The Boy with Green Hair Blu-ray Review

A message picture produced by Dore Schary during his time as head of production at RKO Radio Pictures, Joseph Losey’s The Boy with Green Hair mixes whimsy and small-minded bigotry into a somewhat uncomfortable package.

The Production: 3.5/5

A message picture produced by Dore Schary during his time as head of production at RKO Radio Pictures, Joseph Losey’s The Boy with Green Hair mixes whimsy and small-minded bigotry into a somewhat uncomfortable package (likely the point but guaranteeing small grosses) that in retrospect seems an admirable effort that was doomed to failure. Debuting in 1948 with the hyper-conformist 1950s looming, this paean to individuality plays more appealingly now, but intolerance at any period in our country’s history is always disturbing, and The Boy with Green Hair’s message is no exception.

A war orphan passed from one foster home to another after his parents are killed fighting for the other desperately afflicted children during World War II, Peter (Dean Stockwell) comes to live with kindly and elderly vaudeville entertainer Gramp Frye (Pat O’Brien) and finally seems to have landed a permanent home with someone who loves him and a school that welcomes him. But after Peter learns that his parents are, in fact, dead and will not be coming for him, he awakens one morning to find that his hair has turned green prompting the town who had befriended him before to turn against him because he’s now different. In a dream with some war orphans he had been gathering clothes for, Peter has an epiphany coming to realize that his being different comes with a message he can bring to others, but few are interested in hearing his message; the townspeople both children and adults insist he shave off the hair that makes them so uncomfortable.

The Ben Barzman-Alfred Lewis Levitt screenplay seems to have two themes in mind: the shocking intolerance of society over anyone different and the message that because war has catastrophic effects on children, there should never be another one. These two disparate life lessons are rather clumsily joined in the symbolism of Peter’s green hair, but the allegorical story is nevertheless one worth telling even if its execution is somewhat flawed by Joseph Losey’s irregular direction (it was his first feature film directing gig, so allowances can be made). Peter’s initial hatred of his “otherness” is almost just as quickly embraced by him though he’s devastated that others are having a hard time dealing with it, too. The script does have his beautiful schoolteacher Miss Brand (Barbara Hale) as one voice of calm and reason, but there’s no hiding the ugliness of the town’s bigotry. Both the parents and their kids make Peter’s existence unbearable until he has no choice but to give in to their demands.

Dean Stockwell gives a lovely performance as the tortured boy (he could have been in line for one of the Academy’s juvenile Oscars given at the time, but it went that year to Ivan Jandl in the more moving postwar film The Search). Pat O’Brien is having a jolly time warbling a couple of Irish ditties “The Tail of Me Coat” and “Chip-Chip” and scores nicely in the dramatic scenes, too. Robert Ryan is the understanding psychologist to whom Peter tells his flashback story, and, as stated before, Barbara Hale makes a most positive impression as the kindly schoolteacher. Less than understanding, though, are Samuel S. Hinds’ doctor, Regis Toomey’s angry milkman, and David Clarke’s barber and the town children, foremost of whom is the tall bully with the glasses played by the very young Dwayne Hickman and his red-haired schoolmate played by Billy Sheffield (whose singular hair color is used by Miss Brand to illustrate that different hair color is simply part of nature’s plan). Unbilled but easy to spy are the young Russ Tamblyn as one of the bullies and Dale Robertson in an early scene as a town deputy. Walter Catlett does a whimsical jig with O’Brien in the song sequence where Gramp tries to win over Peter.

Video: 5/5

3D Rating: NA

The film’s original theatrical 1.37:1 aspect ratio is faithfully executed in this 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. Once again, the Warner engineers have given us a Technicolor bonanza with luscious but lifelike skin tones and bright but always controlled color. Sharpness is superb and contrast is sublime in making this another quality Warner Archive release. The movie has been divided into 30 chapters.

Audio: 5/5

The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono sound mix offers a solid audio experience. Dialogue has been professionally recorded and is always clear. Leigh Harline’s background score and the famous theme “Nature Boy” has been combined with the various sound effects to produce an excellent audio track. There are no problems with age-related hiss, pops, crackle, or flutter.

Special Features: 1/5

A Really Important Person (10:51, HD): a one-reel Passing Parade short starring Dean Stockwell.

Overall: 3.5/5

Joseph Losey’s allegorical The Boy with Green Hair has never looked nor sounded better. The Dore Schary production may offer a somewhat heavy-handed message, but it’s one worth presenting, and the new Warner Archive Blu-ray represents it beautifully.

The Boy With Green Hair [Blu-Ray]

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Matt Hough

Matt has been reviewing films and television professionally since 1974 and has been a member of Home Theater Forum’s reviewing staff since 2007, his reviews now numbering close to three thousand. During those years, he has also been a junior and senior high school English teacher earning numerous entries into Who’s Who Among America’s Educators and spent many years treading the community theater boards as an actor in everything from Agatha Christie mysteries to Stephen Sondheim musicals.