Films
/
The Bad Seed (1956)
The Bad Seed (1956) poster
Letterboxd

The Bad Seed (1956)

Thriller, Drama, Horror • 2h 9m

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Cast: Patty McCormack, Nancy Kelly, Henry Jones, Eileen Heckart, Evelyn Varden, William Hopper, Paul Fix, Jesse White, Gage Clarke, Joan Croydon, Frank Cady, Frances Bavier, Violet N. Cane, Vivian Clermont, Shelley Fabares, Kathy Garver, Don C. Harvey, Edna Holland, Dayton Lummis, Natalie Masters, Patricia Morrow, Adele Taylor, John Truax

Letterboxd
IMDbThe Movie Database (TMDB)

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Best English-friendly & video release · updated 1 month ago

Overview

Air Force Colonel Kenneth Penmark and his wife, Christine, adore their daughter Rhoda, despite her secret tendency for selfishness. Christine keeps her knowledge of her daughter's darker side to herself, but when a schoolmate of Rhoda's dies mysteriously, her self-deception unravels.

Release details

Best Audio Release

Warner Bros 2011 Blu-ray

The older track sounds significantly more natural. The WAC BD uses a new mastering which sounds much worse. A lot of the dialogue sounds off, sort of echoey, garbled or even artifacted. Its overzealous click removal also erased some sounds. Its only positive is a new EQ that brings out the bass more making some of the score more effective.

It seems that the new mastering likely uses AI "enhancement" or some other form of aggressive filtering, resulting in extended peaks despite losing real high end detail (most pronounced on sample 3).

Samples (WAC is mislabeled as UHD)

Additional Info

Commentary is mono on the Blu-rays and panned stereo on NTSC DVD (different channels for each speaker).

Length
129 mins
Type
Movie

More from Mervyn LeRoy

See more →

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from Original Camera Negative

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Best English-Friendly & Video:

VCI Blu-ray

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB Blu-ray

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Directors: John Ford & Mervyn LeRoy

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB Blu-ray

More from Warner Archive

See more →

Director: Vincente Minnelli

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Best Audio:

1991 MGM LaserDisc

Director: Morton DaCosta

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Bros Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray Nov 24th

Director: David Lean

Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray Dec 1st

TV series

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Complete Series DVD

Director: John Ford

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Japan IVC Blu-ray

Director: Edgar Selwyn

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration

TV series

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from Original Camera Negative for all episodes

Director: John Ford

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Sources: ibb.co (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Warner Archive Blu-ray is 4K restoration from nitrate projection elements

Germany Filmjuwelen Blu-ray is AI upscaled https://ibb.co/album/mCJ7RQ

Director: Norman Taurog

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from Original Camera Negative

Director: Delbert Mann

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from Original Camera Negative

More Thriller on Blu-ray

Director: Joel Coen

4K · Disappointing
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Director's Cut: Disappointing UK StudioCanal/US Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical Cut: LaserDisc or 2001 UK Universal DVD

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?p=21782879#post21782879 - comparison. StudioCanal is a massive improvement to the Criterion but still flawed in some areas (chroma noise)

Directors: Irving Pichel & Ernest B. Schoedsack

Best English-Friendly & Video:

UK MoC Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

MoC Blu-ray offers both restored and an unrestored tracks

Director: Iain Softley

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Capelight Germany 4K Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Both 88 Films and Germany Capelight are superior to the Shout! Factory in HDR10 but their FEL layer may even things out. Objectively, the Capelight looks best as they avoided the chroma blocking that’s visible in 88’s disc but they in turn included an Atmos mix. I have the Shout! Factory, love how it looks and the 4K transfer is spectacular. https://slow.pics/c/vPmFQSAH

Best Audio:

88 Films 4K Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Shout! Factory has the exclusive The Beauty of the Baud and the You Can't Stop Us All featurettes.

Director: Akira Kurosawa

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

2015 Star Media Blu-ray/2019 BFI Player WEB-DL

Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

Criterion DVD

Director: John Woo

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray?

Director: Tsui Hark

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray?

Director: Alex Proyas

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray (30th anniv.)

Director: John Milius

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Shout! Factory or Germany/UK Capelight 4K Blu-ray?

Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

> BFI 4K Blu-ray. caps Criterion presents the master as originally graded in SDR whereas FiM added HDR / Dolby Vision for the BFI.

Best Audio:

1991 Criterion LaserDisc

Audio Notes:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray's audio mix has more detail than BFI’s and same applies to the subtitles, covering both English and France spoken word

Edit history

3 edits

Researched and maintained by

cbc

· last reviewed 1 month ago

Every recommendation follows the same method — how these calls are made.