A Patch of Blue

source: A Patch of Blue

It's wonderful to have a friend... Great, incredibly moving story. A story of neglect and caring, and how friendship spans divides of race and ability. Incredibly suffocating at times, as you feel for Selina's (the blind girl's) plight, how incredibly abusive and neglectful her mother and grandfather are, and how they have left her disadvantaged. This pressure us palpably relieved every time she is with Gordon. The difference is so stark it is beautiful and moving. There are also touches of commentary on racial issues but these are mostly left as a secondary plot. Thankfully so. While the commentary was justified and relevant, making more of it would have detracted from the main story. Sidney Poitier gives his usual solid, polished performance in the lead role. The stand-out performance, however, is Elizabeth Hartman as Selina. So convincing I thought she was actually blind (she isn't). Well-deserved her Best Actress Oscar nomination and unlucky not to win the award. Shelley Winters got a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance as Rose-Ann, the evil mother. A good performance from her, playing parental neglect personified. A must-see.

Selina (Elizabeth Hartman) is a blind girl from a very trashy family. Her mother (Shelly Winters) turns tricks and her father (Wallace Ford) is a drunk. As a result of this impoverished environment, Selina hasn't seen much of the outside world and has no idea how to cope with the basics of everyday life. Her parents also didn't bother to give her any education! Not surprisingly, she's starved to experience the outside world and is a very sad young lady. Eventually, she gets a neighbor to take her to a nearby park and leave her there for the day. She loves her new experiences and soon meets a very nice and understanding man, Gordon (Sidney Poitier). They soon become friends and eventually fall in love...which is a serious problem because her trashy family are, among other things, total bigots. Another problem is Gordon's roommate (Ivan Dixon) as he, too, is a bigot. And, finally, she has no idea he's black...nor does she really care. This is a terrific film but I have one bit of warning....it's very tough watching some of the scenes between Selina and her evil mother. I can see why Winters received an Oscar for her supporting role...she was vile and vicious. Seeing her slapping the blind girl about and screaming at her is tough to watch and you might want to keep some Kleenex handy. The acting, in addition to Winters, is also terrific--and it's a truly amazing film to watch with a lot to say. Well worth seeing and it's nice to see the ugliness of prejudice is in no way mitigated or softened. As a result, it hits you like a ton of bricks and is a great counter-point to the love between the two leads.

This film is sad and effective,touching and indelible. Elizabeth Hartman is very sympathetic in this role as a blind teenager, growing up in a borderline white-trash home, with an alcoholic grandfather,and promiscuous down-at-heel mother,capably portrayed by Shelley Winters. Sidney Poitier delivers another effective performance here,as a sympathetic friend to Selena (Hartman) who tries to help better her life,even as his brother,a med student tells him to forget it, Selena is a hopeless case from "a human trash heap". The performances are touching and understated as one feels what it may be like to live as a disabled blind woman. Hartman is trampled and pushed to the ground simply because street people have no time to help her. The world is a cold place, but Poitier offers his friendship and compassion as a small patch of blue in Selena's otherwise dark world. Highly recommended.9/10.

Watching this film I was struck at once with how daring it was and how daring it could have been. A Patch Of Blue is dated very much like that other Sidney Poitier movie, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, a milestone and daring for its time, but old fashioned today. But that was about as much as America could handle back then. Newcomer Elizabeth Hartman plays the blind and childlike Selena Darcy living with her white trash mother Shelley Winters and alcoholic grandfather Wallace Ford. She's got one miserable existence, living in an apartment she rarely goes out of and stringing beads for necklaces to contribute to the family income. When she decides one day to go to the park for a bit of fresh air, she meets up with Sidney Poitier, an office worker who also likes the park during the day as a change from his night job. Hartman's been blind since the age of five, the result of Winters throwing a caustic substance at her husband during a fight and hitting the child. That child services never took this kid away at some point is beyond me. Shelley makes an extra buck or two as a hooker besides and she brings her tricks up to the apartment. All in all one miserable excuse for a human being. She's abusive drunk or sober and Wallace Ford is usually drunk. The innocent relationship that Hartman has with Poitier and it's abundantly clear no sex is involved opens up a whole new world for Hartman. She's not been taught the most rudimentary skills for coping with the world that a blind person would normally get, such as reading Braille. If this were done today the setting might have been the urban south instead of Los Angeles, some place like Atlanta for instance. And Poitier's lack of sexual enthusiasm would simply be explained with the obvious answer, that his character is gay. But four years from Stonewall that wasn't in the cards. Still A Patch Of Blue is a fine film about a young woman's reach for freedom and responsibility with the help of a new found friend. Shelley Winters won her second Oscar for Best Supporting Actress to go well on her mantel with that one for The Diary Of Anne Frank. Newcomer Elizabeth Hartman was nominated for Best Actress, but lost ironically to a most amoral Julie Christie in Darling. A Patch Of Blue marked the farewell appearance of Wallace Ford, he died as I well remember while A Patch Of Blue was still playing in theaters. A daring film for its time with a timeless message, if a remake was done today a lot could and would be changed.

As good a screen performance from Elizabeth Hartman as any you will come across. Innocence, generosity and kindness clashing against prejudice, abuse and ignorance - an all too familiar story, even today. Sidney Poitier isn't too bad either, in fact he's as outstanding as ever. If you have an ounce of compassion left after the numbing effect of this uncaring, selfish and polarising world, then let this film take hold of it and grow it - it will start to reinstate something that has been gradually chiselled away for far too long - hope!

I just saw this again on TCM tonight. It's one of my favorite movies (if not THE favorite) and I never tire of watching it. Elizabeth Hartman should have won the Oscar for her role as Selina D'Arcy. Sidney Poitier is excellent, as usual, in the role of Gordon Ralfe. Shelley Winters portrays Rose-Ann D'Arcy, Selina's mother, who is such a white-trash evil *. Ms. Winters' portrayal makes you HATE Rose-Ann... you just want to smack her! Wallace Ford plays Ole Pa, Rose-Ann's drunken father. Ivan Dixon plays Mark Ralfe, Gordon's brother. Elisabeth Frasier plays Sadie, Rose-Ann's white-trash * friend. It's great to see the friendship and love develop between Selina and Gordon as well as Selina's growing strength and independence due to Gordon's involvement in her life. ***Movie Ending Spoiler*** Gordon helps locate a school for the blind for Selina. They are in his apartment when the driver comes to take Selina to the school. Gordon asks Selina if she wants him to escort her and the driver to the awaiting bus, but she says no because she doesn't want to have to say goodbye again. After she leaves he notices the music box he gave to her (it belonged to Gordon's mother) and he tries to reach her before the bus pulls away, but he's too late. He then goes back into his apartment building with the music box. The ending is bittersweet in that the viewer knows that Selina will now have the chance at a better life. There's also the hope that Gordon will visit Selina and give her the music box and, more important, that perhaps they will continue to see each other and possibly marry someday. The ending is realistic and not a true "happy ending" where everything is neatly tied up. For me, this movie also has such a special place in my heart because actress Elizabeth Hartman herself apparently was a tortured, sensitive soul (having dealt with depression and then committing suicide in 1987). It's so sad and tragic, especially since she was such a gifted actress. She could have made many more movies. I think her performances, but especially this role, always touch viewers in a special way. Her sensitive, naive and endearing portrayal of Selina make this movie special. A Patch of Blue is a true gem. There's no other movie like it! 10/10 Stars.

have to agree with review by bgh48, this is one total fantasy Cinderella is more believable. this young woman sits in the park alone all day and nothing at all ever happens to her? she doesn't know about the public restroom, so how does she survive? she does..both bodily functions behind a tree? in public? how does she clean up? Her new friend brings her pineapple juice and she guzzles it down? how does she survive all day with nothing to drink? how is it that no law enforcement officer has ever noticed this pathetic creature sitting alone all day? since when do blind people get around by simply waving their hands in front of them? how about getting her a cane or a seeing eye dog? I could go on endlessly...this is an insane fairy tale. It made my cry too...to see something this ridiculous.

This is a very simple story,some kind of "miracle worker" in miniature. Sidney Poitier and Elizabeth Hartman -an actress I had not noticed before- give heartfelt warm performances .Nothing spectacular,the story goes straight to the heart. Selina is a poor girl who 's got nothing but a box of beads .Her family treats her like dirt ,and nobody cares for her ,nobody thinks about her education .She's blind ,so what's the point of sending her to school?Unlike the Keller family who poisoned Helen with protection ("Miracle Worker"),Selina's family left the poor thing to her own devices . Enter Sidney Poitier!In 1965,the film was revolutionary:one would have expected a little blind black girl and a white schoolteacher (for instance) and it's a black man who will take care of a white young girl!Gordon displays pedagogic skills a teacher could envy.But most of all,his lessons try to teach happiness to Selina: these foolish things,such as eating a roast beef sandwich in the park,sipping pineapple juice,shopping in a supermarket ,listening to a music box and more serious things like simply learning to cross the street. Note how people but two persons are selfish when Selina is alone in the street. As for the score ,since the beginning,it reminded me of the old French song "Il Pleut Bergère".And when Poitier began to sing the song (in a delightful French) ,I had no more doubts.This is an old song,written by Fabre D'Eglantine ,one of the revolutionaries of 1789 ;some have seen in this kiddie song a metaphor for the things to come . "Il Pleut Bergère" was a judicious choice;it goes like this. Il PLeut Il Pleut Bergère Rentre Tes Blancs Moutons Allons Sous Ma Chaumière Bergère Vite Allons! (It's raining,lil' shepherd girl/Bring in your flock of white sheep/let's go into my cottage /shepherd girl,let's go quickly!) The song perfectly reflected Selina's situation.Gordon's flat is the cottage of the song. Should not be missed if you are looking for something which is off the beaten track.

A very well-cast film version of Elizabeth Kata's novel. Jerry Goldsmith's score blends beautifully with the film's poignancy. Outstanding debut by the late Elizabeth Hartman; she is unforgettable as the blind Selina D'Arcy. Poitier is terrific as the insightful Gordon, and Shelley Winters gives a blistering portrayal as Selina's abusive, bigoted mother (Winters won Best Supporting Oscar).