One of my all-time favourite songs is the haunting, otherworldly ballad 'Nature Boy', originally (and most famously) recorded in 1948 by Nat King Cole, and by numerous other singers since then, including the likes of Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Peggy Lee, David Bowie, Tony Bennett, and Lady Gaga, to name but a few. My own personal favourite rendition is that of Argentinian-born American balladeer Dick Haymes, again released in 1948, but which he sang a cappella, accompanied only by a choir (The Song Spinners), thereby heightening this ethereal song's wistful, dreamy ambience, and which can be listened to on YouTube by clicking here. However, I only recently discovered that 'Nature Boy' had also been sung by a choir over the main titles (as well as appearing thereafter in instrumental snatches throughout) for a very unusual yet nowadays largely-forgotten 1940s fantasy movie, which I duly purchased in DVD format and watched on 18 October 2022. Its title? The Boy With Green Hair.
SPOILER ALERT – If you don't want to know this movie's plot, read no further!
Directed by Joseph Losey, based upon a story by Betzi Beaton, and released in Technicolor by RKO Radio Pictures in 1948, The Boy With Green Hair is set in an American backwater town just prior to the USA's entry into WW2. It begins with a small shaven-headed boy (played by a young Dean Stockwell) sitting in a police station but refusing to answer questions, or even to speak, to the police who picked him up earlier that evening wandering alone, clearly distressed but physically unharmed. However, Dr Evans (Robert Ryan), a child psychiatrist called in by the police, succeeds in gaining the runaway boy's trust, as a result of which he relates to Ryan an extraordinary, ostensibly highly improbable story but which he claims is the true history of his life right up to the present.
The boy's name is Peter Fry, who for quite some time now has been living first with one set of relatives, and then with another, and another, and another (he apparently has a very big family!), but unable to settle down with any of them, because he greatly misses his parents who have journeyed to London in order to help care for children orphaned there as a result of the Blitz. What Peter doesn't realize at this time, however, is that he too is a war orphan – his parents have been killed by German air-bombing attacks while in London (which is why he is being looked after by relatives, albeit not for long by any of them). Peter carries a sealed letter to give to each set of relatives who take him in, whose contents are unknown to him, but which include confirmation of his orphan status plus a letter from his father written before leaving for London, with instructions that it is not to be opened by Peter until he is 16 years old.
Eventually Peter finds himself taken in by a kindly elderly Irish widower (Pat O'Brien) who encourages Peter to call him Gramps (though it is never confirmed whether he really is Peter's grandfather). In Peter's eyes, Gramps is a famous actor, but in reality he is merely a singing waiter able to perform some elementary magic tricks from his long-bygone days in small-time vaudeville. Nevertheless, he and Peter hit it off, Peter warming to Gramps's gentle, cheerful, patient nature, and he even enrolls in the local school, where his class is taught by another kind soul, Miss Brand (Barbara Hale). All seems finally to be going well for Peter, until when putting up some posters at his school that are advertising the plight of war orphans, he and his fellow classmates are shocked to discover that one of the orphans pictured on one of the posters is Peter himself! This is when Peter finally discovers the tragic truth about his parents, which fills him with grief.
Gramps has often brightened Peter's days with funny little surprises to make him laugh and cheer him up, so that evening he promises grieving Peter another surprise the next morning – but the surprise is not what either of them expect. It has long been said that grief can sometimes turn a person's hair grey or even white overnight, but what happens to Peter's overnight is even more dramatic. After waking up in the morning and washing himself, including his hair, Peter looks in the mirror – and is shocked to discover that his hair, hitherto a typical, unremarkable shade of brown, is now bright green! He is even more shocked, however, when, assuming this to be Gramps's surprise, he confronts Gramps, only to find that his surprise is simply a magician's trick hankerchief, and that Gramps is just as shocked by Peter's green hair as Peter is! Worse still, when Gramps takes Peter to the local physician, Dr Knudson (Samuel S. Hinds), the bemused doctor has no answer either as to its cause or cure, or as to when, if ever, it will revert to its normal brown shade.
In the days that follow, Peter is teased and jeered unmercifully by his schoolmates regarding his green hair, while the town's adults stare at him in open-mouthed amazement, gossiping and speculating as the cause of his aberrant affliction. Moreover, it's not long before wild, baseless accusations begin to fly, with various people claiming that it must be due to something in the local milkman's milk, or in the scalp lotions used by the local hairdresser, and parents start telling their children not to go near Peter in case whatever has changed his hair's colour is contagious. Gramps and Miss Brand do their best to quell such unfounded fears, but finally Peter's will snaps and he runs away into the nearby woods, hating his hair and falling to the ground in a flood of tears.
Then, seemingly in a vision, the other orphans pictured in the posters that he'd helped put up at school appear before Peter, and tell him that he can put to good use the individuality conferred upon him by his green hair – by preaching to everyone in his town that peace and reconciliation offer the only way to prevent warfare from causing more children to suffer, and ultimately destroying the world. They tell him that because such words are being spoken by someone as instantly memorable as he is (courtesy of his green hair), Peter can make a big and very positive difference wherever he goes, as his message will be remembered.
The orphans then disappear, but Peter has been inspired by them, returning to the town and doing exactly what they urged him to, voicing their pacifist message to everyone there. Unfortunately, however, this is not enough to silence the chatter and dispel the suspicions regarding the cause of his green hair. Accordingly, after narrowly escaping the clutches of a band of schoolboys armed with scissors to cut it all off, Peter is confronted by the milkman and hairdresser, who demand that his hair be removed before they go out of business due to all the bad gossip aimed at them. Gramps tries to defend him, but finally concedes that it may be for the best, for everyone, so Peter reluctantly agrees. But after his hair is completely shaved off, he feels so distraught that he runs away, wandering aimlessly until found and taken to the station by the police, thus bringing the movie's story full circle.
After listening to his story, Dr Ryan takes Peter into the police station's waiting room, where an anxious Gramps is sitting with Miss Brand and Dr Knudson. Gramps tells Peter how sorry he is that he didn't support him and insist that he keep his hair, then he opens the letter written to Peter by his late father, reckoning that Peter is already old enough to hear its contents. In the letter, his father counsels Peter that some things are worth dying for, and to remind people of this if they should forget. Reconciled, Peter and Gramps return home together, singing a favourite song, and bringing the film to a close – which means that what colour Peter's hair is when it regrows remains forever a mystery. Does it stay green, or does it revert to its normal, less controversial brown hue? After all, as a certain frog once sang, it's not easy being green!
All in all, The Boy With Green Hair is a somewhat curious mixture of winsome small-town whimsy and quaint offbeat quirkiness, with an anti-war message that, however laudable it may be, somehow seems rather awkwardly shoe-horned into the plot rather than easing into it in a more comfortable, realistic manner. Having said that, this is an undeniably appealing movie, which also includes a second, more direct message, about treating those who are different with compassion and consideration, not contempt and condemnation. Young Stockwell (aged 12 at that time) gives an assured performance that readily foreshadowed his later, adult successes on both the big and small screens. And the strains of 'Nature Boy' running through it are obviously, and in every sense, in harmony with the concept of a mysterious green-haired boy preaching peace and love. I very much enjoyed this allegorical fantasy, one that greatly deserves a revival of interest and attention, especially in these present troubled, warring times.
Finally, just in case you were wondering – Stockwell's hair wasn't dyed green for the green-haired scenes, he wore a green wig instead. Just one problem – he was allergic to it, so much so that he actually became ill as a result!
And if you'd like to view the pivotal scene from The Boy With Green Hair in which Peter makes his startling discovery, be sure to click here to watch it on YouTube, or here to watch an official trailer for this magical, mystical movie.
To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
don't think I have ever seen this, but the plot concept strikes me as familiar... reminds me of the Green Children of Woolpit
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