MovieChat Forums > The Bad Seed (1956) Discussion > Did Nancy Kelly have asthma??

Did Nancy Kelly have asthma??

posted 13 years ago by craftonbarnes
8 replies | jump to latest

The majority of her lines are delivered with an enormous amount of heavy breathing. To the point that it's obviously a stage habit, meant to be audible from a distance.... but the more I hear it the more I wonder if she was just an over actor with a breathing disorder....no offense to the movie. It's still a brilliant piece of work, but I could have completely done without Kelly at all in that role. Especially considering she's the protagonist. Her particular overacting made her character seem like a simple narcissist....

Who knows....maybe Mervin LeRoy wanted her to seem that neurotic because she was the daughter of a psychopath with a psychopathic daughter.....who knows....

"Into the Garbage Chute, FlyBoy!"

[–] WalkAwayRenee 13 years ago

lol, I think she could have used some Overactors Anonymous meetings. It was often over the top. But they were trying to make it seem like a stage play being acted on the screen so I think she succeeded in that aspect.

[–] SimplemindedSociety 11 years ago

'It's still a brilliant piece of work, but I could have completely done without Kelly at all in that role. Especially considering she's the protagonist. Her particular overacting made her character seem like a simple narcissist....'

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It's so typical to mock people that are different than whatever the ideal is. Her breathing was fine, and she was not a narcissist. I think you just wanted to say 'narcissist'. She MADE the film,and was Oscar-worthy. I never read a negative review about her overacting,only praise.

[–] craftonbarnes 11 years ago

"It's so typical to mock people that are different than whatever the ideal is."

I wasn't aware that by expressing my honest opinion I was "mocking" anyone. And my remark about narcissism was aimed at her character and not the person portraying her. Hence my theory that her "over breathing/ over acting" whatever you want to call it, was a technique that was directed by the brilliant Mervyn Leroy...

As far as I can tell SimplemindedSociety all of my post was purely conjecture to begin with... I apologize if it came across as that shallow.

[–] Squirrel71 11 years ago

Both Nancy Kelly and Patty McCormack played the same roles in the stage version. I agree that most likely, she was playing the role in homage to the play. Or maybe, stage acting was more her " thing" . I haven't seen her in anything else. What other movies was she in?

[–] singjohn 9 years ago

Bosley Crowther skewered all the performances in this movie in his 1956 NY Times review. http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9903E1DF173EE23BBC4B52DFBF66838D649EDE

[–] mjedelin 11 years ago

I think she just had a higher pitch voice is all.
Yes, I make spelling mistakes often as a result of using IMDB on mobile devices :)

[–] belalugosihouse 11 years ago

I thought immediately that her voice sounded like Bette Davis's...then I read that Bette Davis wanted this part. Obviously Ms. Davis and others probably noticed the resemblance. It's just a distinctive voice, asthma or not.

[–] telegonus 9 years ago

FWIW: Nancy Kelly and Bette Davis were born in the same city, Lowell, Massachusetts. Neither, however, grew up there.