3. [5] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  4. [6] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  5. [7] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  6. [8] ↑ . Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  7. [9] ↑ . Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  8. [10] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  9. [11] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  10. [12] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  11. [13] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  12. [14] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  13. [15] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  14. [16] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  15. [17] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  16. [18] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  17. [19] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  18. [20] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  19. [21] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  20. [22] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  21. [23] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  22. [24] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  23. [25] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  24. [26] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  25. [27] ↑ . Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  26. [28] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  27. [29] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  28. [30] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  29. [31] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  30. [32] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  31. [33] ↑ . IMDb. Retrieved . imdb.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  32. [34] ↑ . IMDb. Retrieved . imdb.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  33. [35] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  34. [36] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  35. [37] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  36. [38] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  37. [39] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  38. [40] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  39. [41] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  40. [42] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  41. [43] ↑ . Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  42. [44] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  43. [45] ↑ . cnc.fr. cnc.fr. Provenance: wikidata.org.

Class ancestry

  1. [1] ↑ . Wikidata. wikidata.org.

Aggregate / graph-position facts

  1. [2] ↑ . Wikimedia Foundation. dumps.wikimedia.org.
  2. [46] ↑ . Wikidata sitelinks. wikidata.org.
  3. [47] ↑ . Wikidata aliases. wikidata.org.

📑 Cite this page

Use these citations when quoting this entity in research, articles, AI prompts, or wherever provenance matters. We aggregate Wikidata + Wikipedia + authoritative open-data sources; the stitched, scored, cross-referenced view is what 4ort.xyz contributes.

APA 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph. (2026). The Bad Seed. Retrieved October 15, 2026, from https://4ort.xyz/entity/the-bad-seed-q164008
MLA “The Bad Seed.” 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph, 4ort.xyz, 15 Oct. 2026, https://4ort.xyz/entity/the-bad-seed-q164008.
BibTeX @misc{4ortxyz_the-bad-seed-q164008_2026, author = {{4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph}}, title = {{The Bad Seed}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://4ort.xyz/entity/the-bad-seed-q164008}, note = {Accessed: 2026-10-15}}
LLM prompt According to 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph (aggregator of Wikidata, Wikipedia, and authoritative open-data sources): The Bad Seed — https://4ort.xyz/entity/the-bad-seed-q164008 (retrieved 2026-10-15)

Canonical URL: https://4ort.xyz/entity/the-bad-seed-q164008 · Last refreshed:

Edit History

Rolling log of changes to this entity's Wikidata record. Values shown reflect the current state of each edited property — follow the history link to see the precise diff for any edit.

  1. 8h ago · Quesotiotyo · 2026-10-15 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Ampas collections film id → W063214
    Claims rich → —
    "/* wbcreateclaim-create:1| */ Ampas collections film id: W063214, [[:toollabs:quickstatements/#/batch/290954|batch #290954]]"
  2. 10d ago · Jamie7687 · 2026-10-05 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Sitelink count → 21
    Wikipedia languages → ['ca', 'cy', 'de', 'en', 'es', 'eu', 'fa', 'fr', 'he', 'id', 'it', 'ko', 'nl', '
    Unconsenting media id → 13943
    Claims rich → —
    "/* wbsetclaim-create:1||1 */ Unconsenting media id: 13943, Matched to [[:toollabs:mix-n-match/#/entry/172261102|The Bad Seed (#172261102)]] in [[:toollabs:mix-n-match/#/catalog/5134|Unconsenting Media"
  3. 6w ago · MsMorale · 2026-08-31 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    P14821 → 48977
    "/* wbcreateclaim-create:1| */ P14821: 48977, [[:toollabs:quickstatements/#/batch/269901|batch #269901]]"
  4. 7w ago · Jindřich Rubeš · 2026-08-22 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Filmová databáze film id → 87110
    "/* wbcreateclaim-create:1| */ Filmová databáze film id: 87110, [[:toollabs:quickstatements/#/batch/269265|batch #269265]]"
  5. 16w ago · Yirba · 2026-06-25 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Production designer → John Beckman
    Publication date → +1956-01-01T00:00:00Z, +1956-09-12T00:00:00Z, +1956-09-28T00:00:00Z
    Screenwriter → Maxwell Anderson, John Lee Mahin
    Duration → {'unit': 'Q7727', 'amount': '+117'}
    + 27 other properties edited (see Wikidata diff for full list)
    "/* wbeditentity-update:0| */ QuickStatements 3.0 [[:toollabs:qs-dev/batch/38225|batch #38225]]: MovieLens IDs (part 1)"
Live feed via Wikidata EventStreams. New edits appear within minutes of being made on Wikidata.