A Patch Of Blue

A Patch Of Blue is very much of its time, 1965. It's a socially conscious film about race, with Sidney Poitier playing the part he specialized in--the perfect black man. It is probably most notable today for earning Shelley Winters her second Oscar, this time playing one of the worst mothers you'll ever see in a film.

Elizabeth Hartman stars as Selina, a blind teenage girl who lives with Winters and her grandfather (Wallace Ford). Winters is slovenly, vulgar, possibly a whore, and cruel towards Hartman, even though it was she, in an accident, that blinded her. Ford is a bit kinder, though a drunk, as he will take Hartman to the park, which she enjoys. Winters treats her like a slave, as she keeps the house clean and cooks her supper. She also has a job stringing beads.

One day in the park she meets Poitier. Of course she does not know he's black, and they form a fast friendship. He opens new worlds to her, such as learning Braille, how to cross a street or dial a telephone. Hartman has never been to a school of any kind, let alone one for blind children.

Hartman falls in love with Poitier, but he realizes this cannot go anywhere, being 1965. The fact that a scene showing them kiss was cut out of prints down south illustrates this.

A Patch Of Blue was written and directed by Guy Green, and wears its heart on its sleeve, but is effective. Winters is truly great as being truly awful, and Ford was terrific, too. Hartman was also nominated for an Oscar. She died very young, a suicide, at the age of 43, as she battled mental illness her whole life. Watching the film knowing this creates an added subtext.

Poitier, though he was limited in the types of roles he could play, always was excellent. He has only a few moments of anger--when his brother (Ivan Dixon) warns him away from Hartman, he says, "Don't tell me what to do," much as he would say "They call me Mr. Tibbs" just a few years later. When he and Winters finally meet, he puts aside any fear of her white privilege--she cries out, "He struck me!" when he pushes her away from her daughter. The location of the film is not stated, but it appears to be not in the South, as though there are stares at Poitier and Hartman walking together, nobody actually does anything about it.