4 votes

The Boy With Green Hair - a review

I just watched an old movie on television: The Boy With Green Hair. It’s a boring afternoon, with nothing to do, and I thought this old 1948 movie would be a pleasant way to kill an hour or two.

I was wrong.

It moved me to tears.

It stars Dean Stockwell, whose name I recognised from ‘Battlestar Galactica’, as a child actor, which is one reason I decided to watch it. He gives a great performance. Doing a bit of research, it looks like he was dragged into acting by his performer parents. His Wikipedia page quotes him as saying he didn’t enjoy acting. Despite that, he was great in this movie.

It also has ‘Nature Boy’ as its theme song, which I know from ‘Moulin Rouge’.

The movie itself is a powerful anti-war message. The central character is Peter, a war orphan (the aforementioned Stockwell). After being placed with a number of different relatives, he ends up with a kindly old ex-Vaudeville performer he calls “Gramp” (who he’s not actually related to). Gramp’s a sweet old man, played very sympathetically by an actor called Pat O’Brien.

Peter doesn’t know he’s a war orphan. He thinks his parents are still on a trip. (A very long trip!) His school holds a charity drive to collect clothes for war orphans, and one of Peter’s classmates tells him, quite matter-of-factly, that Peter is a war orphan: their teacher said so. Peter rejects this, and they get into a fight. Gramp is there, and he confirms the news.

Later that evening, Gramp is reminiscing to Peter about his old flame Eileen, who loved having “a spot o’ green” around the place (a plant) to remind her of Spring and hope. To cheer Peter up, he promises him a surprise in the morning.

The next morning, after taking a bath, Peter’s hair has turned green. He assumes this is Gramp’s surprise, and it cheers him up. It’s not. Gramp knows nothing about it. In fact, the cause of the green hair is never revealed.

When Peter finds out the green hair is not from Gramp, he hates it and wants to get rid of it. However, they’re unable to figure out a cause, and Peter’s unwilling to “paint” his hair (dye it) or cut it off, so he’s stuck with it.

It’s hard to explain why this movie moved me, without giving away certain important plot points. If you don’t want too many spoilers, watch this trailer and stop reading now, until you’ve watched the movie for yourself.

If, like me, you’re not fussed about spoilers, read on. (Spoiler alert: spoilers make you enjoy stories more)

Here be spoilers!

Peter runs away after the other boys try to cut off his green hair, and he meets the war orphans from the posters at his school. It’s not clear whether this is a vision and the war orphans are actually speaking to Peter, or whether it’s just Peter’s dream, but it’s real enough to Peter. The orphans tell Peter that his hair is green because it represents Spring and hope. They further tell Peter that he should use his noticeable hair to spread the message that war is bad for children.

Interestingly, the girl who says this to Peter tells him that he should spread the message to all the countries, and then names five countries – who just happen to be the five permanent members of the recently formed United Nations Security Council.

Peter goes home to tell Gramp. When Peter says he wants to keep his hair green, it brought a tear to my eye. He then goes around town, telling everyone that war is bad for children.

But things turn bad. The other kids don’t like his green hair; he’s different, and the kids make fun of him. The adults don’t like his anti-war message; he’s different, and must conform.

This leads to the scene that moved me to tears. I never thought that watching someone getting his hair cut could make me cry. But seeing Peter give in and agree to have his green hair shaved off brought tears to my eyes. For some reason, half the town turns up at the barber shop to watch. Halfway through the process, Gramp realises his error in advising Peter to do this, and he turns away in shame. Meanwhile, I couldn’t take my eyes off Peter as his green curls fall to the floor.

I have to say there were some plotholes in this movie. It’s far from perfect.

Reading the backstory, it’s based on a short story which doesn’t mention war: it’s originally an allegory for racism, which is reflected in one scene in the movie where Peter’s teacher takes a roll call of students by hair colour. The adaptations to make it an anti-war message were inserted by the director, which makes it a bit clunky and obvious.

And, supposedly, the progressive movie studio executive who signed off on the movie was replaced by a conservative executive during production, who tried to change it into a pro-war movie. The movie is therefore a bit patchy and disconnected at points.

But it has heart. The two central actors, playing Peter and Gramp, carry most of the movie. The actor playing the teacher is also sympathetic and warm.

It's not a great movie, but the central performances are strong and the messages are powerful.

Some sources I found tell of Stockwell talking back to the conservative executive when the executive lectured him in favour of war, so Stockwell supported the message of the movie, even as a 12-year-old boy.

This was just supposed to be an old movie to distract me for an hour and a half on a boring afternoon. Instead, it grabbed my attention for the whole 90 minutes, and moved me deeply. So deeply that I just had to share it with someone. I considered putting this in @kfwyre’s Tildes Pop-Up Movie Event thread, but the 1940s slot is already taken. Not that I’m upset by that. I’m very glad I watched this movie, for its own sake.

9 comments

  1. [3]
    rish
    Link
    Where can we watch it?

    Where can we watch it?

    2 votes
    1. [2]
      Algernon_Asimov
      Link Parent
      I don't know. So I had to search for it. I searched for DVD copies on Amazon, and found them: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+boy+with+green+hair&i=movies-tv-intl-ship In the process, I stumbled...

      I don't know. So I had to search for it.

      I searched for DVD copies on Amazon, and found them: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+boy+with+green+hair&i=movies-tv-intl-ship

      In the process, I stumbled across a streaming version on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Boy-Green-Hair-Dean-Stockwell/dp/B08KLFWKMZ/ref=sr_1_1

      I also found DVD copies for sale on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2499334.m570.l2632&_nkw=the+boy+with+green+hair&_sacat=617

      There's also a streaming version on Apple TV: https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/the-boy-with-green-hair/umc.cmc.478s8tpli8sum7addwtp2576o

      It's on Freeview in Australia: https://freeview.com.au/watch-tv/shows/8fbb6bd7-4727-4097-a889-9ca9cf1d3c89

      There seems to be a copy available on Turner Home Movies: https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/69528/the-boy-with-green-hair#overview (but it doesn't work for me)

      And a random website called Flixer.com has it: https://myflixer.center/movie/the-boy-with-green-hair-llwqz/1-full

      4 votes
      1. rish
        Link Parent
        Wow. Only place I can watch this is on Flixer.com, for free, no ads and no registration. Apple TV says the title is no longer available after I sign-in, I guess because they don't have streaming...

        Wow. Only place I can watch this is on Flixer.com, for free, no ads and no registration.

        Apple TV says the title is no longer available after I sign-in, I guess because they don't have streaming rights for it in India. Same for Amazon. Freeview app is not available outside Australia. TCM also not working for me. eBay prices (before the shipping cost) are way above what I can afford I didn't bother checking.

        1 vote
  2. PantsEnvy
    Link
    It sounds like "The Boy With Green Hair" was a surprising and moving experience for you. It's amazing how a movie from 1948 can still have an impact on a viewer today. Despite its flaws, it seems...

    It sounds like "The Boy With Green Hair" was a surprising and moving experience for you. It's amazing how a movie from 1948 can still have an impact on a viewer today. Despite its flaws, it seems that the performances of the actors and the powerful anti-war message were what really stood out to you. It's always great to discover unexpected gems like this, and it's wonderful that you were able to share your thoughts and feelings about the movie. Thanks for sharing your experience!

    2 votes
  3. [5]
    cfabbro
    Link
    @kfwyre, since AFAIK mentions in topic text still don't work. Plz label this as offtopic.

    @kfwyre, since AFAIK mentions in topic text still don't work. Plz label this as offtopic.

    2 votes
    1. [4]
      Algernon_Asimov
      Link Parent
      I wasn't sure about that, so thanks. However, I decided not to add a comment to summon him, because it's not like he has to see this review. It's not that important! :D

      I wasn't sure about that, so thanks.

      However, I decided not to add a comment to summon him, because it's not like he has to see this review. It's not that important! :D

      3 votes
      1. [2]
        kfwyre
        Link Parent
        I definitely HAD to see this review! Not only is this kind of content my favorite stuff on Tildes (people sharing their own thoughts and feelings on specific things in depth), but in particular I...

        I definitely HAD to see this review! Not only is this kind of content my favorite stuff on Tildes (people sharing their own thoughts and feelings on specific things in depth), but in particular I value your perspective on things, Algernon!

        I appreciate that you were inspired by the Pop-Up. I'm still experimenting with the formula to try and figure out what works best (not that there's necessarily any one way they should be done). In previous ones, I left them very open-ended but there wasn't a lot of participation, so this was the first one where I made it a more closed task. The upside to this is that it creates a coherent goal that people can see progress towards, but I don't like how it "locks out" people (like how you wanted this to count to the 1940s slot, but it was already taken).

        Regardless of all that, I'm thrilled you chose to watch this movie anyway and give us this thoughtful writeup.

        3 votes
        1. Algernon_Asimov
          Link Parent
          To be totally clear: I would have watched this movie anyway. I do this regularly: watch old movies on a quiet weekend afternoon, just to drift away for a while. The only thing your post did was...

          To be totally clear: I would have watched this movie anyway. I do this regularly: watch old movies on a quiet weekend afternoon, just to drift away for a while.

          The only thing your post did was prompt me to write a review here on Tildes. Otherwise, I would have just kept all these thoughts bottled up inside. Or maybe I would have written a review anyway, to get those thoughts out, because this movie affected me more than most. But, having seen that post, it reminded me that I had an outlet for my thoughts.

          So don't get too stressed out about that 1940s slot or about the task. :)

          3 votes
      2. cfabbro
        Link Parent
        Your watching it was sparked by his topic, and you're basically doing what he asked people to do by reviewing it, so I'm sure he would still appreciate seeing this. :)

        Your watching it was sparked by his topic, and you're basically doing what he asked people to do by reviewing it, so I'm sure he would still appreciate seeing this. :)

        2 votes