Paul Wendkos
The classic The Bad Seed (1956), based on the popular 1954 Broadway stage play by Maxwell Anderson, which itself was based on the best-selling novel by William March, is the title most film scholars cite as the first important entry in the killer kids subgenre. And that's accurate enough. I can't think of an earlier film centered entirely around an evil child and its massive popularity (it was not only a top-grossing box office hit in both the U. S. and UK but also earned four Oscar nominations) certainly helped to popularize this particular type of film. Even to this day, this 66-year-old movie is still used as a reference point any time a new killer kid film is released.
The homonymous source novel for A Little Game, written by Fielden Farrington and first published in 1968, couldn't avoid the Bad Seed comparisons either. In fact, publisher Walker and Company relished those and very consciously worked the similarities right into the tagline ("All that THE BAD SEED was... and more...") to help sell the book. Also written right on the cover of the original 1968 edition of the novel is the promise "Soon to be a major motion picture," which makes one wonder if a major studio was considering this for a theatrical release at one time. However, that never happened and it was filmed three years later as a modest ABC TV movie instead. An online bio for Farrington written by his great-nephew simply brushes this adaptation off: "Unfortunately the movie did not capture the story well." That may have to do with the author not being directly involved in adapting his own work. Sole credit for the teleplay is given to Carol Sobieski.
However, comparisons don't really extend much further than the obvious. The Bad Seed's Rhoda was extremely manipulative and consciously used her age and angelic appearance (blonde pigtails and cute little dresses) to her advantage to manipulate all of the adults around her. In other words, she was capable of putting on such a faux naïve, squeaky-clean act that the idea she could be also be a psychotic killer was unthinkable to most of the adults around her. The kid in this movie, however, is another beast entirely! He's a hateful, rude, insufferable, unsubtle, temperamental little bugger who has a very difficult time hiding his feelings and intentions, let alone being able to pull off a completely different persona to fool the adults around him. He actually doesn't even try!
13-year-old Robert Mueller (Mark Bruner) hasn't been the same since losing his beloved, bridge-designer father in a car crash. His mother, Elaine (Diane Baker), was driving at the time and caused the accident that cost her husband his life. She has since moved on and remarried nice guy history teacher / writer Paul Hamilton (Ed Nelson). While their marriage works out fine whenever Robert's away at military boarding school, everything's far from rosy during the time's he is home. Now with Christmas right around the corner, guess who's coming back for a long visit? Robert isn't looking forward to it. Neither is Paul, who has thus far failed to establish any connection with the child despite putting in some effort. Since his neglectful parents are too busy to look after him, Robert's dorm mate Stuart Parker (Christopher Shea) accompanies him home.
After showing Stu many of his late father's belongings and photos, Robert confides that he considers his stepfather to be a "bug" and "something to be gotten rid of eventually... when he gets too annoying." Robert uses physical violence and threats (like carving an "L" into his forehead for "liar") to keep his "best friend" in line, plus makes him take part in a blood ritual where they burn a mixture of their hair and blood to solidify their loyalty to one another. Robert has developed a similar dynamic with their Mexican housekeeper, Laura (Katy Jurado). Since the father (who appears to have been a complete p.o.s.) also distrusted Laura, naturally so does Robert. Unbeknownst to Elaine, her son has already threatened to stab Laura to death if she says anything bad about either him or his father.
Elaine is that well-meaning though incompetent parent who inadvertently does more harm than good by constantly shielding her child and making any and every excuse under the sun to excuse their bad behavior. She refuses to send Robert to see a psychiatrist, downplays his obvious mental issues as him just being "difficult," claims his poor treatment of his friend is due to the fact he's so smart and smart people tend to be bossy and believes all her son really needs is a good male role model around to change his ways. Because his father was an avid hunter and gun collector, Robert has become a weird extreme gun fetishist himself. Elaine even encourages Paul to kiss up to her son by buying him a rifle for Christmas at one point! Interesting to note that the whole gun-loving-child aspect was treated as a major warning sign and cause for concern back in 1971. Jump ahead to today and it's fairly common for U.S. politicians and evangelicals to pose for holiday cards with an infant in one hand and a semi-automatic in the other, or just hand guns off to their toddlers and young children for photo ops. Just as Jesus would have done!
Thankfully, there's at least one adult in the room and Paul refuses to buy into any of this bullshit. While he loves Elaine, he does not like Robert and actually has the balls to directly tell his new wife as much. While he does promise to try to be patient, he still calls the boy things like "nasty little kid," nicknames him Rasputin and says he would have fit right in as a member of Hitler Youth. Way to go not sugarcoating it, Paul! He also flat out refuses to buy the kid a gun and questions the bizarre master-slave relationship between Robert and Stu. While Stu is polite and friendly, he's not the brightest bulb and has an unstable home life with parents who don't want much to do with him; traits that make him extremely impressionable and thus open to easy manipulation.
And then there's this mysterious incident that occurred at their boarding school. Paul overhears an argument between the boys, where the topics of killing and Robert's former dorm mate come up. After finding Robert's diary, Paul finds it filled with murder plots that the two boys claim are only horror comic-inspired fantasies about killing those they don't like. That's enough for Paul to seek out the help of private eye Al Dunlap (Howard Duff), who starts looking into what happened at their school.
While the usual TV movie limitations do hold this back a bit and keep it on the talky side, this still has both fun elements (especially some amusing dialogue / digs, when Paul and Robert begin their little "war" over the mother's affections) and potent dramatic elements, which also manage to go into some subtly creepy Oedipal territory as Robert hopes to replace his late father and be the ONLY man in his dear mother's life.
All of the actors (particularly Nelson) give strong performances and even both child actors are very good. Shea was the voice of Linus in a duo of Charlie Brown TV holiday classics: A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966), and this was to be his last film appearance. Gruner would bow out of show business after playing Sheriff Brody's son Mike in Jaws 2 (1978), which seemed an odd note to go out on as that film was a big hit and he was only 19 years old at the time of filming.
Farrington, who passed away in 1977, was a radio and television announcer, penned 21 scripts for the CBS Radio Mystery Theater between 1974 and 1976 and wrote four other novels. One of those - the hostage thriller The Strangers in 7-A - was also made into a Paul Wendkos-directed TV movie. Ironically enough, Wendkos would also go on to direct the 1985 TV movie remake of The Bad Seed. This has never had an official home video release anywhere in the world to my knowledge and the best print that's currently available is an old worn VHS copy from an old TV broadcast.
★★1/2
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