Popular Culture Review 30.1
of The Bad Seed ; the leitmotif for McCormack ’ s character is the traditional French children ’ s song “ Au Clair de la Lune .”
Steinbeck seems to consider a tendency to commit sin as something inherent in a character . Ditsky asserts that sexuality in fiction is a warning to the reader and that Steinbeck thinks a person who can choose to be good or evil because he or she may ( 11 ). According to Shapiro , “ Steinbeck didn ’ t really address the sexuality ... that kind of sexual tension that goes on between men and women ” ( Archive of American Television ). As far as the miniseries character of Cathy is concerned , the earliest correlation between sexuality and crime per se is pedophilia : fifteen-year-old Cathy ’ s Latin teacher , Mr . Grew , has had sex with her . Hart cast a middle-aged actor , Nicholas Pryor , for the part of Mr . Grew , whom Steinbeck describes as “ a pale intense young man ” ( 78 ; ch . 8 ). Hart ’ s casting decision here makes the crime of pedophilia even more disgusting . In the novel , when Cathy is 14 , her sexually obsessed teacher kills himself . At 16 , she runs away to Boston , her father brings her back , and he whips her . On the other hand , Hart ’ s 15-year-old Cathy , referencing Lewis Carroll ’ s Alice in Wonderland , tells Mr . Ames she can become so small that he will not be able to see her . She does not run away until after the death of her parents , neither of whom has ever whipped her . Cathy has removed them from her life by setting their house ablaze , faking her own death in the process . In the novel , Cathy commits a fourth crime by robbing her father of all his savings . As Steinbeck so succinctly puts it , “ Cathy left a scent of sweetness behind her ” ( 88 ; ch . 8 ).
To significantly contribute to the audience ’ s perception of and emotional response to the introduction of Cathy and to her triad of crimes�arson , a double murder , and pseudocide�Hart demonstrates quite an artistic arsenal . He effec-
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