Page to Stage to Screen Analyzing the Cultivation of The Bad Seed Michelle Tvete

Adaptations

Adaptations William March 1954

Adaptations Maxwell Anderson 1954 Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1933) & Gold Medal in Drama (1954)

Adaptations John Lee Mahin 1956

Adaptations Director: Mervyn LeRoy 1956

Adaptations

Adaptations

Play  Characters: Broadway Types  Added Father character (Bravo—the writer)  More proponents of Environment  Cut library scenes & most “real life” examples  Internal thoughts are voiced melodramatically  Denker (grandmother) glamorized & escapes  Rhoda is blonde

Film CHANGED  The Ending  Added more religious elements  Film Noir conventions (black & white)  Toned down some of the acting  Added arbor setting KEPT  Actors  Melodramatic Acting  “Stage feel” (Long takes, longer shots)

The Ending  Production Code  Deus ex machina  Religion

Production Code  Hays Office   Created to avoid government intervention  Ended to compete with TV

Production Code  No kiss longer than 3 seconds  No homosexuality  Criminals must be punished  “evil is wrong and good is right”  Must promote traditional values

Production Code Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946)

Production Code Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot (1959)

Deus Ex Machina "god from the machine"

Deus Ex Machina "god from the machine"

Religion "god from the machine"

Religion "god from the machine"

Film CHANGED  The Ending  Added more religious elements  Film Noir conventions (black & white)  Toned down some of the acting  Added arbor setting KEPT  Actors  Melodramatic Acting  “Stage feel” (Long takes, longer shots)

Film Noir Carol Reed’s The Third Man (1949)

Film Noir  Genre or Style  Examples: M (1931), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Double Indemnity (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Sunset Blvd. (1950), Strangers on a Train (1951)  Characteristics?

Film Noir SOURCE:

Film Noir Howard Hawks’ The Big Sleep (1946)The Big Sleep

Film Noir Bobby’s World “The Big Sweep” (1990)The Big Sweep

Film Noir SOURCE:

Film Noir Femme Fatale

Film Noir Femme Fatale

 “ Fatal woman” (French)  Fille Fatale (younger woman)  Uses feminine wiles for secret purpose  Attractive with almost magical charm  Threat to traditional womanhood  Home is a dangerous place

How Adapted to Film? Film Noir

How Kept Like a Play? Stage on Film?

How Kept Like a Play? Curtain Call?

Evil Child Subgenre of Horror

1954

The Concept of Childhood Innocent

The Concept of Childhood Tabula Rasa—Blank Slate

The Concept of Childhood 1955

Evil Child Subgenre of Horror The Omen (1976) Let Me In (2010) Who Can Kill a Child ? (1976) (1993))

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Southern Gothic Subgenre Robert Mulligan’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)