Themes: Authority Figures, Orphans, Social Injustice
Main Cast: Pat O'Brien, Robert Ryan, Barbara Hale, Dean Stockwell, Richard Lyon
Release Year: 1948
Country: US
Run Time: 82 minutes
Plot
Finding a curiously silent young runaway boy (Dean Stockwell) whose head has been completely shaved, small town police call in a psychologist (Robert Ryan) and discover that he is a war orphan named Peter Frye. Moving in with an understanding retired actor named Gramps (Pat O'Brien), Peter starts going to school and generally begins living the life of a normal boy until his class gets involved with trying to help war orphans in Europe and Asia. Peter soon realizes that -- like the children on the posters, whose images haunt him -- he, too, is a war orphan. The realization about his parents and the work helping the orphans makes Peter turn very serious, and he is further troubled when he overhears the adults around him talking about the world preparing for another war. Peter awakens the next day and his hair has turned green, prompting him to run away after being taunted by the townspeople and his peers. Suddenly, appearing before him in a lonely part of the woods are the orphaned children whose pictures he saw on the posters. They tell him that he is a war orphan, but that with his green hair he can make a difference and must tell people that war is dangerous for children. He leaves determined to deliver his message to any and all. Upon his return, the townspeople chase Peter, and even Gramps tries to encourage him to consider shaving his hair so that it might grow back normally. He agrees to get his head shaved, and the town barber does the job -- that night, however, Peter runs away. Later reunited with Gramps, Peter learns that there are adults out there who accept what he has to say and want him to go on saying it. He's sure that his hair will grow back in green again, and he will continue to carry his message. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Review
One of the last movies made at RKO under the regime of production chief Dore Schary, The Boy With Green Hair was one of the most idealistic fantasy films ever made in America. Completed for release after Howard Hughes took over the studio, The Boy With Green Hair never got the kind of push that it should have, or that it needed, to become anything more than a cult curio in the history of American cinema. Director Joseph Losey put it all on the line with this Technicolor production, which might not have had an expensive cast but cost a fair amount to shoot. The movie's idealism, as well as its implicit criticism of American (and Russian, British, French, and Chinese) governmental policies (and our nuclear program), were about as harsh and confrontational as mainstream filmmaking got in 1948, even if they were couched in terms of fantasy and a cinematic fable. Moreover, the entire cast, from Dean Stockwell, Pat O'Brien, Robert Ryan, and Barbara Hale on down, seemed to embrace the movie's message with genuine fervor, which only made the movie more piercing and potent. European filmmakers, including Vittorio De Sica with Miracle in Milan and Leo Joannon and John Berry with Atoll K (aka Utopia), would try other whimsical approaches in dealing with the plight of displaced persons, but Losey and RKO were there first; and though the movie seemed to create more trouble than it was worth as far as the new RKO management was concerned, The Boy With Green Hair has endured better and longer as a potent piece of filmmaking than any movie that the new management generated at RKO during the eight years that followed until the studio's demise. Sadly, the movie endures today as well, because it addresses a problem that's not much less serious and pressing today than it was in 1948. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Finding a curiously silent young runaway boy (Stockwell) whose head has been completely shaved, small-town police call in a psychologist (Ryan) and discover that he is a war orphan named Peter Frye. Moving in with an understanding retired actor named Gramps (O'Brien), Peter starts attending school and generally begins living the life of a normal boy until his class gets involved with trying to help war orphans in Europe and Asia.
Peter soon realizes that -- like the children on the posters, whose images haunt him --he, too, is a war orphan. The realization about his parents and the work helping the orphans makes Peter turn very serious, and he is further troubled when he overhears the adults around him talking about the world preparing for another war. Peter awakens the next day and his hair has turned green, prompting him to run away after being taunted by the townspeople and his peers. Suddenly, appearing before him in a lonely part of the woods are the orphaned children whose pictures he saw on the posters.
They tell him that he is a war orphan, but that with his green hair he can make a difference and must tell people that war is dangerous for children. He leaves determined to deliver his message to any and all. Upon his return, the townspeople chase Peter, and even Gramps tries to encourage him to consider shaving his hair so that it might grow back normally. He agrees to get his head shaved, and the town barber does the job -- that night, however, Peter runs away. Later reunited with Gramps, Peter learns that there are adults out there who accept what he has to say and want him to go on saying it. He's sure that his hair will grow back in green again, and he will continue to carry his message.
Score
The song Nature Boy written by eden ahbez and sung by an uncredited chorus was a primary theme of the score for the motion picture. Nat King Cole's version of Nature Boy shot to #1 on the Billboard charts, and remained there for eight weeks straight during the summer of 1948.
Overview
The film was one of the last movies made at RKO Radio Pictures under production chief Dore Schary and one of the most idealistic fantasy films ever made in America. Completed for release after Howard Hughes took over the studio, The Boy With Green Hair never got the kind of push that it should have, or needed, to become anything more than a cult curio in American cinema. Director Joseph Losey delivered a Technicolor production, which might not have had an expensive cast but cost a fair amount to shoot. The movie's idealism, as well as its implicit criticism of American (and Russian, British, French, and Chinese) governmental policies (and the nuclear program), were about as harsh and confrontational as mainstream filmmaking got in 1948, even if these themes were couched in terms of fantasy and fable. The entire cast, including Stockwell, O'Brien, Ryan, and Hale, seemed to embrace the movie's message with genuine fervor, which only made the movie more potent.
