THE BOY WITH GREEN HAIR (1948) (Warner Archive Blu-ray Review)

THE BOY WITH GREEN HAIR (1948)

Label: Warner Archive 

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: Unrated
Duration: 82 Minutes 1 Second 
Audio: English DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0  with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Full Frame (1.37:1)
Director: Joseph Losey 
Cast: Pat O’Brien, Robert Ryan, Barbara Hale, Dean Stockwell 

In this post WW2 anti-war fantasy fable The Boy with Green Hair (1948) a young boy whose head has been completely shaved bald is found wandering the streets of a small-town by the police. He refuses to speak or give the cops any information, so they call in psychologist Dr. Evans (Clash By Night) who talks to the boy and get him to open up a bit, revealing that his name is Peter Fry (Dean Stockewell, The Dunwich Horror) before telling the story of what happened to him to the psychologist. 

As the film plays out we discover that Peter was a war orphan, both his parents were killed while doing humanitarian work in war-torn WW2 Europe. He's been shuffled around between aunts and uncles before finally landing with a friend of the family, the kindly Gramp Fry (Pat O'Brien, Billy Jack Goes to Washington), a former vaudevillian magician. Peter settles into his new home reluctantly, and does well at his new school, plus he is initially well-liked by his peers, until one day without easy explanation his hair turns bright green. Gramps takes him to the local doc (Samuel S, Hinds, Cobra Woman) who says he doesn't know what caused it but that the boy is otherwise healthy, suggesting that the boy either dye his hair or cut it all off. Peter chooses to do neither and his green hair makes him an outcast in the community, even his usually quite nice school teacher Ms. Brand (Barbara Hale, The Giant Spider Invasion) singles him out in front of the class.

The film is a fantasy in so much as Peter has visions of Gramps performing a vaudevillian act, and after his school hosts a war-orphan benefit, during which he tragically finds out he's a war orphan (something that was never told to him previously!), he imagines the war-orphans from the PSA posters appearing to him at an old dilapidated house in the woods, who tell him he can use his green hair to remind people of the horrors of war. The kids at school not only shun him out of fear of "catching" the green hair, but there's a group of bullies who chase after him through the woods with a pair of scissors to cut his hair. After enduring the ridicule of his peers and adults in the community, with the exception of kindly old Gramps pretty strongly sides with him, Peter asks to be taken to the barber and has his head shaved while the whole town watches from the windows, before running away in the night.

I remember seeing this as a kid in the 80's and not caring for it much, and while I certainly appreciate the humanitarian anti-war message of a bit more now I'm still not a huge fan, it's well made but feels a bit slight, lacking an edge, though as it was seemingly aimed at kids that's not surprising. With that said, I thought it looked great in Technicolor, there's an elegant simplicity to the camerawork of cinematographer George Barnes (War of the Worlds), and Dean Stockwell is terrific, already a veteran of ten films by the time he made this, his range of emotion and subtle facial expressions to convey his conflicted emotions. 

Audio/Video: The Boy with the Green Hair (1948) arrives on region-free Blu-ray with a new 2023 1080p HD Master from 4K scan of original Technicolor camera negatives, and it looks wonderful. The Technicolor shot flick is gorgeously restored, colors are vibrant and it has excellent depth and clarity, the primaries pop quite nicely when called upon particaurly the titular green hair, but also the greens of the grass and trees, a stage play scenes has gorgeous purples, but for the most part this is a film heavy on earthy colors, but they look great, and there's a lush layer of fine film grain present throughout, another top-notch Technicolor restoration from WAC. The source is in fantastic shape with nary a blemish to be seen. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles. This is a dialogue heavy drama and the audio isn't jumping out at you but the spoken lines are clear and precise and the score from Leigh Harline and Constantin Bakaleinikoff sounds terrific. 

The only extras is the vintage Short Film “A Really Important Person” which runs just under 11-minutes, and also stars a young Dean Stockwell as a boy looking to win a new baseball mitt by entering an essay writing contest. It's pretty lightweight stuff but the Stockwell tie-in makes this a nice addition, it was also featured on the 2009 WB DVD edition. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a one-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the original movie poster artwork. 

Special Feature: 

- Classic short subject “A Really Important Person” (with Dean Stockwell) (10:51) 

Screenshots from the Warner Archive Blu-ray: 

 

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