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...
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.