The Sorrowing Boy with Green Hair: A Cinematic Allegory against War and Injustice
Keywords:
war orphan, racial injustice, sorrowing child, The Boy With Green Hair, Joseph Losey, RKO Radio Pictures, 1940s Hollywood, blacklistAbstract
This paper discusses the film The Boy with Green Hair (1948), directed by Joseph Losey. It focuses on the film’s representation of the war orphan not only as a sorrowing child, but also as someone who has been marked as exceptional in order to raise public awareness on issues of war and racial injustice in the immediate postwar period. Among the sources used are reviews and critiques of the film at the time of its release in 1948; interviews with and memoirs of key personnel at RKO Radio Pictures, as well as Losey; and analyses of the film’s changing reputation. Initially viewed by some as Communist propaganda, The Boy with Green Hair is now admired as a film that boldly promoted international peace at a time when the Cold War was heating up.
References
Beaton, Betsy. “The Boy With Green Hair.” This Week, 29 December 1946, 10-11, 16-18.
Bentley, Eric. Are You Now or Have You Ever Been: The Investigation of Show Business by the Un-American Activities Committee, 1947-1958. New York: Random House, 1972.
The Boy With Green Hair. Produced by Stephen Ames [and Dore Schary] for RKO Radio Pictures. Directed by Joseph Losey. Screenplay by Ben Barzman and Alfred Lewis Levitt, based on Betsy Beaton’s short story, “The Boy with Green Hair.” Released November 1948.
“The Boy With Green Hair.” Time 53. January 10, 1949.
Brady, Thomas F. “Hollywood Issues: Communist Scare Will Not Weaken Film Content, Schary Says.” New York Times, January 25, 1948.
Bron. “The Boy With Green Hair.” Variety, November 17, 1948.
Caute, David. Joseph Losey: A Revenge on Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Ciment, Michel. Conversations with Losey. London: Methuen, 1985.
Holland, Patricia. Picturing Childhood: The Myth of the Child in Popular Imagery. London: I.B. Tauris, 2004.
McCarten, John. “The Current Cinema: Poil d’Epinard.” New Yorker, January 15, 1949.
McGilligan, Patrick and Paul Buhle. Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997.
Neve, Brian. Film and Politics in America: A Social Tradition. London: Routledge, 1992.
Prime, Rebecca. Hollywood Exiles in Europe: The Blacklist and Cold War Film Culture. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2014.
Scheuer, Philip K. “‘Boy With Green Hair’ Exerts Haunting Spell.” Los Angeles Times, March 5, 1949.
