A Patch of Blue is directed by Guy Green, is written by Guy Green, is based on the novel by Elizabeth Kata, has music by Jerry Goldsmith and stars Sidney Poitier, Elizabeth Hartman and Shelley Winters.A Patch of Blue is one of the saddest and yet uplifting films I've ever seen. Selina has suffered so much and her mother is endlessly cruel to her and treats her like a servant instead of her daughter. Despite the injury which blinded her, her sexual assault and the way she is treated Selina remains kind and gentle, she isn't nasty or bitter like her mother.Selina (Elizabeth Hartman)is a blind teenager who lives in a small apartment with her mother Rose-Ann(Shelley Winters)and her grandfather ole pa(Wallace Ford). Rose-Ann is nasty and cruel to her daughter and makes her do all the house work. Selina can manage very well around the apartment considering her impairment but struggles when she is outside. Her grandfather often takes her to the local park and leaves her there while he goes drinking.While she is in the park one day she meets kind office worker Gordon Ralfe(Sidney Poitier). Gordon befriends her and teaches her how manage to get around outside by herself, as the two spend more time together Selina falls in love with him unaware that he is a black man. Gordon comes to realise she is developing romantic feelings for him and he knows that given the time they live in, such a relationship would be dangerous for them and would sadly make them hated by some people. Selina isn't aware of racism and doesn't understand why some people are hated because of their skin colour.This is such a sad film, your heart breaks for Selina so many times and you admire the fact that her difficult life hasn't broken her emotionally, she remains positive despite her past. Both Poitier and Hartman are superb and their shared scenes together are so genuine, you believe their friendship. Poitier is very good as the outgoing Gordon who can't comprehend Selina's life and seeks to change it for her. He portrays this mans kindness so well and also how sad he is when he learns what Selina has suffered.Hartman is unforgettable as Selina and she was nominated for the best actress Oscar, sadly she lost and that is a real shame because her performance is so strong. Hartman tragically committed suicide in 1987, a sad loss of such a talented actress.Shelley Winters won the best supporting actress Oscar for her portrayal of the mother from hell. Rose-Ann is tough talking and vulgar and Winters portrays her so convincingly that she is scary.Jerry Goldsmith's score is beautiful and sounds like a lullaby.

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...

Along with the rest of the cast. All giving Career performances.And a huge surprise for me.Saw it first shortly after it came out and was, frankly, unimpressed. This was the sixties and I was a teen radical and the whole movie just seemed pasty and whiny and slow and superficial and made no sense. A Fifties-ish mentality clashing wildly with our anti-racism militancy.Well OPPS and take my own advice - see the movie on the screen, not the one colored by your expectations.I'm delighted that, when recently broadcast on TCM, I decided to record and archive it as An Important Movie.Turns out this time I saw a movie that is infinitely more complex than the simple story I remembered and, rather than being dated, treats its theme of racism in a style that is as fresh and intimate today as it may have been in 1965.The key is the subtlety of of the movie's cinematography, its use of light and dark to evoke layers of the Light and Darkness of the human soul, telling a parallel, broader story in counterpoint to the simple love story portrayed by Poitier and Hartman, both stories twined as a totally engaging dance.There are other, symbolic devices in addition to light and dark; small things that, like plays on expectations, reinforce that dance. Part of the fun is watching them play out.And, though I remembered a negative ending, based on race, this time I recognized its much more positive ending based on a lightly expressed 'Possibility': the last step of the dance leaving room for a future.1965 was a year of strong contenders so I was delighted that Shelly Winters received an Oscar for her performance but, based on my updated perception, wish that the Academy had granted A Patch of Blue a nomination for Best Picture and Poitier Best Actor.A World Class Movie.P.S. OK, one example device: the Mustang parked on the street as Poitier rushes out of his apartment house at the end. Just a dim, shadowy rear-end glimpse but still an evocation of individualism, freedom and joy that that car, specifically that car, still represents - even to those who weren't teenagers in the '60s.

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.