When a little boy, who had recently one a medal at school - much to the chagrin of little Rhoda Penmark, drowns during a school picnic, suspicion soon falls on the girl because not only was she the last one to be seen with the boy and the medal he wore so proudly went missing. Soon, Rhoda's mother finds the medal in her little girl's possession and remembers an elderly neighbor falling to her death some while back and leaving a snow globe that Rhoda liked so much to the girl.
As if all that wasn't bad enough, there is also a lot of philosophizing about evil and the shapes it takes and are people born bad? and stuff You see the Penmarks socialize with smart people and Rhoda's grandfather himself wrote real crime stories. Also, Rhoda's mother has always had that creeping suspicion that she may not be her father's daughter and remembers some dreams she had as a child. Turns out, she is really the daughter of a legendary female murderess, making Rhoda a direct descended of evil.
Eventually, the mother decides to bring down the final judgment on her child and herself (but fails). Something I would imagine also rather rare in 1950's films. Ultimately, justice does come for the little killer.
It's dark and smart and the kid is perfectly creepy.
The downer of it all is the insufferable 'Aunt' Monica, who is around way to much and who's relation to anyone in the story is a mystery. She is extremely annoying and loud and overbearing.
The highlight is the constantly drunk Mrs. Daigle, the mother of the little boy that drowned. This is by far my favorite performance of the entire film.
A rather unusual choice, but very charming, is the way the cast members are brought in front of the camera at the end. Their names are read out as each one appears in the doorway and gets a moment of their own. And the very last frame is this:
7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment