Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Ortiz Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

jacobs-greenwood Directed by Academy Award winning Cinematographer Guy Green, who also adapted Elizabeth Kata's novel "Be Ready With Bells and Drums", this above average drama features Shelley Winters's second Best Supporting Actress performance (The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)). This time she plays the unsympathetic role of a white trash mother to a sightless 18 year old daughter, played by Elizabeth Hartman (who earned her only Oscar nomination as Best Actress), whom she blinded!Sidney Poitier plays the man who befriends Hartman's character, and helps her to "see" a new life filled with wonder and kindness. Wallace Ford, in his final role, plays Hartman's drunken grandfather, who also lives with her and her horrible mother. The film's B&W Art Direction-Set Decoration, Robert Burk's Cinematography, and Jerry Goldsmith's Score were also nominated.The life and story of Selina D'Arcy (Hartman) is a sad one. She lives with a tramp of a cruel mother, whom she calls by her first name Rose-Ann (Winters), and her alcoholic Ole (grand) Pa (Ford) in a small, squalid apartment in the city. We learn later that she was blinded by her mother when her father came home early from a tour of duty to discover her with another man. In the fight that ensued, Rose-Ann threw a bottle (of acid?) at her husband which missed him and blinded her five year old daughter Selina. To assuage her own guilt, Rose-Ann then treats Selina as her personal slave, keeping her out of school while making her their housekeeper and personal cook. Once, Selina was even raped by one of her mother's lovers.It is unclear why Ole Pa lives with them, except perhaps because he has nowhere else to go and provides them some income. On a limited basis, at least Ole Pa occasionally protects Selina from her mother's rage and, along with a neighbor, provides Selina a means to "see" another world outside her awful home life. The neighbor, played by an unrecognizable (yet prolific character actor) John Qualen, provides Selina a means to earn her keep by hiring her to string beads for his business.Selina lives for these days when she's able to go to the park, even though she generally just sits by a large tree and makes the bead necklaces. One day she meets, quite by chance, Gordon Ralfe (Poitier), a man who helps her get a caterpillar out of her blouse that had fallen down her back.Gordon soon learns of Selina's condition, lack of education, and ignorance about virtually everything else. He is shocked to learn that, even though she's been blind for 13 years, she doesn't know how to read Braille or function in any but the simplest ways for a person in her situation. So, he "adopts" her, meeting her regularly at the park and helping her to experience life and all it entails. Though their relationship is entirely platonic, it becomes a loving one that could lead to something more despite Gordon's brother's (Ivan Dixon) warnings that he's not "seeing the forest for the trees".Through Selina, Gordon learns that her family is racist; he's yet to tell her his own race. Later, Rose-Ann learns of Selina's acquaintance with Gordon shortly after she had decided to change her daughter's home environment even more drastically with her equally trashy friend Sadie (Elisabeth Fraser).The film's ending is hopeful without being ridiculously, and/or impractically, sentimental.

lasttimeisaw The story of A PATCH OF BLUE has its immediate signifier of a tale of woe, a 17-year-old white blind-girl Selina D'Arcey (Hartman), living with her heinous mother Rose-Ann (Winters) and drunkard grandpa Old Pa (Ford) in a tiny apartment, doing all the chores and extra beadwork under the tyranny of Rose-Ann, there is no light in her life, she has received no education, never ever heard of Braille, even her meagre request of going out to the park nearby to finish her beadwork has been bluntly spurned by her mother.Thankfully, Old Pa is not pure evil like Rose-Ann, he brings her out to the park, leaves her there under a tree, and would pick her up later that day on his way back, usually completely plastered. At least in the park, Selina can finally breathe some fresh air, bask under the sun and daydream that only if she could still see the world, yes, she is not born-blind, it is all because an accident at the age of 5, guess who is the perpetrator? yes, Rose-Ann, her own mother.Right in the park, she meets a kind stranger, Gordon Ralfe (Poitier), whose affable presence and obliging gestures light up Selina's spirit from her wretched domestic tangle, he helps her organise the beads to accelerate her work, offers her pineapple juice which she has never drunk before, and thoughtfully informs her where is the nearest lady room, a cordial friendship kick-starts, but little does she know, Gordon is a black man.During their regular park meetings, Gordon takes her to walk around the neighbourhood, to establish her sense of orientation, teaches her how to cross the zebra crossing, they shop together in the supermarket and cook lunch in his apartment. Gradually, Selina opens up to him about her back-story, her lack of sophistication can even make the most horrendous thing sound like a cakewalk. It shocks Gordon, and stings him to take her under his wings against all the difficulties, an ultimate plan is to save her from the grasp of Rose-Ann, before it's too late. Meanwhile their mutual affinity is burgeoning into something more tangibly affectionate, devoid of any natural reserve, Selina declares her love for him with utter candour, even, in the touching moment, she tells him she doesn't care about his skin colour. What will he do? Thankfully, Gordon is sensible enough to make the right decision which is deemed best for her benefit.Cinematographer-turned-director Guy Green has an extraordinary knack of not sensationalising these obvious pivotal points, instead, he segues the reactions smoothly on to the proceedings in a most naturalistic fashion, take the moment when Selina realises Gordon is black from Rose-Ann's inadvertent blurting, barely a second is given to show Selina's electrified realisation during the on- going squabble which evolves into a symphony of cursing and smashing between Rose-Ann, Old Pa and their neighbours. The scenario is highly dramatised, but in light of Green's discernment, the narrative never falters into something mawkish or overripe.The late Elizabeth Hartman (who woefully committed suicide in 1987 at the age of 43) was the youngest actress Oscar-nominated for BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE at that time (a record would be superseded a decade later by Isabelle Adjani in François Truffaut's THE STORY of ADELE H 1975), in her poignant debut, her rendition of a blind girl is simply sympathy-arousing, and she shows no cold-feet against a spontaneously charismatic Poitier, whose righteous sense of justice is seething with Gordon's favourite word - tolerance, they converge upon as a scintillating duo on screen, by virtue of Green's dispassionate script, their scenes together radiate warmth, tenderise and vigour. And, being not heavy-handed with the racial card, the film can find more strength in its reverberations with today's audience.Shirley Winters wins her second Oscar in her turn as Rose-Ann, she is an out-and-out white-trash monster, it is a showy role, and understandably, she would not disappoint, every time the shot cuts to the dreary apartment where Rose-Ann materialises herself along with her hapless daughter, a gnawing worry emerges from our hearts, one might wonder why in the first place, Rose-Ann is outlined as such an atrocious mother, unrepentant, self-loathing and there is not an inkling of humanity in her, is there a blatant misogyny lurking here? Otherwise, considering that there is already a gaping barrier erecting between Selina and Gordon, to ameliorate Rose-Ann's wickedness might have rendered a more truthful spin to the fictional story, that is something would be more sensible since apart from that, the movie is insistently " calm, cool and collected". Last but not the least, to name-check the prolific veteran Wallace Ford, who concludes his swan song with impactful chagrin and self-destructive acquiescence as a "flop". An epitome Hollywood "message" production garlanded with sincere niceties and unassuming Black-and-white presentation, a humdinger it is!

higherall7 This is a wonderful film, and I won't pretend to fully appreciate all its layers and depths. Mostly, I can tell you it's about real people facing real problems in an imperfect society and world. This is a truly adult film for viewers with mature sensibilities. After watching the film Amiri Baraka's DUTCHMAN for the first time, I thought of this film. This is not in any sense meant to cast Baraka's achievement in a pejorative light, it is simply to suggest an exercise in thinking using the principle of comparison and contrast.Baraka's Dutchman presented characters as concepts in order to explore sociological implications and further indict a racist and sexist culture which forces men and women to conform to roles that do not permit them to realize their full potential. It is thought provoking and causes one to meditate upon a whole range of possibilities and alternatives for the typed characters involved.A PATCH OF BLUE is of a different cast. The characters are three dimensional from the outset, and Sidney Poitier's Gordon Ralfe comes across as a compassionate human being making a fateful encounter with Elizabeth Hartman's blind Selina D'Arcy in order to be the midwife of her deliverance.This film causes you to have a strong moral reaction to the evolving relationship between the two characters and it comes as a revelation that in in its most intimate moments, Sidney Poitier's character does not succumb to the angst often associated with the African American male, but keeps his head and acts soberly and intelligently; doing the best thing for all concerned. Like the novel, NATIVE SON, certain encounters in the film force you to ask yourself what you would do in this or that situation.There is a natural chemistry between Hartman and Poitier. A sort of easygoing being together that so easily suggests they could be a romantic couple or even married. This particularly comes across in the supermarket scene. There is actually a slightly more real sense of bonding between this pair than even when Poitier is involved with Katherine Houghton's character Joanna in GUESS WHOSE COMING TO DINNER. The sympathy factor is certainly a lot stronger. Selina has none of the advantages of a Joanna and is soon about to graduate into a life of prostitution unbeknownst to her. This, after having to endure an abusive relationship with her mother which has blinded her not only physically, but made her unable to see or appreciate the greater benefits of human contact.Shelly Winters gives a performance to rival what she did in NIGHT OF THE HUNTER and possibly A PLACE IN THE SUN, but it is Elizabeth Hartman's performance that seems the most naturalistic and affecting. The scene where it rains in the park is beautifully photographed by Cinematographer Robert Burks and is one of the many emotionally disturbing scenes that wrenches your heart.There are many films for which I wish there were a sequel. I would have loved to see Ralph and Selina encounter each other one year later to see how the perspective of their relationship had changed, just as I would have loved to see John and Joanna in Africa helping the people there master simple medical procedures that proved to be life saving and perhaps revolutionary post GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER.One thing I can say about Sidney Poitier. He has always showed the courage to dare to hold African and African American men to a higher standard. I wonder how Al Freeman Jr.'s character Clay would have responded to Selina's advances, or how Poitier's Ralph would have handled Lula?Interesting questions for another time...

bobn425 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.