When this film came out in 1948, my Roman Catholic Sunday School class was urged to see it, and we got the impression it was distinctly anti-Communist. I saw it, didn't care all that much for it, noticed no anti-Communist message in it, and thought it rather dull. I was, of course, 9. Seeing it now, for the first time in 71 years, I no longer find it dull, but I also don't find it any kind of forgotten masterpiece. The tale is well-told for 1948, and the credits, music and general feel of the film are of a fairy tale (forgetting the green hair business), but as charming as the relationship between Peter and Grandpa is, that to me is the only real selling point of the film. Indeed, all the performances are excellent, but if Losey's reason for making the film was to encourage peace and an end to war because, you know, it hurts children, in that it fails totally, and it is not what I took away in 1948 any more than it is what I take away from it today. Seeing a school poster with Stalin and a hammer and sickle, and another one with the word "Jewish" in it may have meant more in 1948 than they would now, but they are not followed up upon, and this was after THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES and GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT, so they couldn't have counted for much even then. The message is not exactly hammered home by Peter's encounter with the actual children from some other school posters, and nothing the kids have to say to him is very meaningful, although they give him a reason to practically run through the streets recommending peace to people who've just gone through World War II. The fault, I fear, is in the screenplay; it just doesn't carry through on whatever intentions it may have been intended to convey. And it is not really the adults, but the other children who initially try to forcibly give Peter a haircut he no longer wants. It is muddled in that respect, right up to the end.
HOWEVER, it is still a vey nice and gentle story to watch, and Dean Stockwell, who was far and away the best male child actor of his (and maybe any other) time - Rooney didn't really come into his own until he was 15, which is a bit long in the tooth for a 'child' actor - is superb throughout, as good or better than he was in THE SECRET GARDEN, which was my all-time hallmark for fine child acting. Stockwell is that rarest of child actors (Natalie Wood was another, but she died too early) who had a totally unimpeded acting career from the age of about 8 until he hit his 70s. O'Brien, an amazingly underrated actor for one of his stardom and enduring fame, is excellent as Grandpa, but is actually too young for the role. I am assuming that Ryan took this extraordinarily insignificant part due to his belief in the film's message (he was a very liberal actor even before that was trendy), and Barbara Hale is similarly wasted. But they do their jobs well. Lastly, I must have actually seen this movie before Nat "King" Cole's recording of "Nature Boy" hit the charts, because I had no recollection at all that the song was from this film, and of course we all remember the song to this day thanks to Mr. Cole. I give it a 7 because of the performances and the general 'nice' feel of the piece, but if this was supposed to be a propaganda film for peace, it certainly didn't work very well, and I doubt that any of Mr. Losey's subsequent problems with blacklisting and the like had anything to do with this particular episode in his sporadic film career. It's hard to believe that this film and, say, THE SERVANT, could have come from the same director.
Review of The Boy with Green Hair
