The Boy with Green Hair
“War is bad for children.”
Preaching the evils of war and intolerance, The Boy With Green Hair was a simple, straightforward parable with a very unusual premise. Popular child actor (and later Quantum Leap co-star) Dean Stockwell took on the title role as a poor little boy with one problem after another.
At the start of the film, Peter Frye (Stockwell) is a recent World
War II orphan, but no one’s told him yet. Peter is simply shuffled from
one family member to another, finally settling with his kind Irish
grandfather. Gramp gives the boy a happy home, sending him off to
school with the sweet-hearted Miss Brand, but a classmate soon spills
the awful truth about Peter’s parents. Gramp comes clean, and Peter
eventually comes to terms with his war orphan status.
Before long, however, a new problem creeps up. As Peter is washing
his hair one morning, it suddenly turns green. Gramp doesn’t seem to
love the boy any less, but the local kids tease him mercilessly, and
their parents aren’t sure they want their children playing with a
green-haired boy (it might be contagious). Even the friendly milkman
turns sour on Peter, accusing him of scaring away customers who think
the milk might have caused it. Peter runs away, but a fantasy meeting
with other war orphans from posters convinces him he has a message to
share with the world, whether it wants to hear or not.
Produced near the beginning of the McCarthy era, The Boy With Green Hair
certainly had a message of its own to share, conveyed both through the
story and through songs like eden ahbez’s “Nature Boy.” Simple enough
for a child to understand, the movie was intended for all ages, and its
firm anti-war stance made it a favorite of those who grew up to protest
later conflicts.
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