A Patch of Blue | | Cast : | Sidney Poitier, Shelley Winters, Elizabeth Hartman | | Director : | Guy Green | | Studio : | Warner Home Video | | Format : | Black & White, Closed-captioned | | Released Date : | December 10, 1965 | | DVD Released Date : | February 04, 2003 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), French (Original Language), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | NR (Not Rated) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 11, 2005 | | Summary | Goldsmith's "Mockingbird" | Content
 | Jerry Goldsmith's splendid score for this touching, senitmental movie treasure remains one of my personal favorites. He deservedily earned his second Oscar nomination for this charming and emotional work that has been given superb attention to detail with the restored music contained on the Intrada CD reissue--yet another masterwork of the Goldsmith legacy. As with the original Mainstream pressing LPs of "The Trouble With Angels" and "The Blue Max", I find myself going back to listen to the original LP and experiencing the thrill of my earliest days as a soundtrack collector. [filmfactsman] |
| Rating | | | Date | May 08, 2005 | | Summary | A patch of black | Content
| Parental neglect robs juvenile Selina of true love and a moral foudation in childhood. One day she stumbles upon a patch of black (Gordon) largely different from the darkness with which she is accustomed to growing up blind. He describes for her a new world with blue skies, education, purpose, and love. She mistakes his concern and friendship for carnal love which makes Gordon's challenge to assist all the more difficult, especially considering the racial divide of the time. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 12, 2005 | | Summary | Green and "Blue" | Content
| Astoundingly enough, director Guy Green is still with us and at age 92 his memories of making A PATCH OF BLUE are still crisp, almost visionary. Usually I skip DVD commentary by directors and crew, preferring just to experience the picture without someone yakking off screen, but here it is worth a second viewing to understand the frustrations and finally the rewards Green (and producer Pandro Berman) faced in filming the novel, BE READY WITH BELLS AND DRUMS by Elizabeth Kata. Though set in the deep South, BE READY was written by an Australian author who had never set foot in the USA!
She did a great job, but Green and Berman shelved the depressing vigilance ending of the novel and tried to tailor it for Sidney Poitier's personality. At the time that screen image was of the perfect man who just happened to be black. Kindly, radiantly handsome, strong, athletic, musical, a genius, Poitier's image was carved in stone at this point. His interest in little Selena is painted as the gesture of a great human being for one of the poor unfortunate ones. In return Elizabeth Hartman gives it all she's got. I was reminded often of the scenes in Chaplin's City Lights, where the Little Tramp falls in love with a blind girl and hustles like mad to earn enough money to finance an operation that will cure her but which will inevitably destroy her love for him once she sees what he actually looks like!
Green also directed three US movies in the following years, none of which have arrived yet on DVD, and barely even on video, but all of them worthy of DVD treatment (hopefully with his memories attached): PRETTY POLLY with Hayley Mills, ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH with Melina Mercouri, David Janssen and Alexis Smith, and the incredible THE MAGUS, which is like BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS taken straight. Release them at once, film czars! |
| Rating | | | Date | March 22, 2005 | | Summary | Great DVD-Great Movie | Content
| They did an outstanding job of transferring this film to DVD and the 2.35x1 aspect ratio is how you want to see this; especially for the scenes in the apartment. They must have found an almost perfect print (or the original MGM negative) because the DVD is as crisp and clean as any I have ever seen. Because B&W relies so much on contrast and shadows there is often a problem with the old prints, but this well shot feature looks as good as it did in 1965.
It took me almost 40 years to finally see "A Patch of Blue". It was promoted as the kind of trendy, raise your social consciousness movie that I avoid like the plague. The mid-sixties was full of this kind of moralizing political stuff, as the country finally began to wake up to the embarrassing social inequities and the hypocrisy that hung over everything like a cloud of poison gas. The older half of the baby boomer generation was beginning to question the fear and hate of their parents, and Hollywood was beginning to discover that this had exploitation potential. Most of these things were moronic at the time and have not improved with age.
Ironically, what led to my finally viewing this film was watching Catherine Deneuve in another film from 1965; Polanski's "Repulsion". Writing a review of that film I lamented the failure of the Academy to nominate Deneuve for Best Actress and Polanski for Best Director. Whatever was thought then about the films and performances actually nominated, in retrospect they pale in comparison to "Repulsion". No one even gives a thought anymore to "Darling" or "Ship of Fools", "Doctor Zhivago" is more big that it is good, and Julie Andrews was great in a very weak movie (but decent musical). While "A Thousand Clowns" and "The Collector"-with Samantha Eggar, are good cult films, they are easy to dismiss.
But when I got to Elizabeth Hartman's nomination for "A Patch of Blue" I realized that I knew very little about her or the performance, having dismissed it as just a reprise of Patty Duke's performance in "The Miracle Worker". I became more intrigued when I discovered that Hartman was the actress who blew me away in "The Beguiled", so I picked up a copy of the 2.35x1 aspect ratio DVD of "Patch of Blue". I was surprised to find that a film with the name of a color in its title had been shot in black and white.
After seeing "Patch of Blue" I still made my case for "Repulsion", but qualified it by saying only Hartman's performance was in the same class as that of Deneuve. Which was quite a concession for me but both performances are truly wonderful.
As for "Patch of Blue", I found it absolutely amazing-close to perfection. There were so many places where Guy Green could have screwed it up and he neatly avoided them all.
The director is presented with a real problem when deciding how to film an actor playing a blind person. Tight shots on the eyes are what makes acting for the camera so special. Unfortunately the unfocused eyes of a blind person cannot convey much emotion, in fact anything but a blank stare betrays the blind illusion. So Guy Green had to get a verbal and body language performance out Hartman that compensated for not being able to use tight shots, and Hartman had to work at not just playing a complex character but also at maintaining the illusion that she was blind. All her scenes are excellent but she has three that are especially memorable.
The first is at the kitchen table where she casually discusses being raped with Gordon. Her matter-of-fact narration plays perfectly with Poitier's horrified reaction.
The second is after a stranger has helped her back to the apartment from her terrifying failed attempt to find the park by herself. In a few minutes she ranges from despair so deep it verges on madness, to extreme gratitude toward the boy who brings her a message, to giddy joy at the realization that Gordon cares enough about her to send someone to see what has happened to her. Hartman plays all parts of the scene convincingly-I wonder if they shot it all the same day or if Green shot each sequence separately.
The third scene (and my personal favorite) is when she is alone in the park and it starts to rain. If someone told me of the challenges posed by this scene, I would not have given it much chance of success, yet Green pulls it off and Hartman is absolutely believable. The is the scene where you first really connect to Selena's fear and isolation, because by this time you know and identify with the character. Absolutely amazing.
Here is a little Elizabeth Hartman trivia. After Patty Duke turned down the role because of type-casting concerns and Hayley Mills for financial reasons (what a disaster that would have been), they tested 150 unknowns and choose the 22 year old Hartman. "I believe I was lacking the things they wanted an actress to lack," Hartman told Sidney Skolsky when he made her the subject of one of his "Tintypes" profiles. After meeting her Slolsky said: "She is shy, timid. She sleeps in a normal-size bed in sleeveless nightgowns. She always takes her Raggedy-Ann doll to bed with her." Prior to Oscar night Hartman, who still lived in Youngstown with her mother, commented "I'm just waiting for someone to offer me a part in a picture or a play. I'm climbing the walls, as a matter of fact". MGM did not use her picture in their Oscar ads for her but used a sight gag, a pair of sunglasses in a Price Waterhouse envelope.
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| Rating | | | Date | November 15, 2004 | | Summary | Patch Work | Content
| Jerry Goldsmith is without question, one of the best film score composers, who ever worked in Hollywood. Along with fellow composer John Williams, these two men revolutionized the film music industry, so that the movie underscore was elevated in stature and public consciousness. Since Goldsmith's death in July of 2004, it's hard for me to imagine that there will not be another film made featuring his masterful touch. My soundtrack collection already contains many of his works...But it is still not as complete as I would like it to be, as far as Goldsmith is concerned. His score for the 1965 film, A Patch Of Blue is one that I have wanted for quite some time now.
Goldsmith's score is intimate, playful, and yes romantic and captures the escence of a movie with social implications at the time of its release. The main theme makes wonderful use of the piano and then teams it up with snipets of the harmonica for an interesting sound. Like the film itself, the score didn't need anything big about it, as explores the relationship of the characters. The only cue that is dated really is "Just The Radio" blares out a bit the 60's sound as Salina readies for an uncertain evening out. Towards the end of the score, as events in the film take a more dramatic turn, Goldsmith takes the music right along with it.
Those used to hearing the composer's epic qualities shine in films like Star Trek, The Omen, Planet Of The Apes, Tora Tora Tora, and Patton may be a bit surprised by the score and how it plays. Don't worry it still very much in keeping with his body of work. Subtle is the order of the day here. Album producer Douglass Fake provides liner notes on the film and the score, complete with cue analysis and notes on the release itself. The CD has 19 tracks and a running time of 31:46. Highly recommended for Goldsmith collectors. |
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