A Patch of Blue (MGM) (1965)

TENSE MOMENT IN “A PATCH OF BLUE” As Ole Pa (Wallace Ford) listens, Shelly Winters denounces her blind daughter (Elizabeth Hartman) because of the friendship she has formed with Sidney Poitier in ‘*A Patch of Blue.’’ Miss Hartman, an exciting new discovery, makes her screen debut in the poignant Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film in which Poitier and Miss Winters, both Academy Award-winners, star. Still 1837-38 A Patch of Blue Mat 2-D ELIZABETH HARTMAN, EXCITING YOUNG FIND, A STAR IN HER VERY FIRST FILM Is a young girl carefully reared in a mid-sized midwestern town likely to find happiness and a pot of gold at a rainbow’s end called Hollywood? The attractive redhead nodding her head vigorously in the affirmative is Elizabeth Hartman, filmdom’s newest acquisition, freshly imported from Youngstown, Ohio. And she happens to be one of the best examples in support of her answer. Just a short while ago, she was acting with a drama group in Warren, Ohio. Today, sh2 co-stars with Academy Award-winners Sidney Poi EXCITING DISCOVERY... Playing a starring role opposite Sidney Poitier in her first appearance before the movie cameras in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s “A Patch of Blue,” red-haired Elizabeth Hartman is hailed as the most exciting newcomer of the year. A Patch of Blue Still Elizabeth Hartman 1675-E Mat 1-E tier and Shelley Winters in MetroGoldwyn-Mayer’s touching new drama, “A. Patch of Blue.” No one in Miss Hartman’s family had ever been connected with the theatre. “But I was such a shy child,” she says, “that my parents persuaded me to join a little-theatre group when I was twelve because they thought it would give me confidence, At first, I worked as an usher, Then backstage work fas 2 cinated me and, finally, I took up acting.” After high school, Miss Hartman studied drama for a year at Carnegie Tech. Next came summer school with the Kenley Players in Warren, Ohio. It was while she was appearing in “Bus Stop” that she got her chance. Ann B. Davis, the star of the play, suggested that Elizabeth make a try at Broadway. She alerted her agent to her protegee’s arrival and he took the neophyte on the rounds of producer and director offices. “T kept thinking,” says Miss Hartman, “that if I didn’t get a role, I’d just go back to the Kenley Players.” She didn’t have to. She read for two Broadway-bound plays and was offered parts in both. Her choice was “Everybody Out, the Castle Is Sinking.” The play capsized in Boston pre-Broadway, but Elizabeth surfaced with shining notices. Girl for the Part In the meantime, she also had flown to Hollywood in connection with a television series. While there, her agent brought her to MGM to test for the role of the lonely blind girl who is befriended by Sidney Poitier in “A Patch of Blue.” The film’s co-producers, Pandro S. Berman and Guy Green (who also directed), were impressed with the results of the test and were further convinced that Elizabeth was the girl for the part after interviewing her. “However,” stated Green, “we really signed Elizabeth on a hunch. We felt she’d be marvelous in this sensitive role but it takes days of working together to plumb the depths of a new performer, In less than a week on the set, I found her to be a dedicated and brilliantly talented actress.” For Miss Hartman, life has been work, work, work since her arrival in Hollywood. Before facing the cameras for the part of Selina, she was taken to visit the Braille Institute to give her a close approach to the world of the blind. “Wonderful things are accomplished there,” she says. “The students are taught the practical things, such as how to prepare a meal. I learned a great many things about the blind that I never knew before.” Hollywood’s new Cinderella lives in an apartment on Wilshire Boulevard with a Yorkshire terrier as her companion. Asked what sightseeing she had done since settling down in Hollywood, she said, “I’m not a sightseer. When I was little we used to go for automobile rides through the park, but I was always restless. I wanted to get out of the car and sit on a bench so that I could ‘experience’ the park. Living a thing is so much more rewarding than just looking on.” SI Sn. Gondonanalfes 2: oats Sidney Poitier Rose-Ann D’Arcey ..............-Shelley Winters Selina D’Arcey --_...........-Elizabeth Hartman 9 (Pils GEA ape ce RR Ree Wallace Ford Marke Ralie we. i.e. ate eee Ivan Dixon SOG. seen ee eee Elizabeth Fraser MrsRaben= ==. =. eee John Qualen Wonekswhaber oo Ae aks Kelly Flynn Selina wAGesO ne. ee Debi Storm MrseckavalorO c= 3252 2 coke Renata Vanni Mr Favaloro; <5. Saverio LoMedico Produced by Pandro S. Berman. Written for the Screen and Directed by Guy Green. Based on ‘'Be Ready with Bells and Drums”’ by Elizabeth Kata. Music by Jerry Goldsmith. Director of Photography: Robert Burks, A.S.C. In Panavision. Art Direction: George W. Davis and Urie McCleary. Set Decoration: Henry Grace, Charles S. Thompson. Special Visual Effects: Robert R. Hoag, A.S.C. Film Editor: Rita Roland. Assistant Director: Hank Moonjean. Recording Supervisor: Franklin Milton. Make-Up Created by William Tuttle. Associate Producer: Kathryn Hereford. A Pandro S. Berman-Guy Green Production. Presented by Metro-GoldwynMayer. He Made Poitier a Star When “A Patch of Blue,” starring Sidney Poitier and Shelley Winters, went before the cameras at MGM, it marked a happy reunion for Academy-winner Poitier and Pandro S. Berman, the film’s producer. Although Poitier had appeared in several motion pictures prior to his first association with Berman in “Blackboard Jungle,” it was his role as a rebellious student in that controversial film which first won him international attention. Subsequently, star and producer again worked together for MGM’s “Something of Value,” a picture which marked another step up the ladder for the young actor who was to win an “Oscar” for his portrayal in “Lillies of the Field.” Twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth Hartman, who was “discovered” in Youngstown, Ohio, and brought to Hollywood by MGM to appear opposite Sidney Poitier in “A Patch of Blue,” went all-out for realism for her screen debut. Since she had to enact a totally blind girl in the poignant drama, Miss Hartman had a special pair of opaque contact lenses made, which she used in all her scenes. Thus, for all of her days before the cameras, the young actress literally lived in a world of darkness. “A PATCH OF BLUE,” WITH TWO ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS, COMPASSIONATE DRAMA Sidney Poitier, Shelley Winters Have Vivid Roles in Poignant Film Introducing Exciting New ‘Discovery’ Elizabeth Hartman Sidney Poitier, who won the Academy Award as Best Actor for his performance in “Lillies of the Field,” offers another heartwarming portrayal in the new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film, “A Patch of Blue,” in which he costars with Shelley Winters, also an “Oscar”? winner, and which introduces a compelling young acting personality, Elizabeth Hartman, in her screen debut. “A Patch of Blue” is a moving, tender and, at moments, heartbreaking drama. It is a picture off the beaten path, unfolding a compassionate and Elizabeth Hartman, playing a blind girl, traces the contours of the face of her new-found friend, Sidney Poitier, in one of the poignant scenes of ‘*A Patch of Blue.’’ Miss Hartman, an exciting new discovery, -makes her screen debut in the new MGM film, which stars two Academy Award-winners, Poitier and Shelley Winters. A Patch of Blue Still 1837-46 Mat 1-F dramatic story with vivid characterizations. It has both tears and laughter and will prove a rewarding experience to all discriminating moviegoers. Miss Hartman plays a striking role, that of Selina, a young blind girl living in a sordid tenement environment with her slatternly mother (Miss Winters) and an alcoholic, ineffectual grandfather (Wallace Ford). Cut off from the sights of the world, her only hap piness is in being taken to the park by a. Polish merchant for whom she strings beads to help out with the family expenses. Sidney Poitier teaches Elizabeth Hartman, playing a blind girl, how to find her way around a supermarket in one of the poignant scenes of *‘A Patch of Blue.’’ Shelley Winters also stars in the heart-touching new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer attraction. Still 1837-24 A Patch of Blue Mat 2-F Here, one day, she meets Gordon (Poitier) and it is an encounter which changes her entire life. He becomes the only friend Selina has ever known. With humor and tact he teaches her the first steps to becoming self-reliant —how to make her way in _ busy thoroughfares, how to do her shopping in a supermarket, how to hide the scars underneath her eyes with dark glasses. The process in which the subdued and frightened Selina emerges from her chrysalis to become a radiant, laughing, happy girl is shown in scenes of tremendous poignancy. Eventually, her mother discovers the friendship between Selina and Gordon and in the picture’s surging climax comes close to destroying her newfound happiness and freedom. It would curtail the story’s suspense to reveal the outcome, but it can be stated that the plot is brough to a logical conclusion and that there will be few dry eyes in the audience, who are rooting for Selina to be given her chance in life. The performances of the three stars of “A Patch of Blue” are outstanding. Sidney Poitier again reveals himself to be one of the screen’s superb actors in a role combining warmth, sincerity and dramatic force. Shelley Winters makes herself completely hateful as the loudmouthed, vulgar and domineering mother. And Elizabeth Hartman, in a difficult and demanding role as the blind heroine, gives promise of becoming one of Hollywood’s most successful younger actresses. Together with Wallace Ford, the fine supporting cast features Ivan Dixon, Elizabeth Fraser and John Qualen. A Pandro S. Berman-Guy Green production, ‘A Patch-of Blue” is based on the Elizabeth Kata novel, “Be Ready with Bells and Drums.” It was written for the screen and directed by Guy Green and filmed in Panavision. FURNITURE HURLED IN FAMILY FIGHT! The dread of most Hollywood actresses in preparing for a new movie assignment is the hardship of trimming down to the weight at which they will appear most photogenic. Shelley Winters was spared this dietdominated ordeal when she reported to the MGM studios for her new role in “A Patch of Blue,” in which she costars with Sidney Poitier and the 21year-old “discovery,” Elizabeth Hartman. In fact, Academy Award-winning Miss Winters “reversed the coin.” Instead of losing weight for her part as Elizabeth’s blowzy mother, she had to gain 14 pounds, aoe claims it was her happiest movie role. It was also one of her most arduous. In one scene, she and Wallace Ford engage in an all-out, no-holds-barred, plate and furniture-throwing battle in which Miss Winters proved she could take it, as well as “dish it out.” But after the rehearsals and final filming of this “Battle of the Century,” the actress claimed she had lost almost as much extra weight as she had put on at the beginning of “A Patch of Blue.” “Fortunately, this sequence was filmed near the end of the picture,” she says, “or else I would have had to start eating all over again!” And Wallace Ford Didn't Have One Drop to Drink In MGM’s “A Patch of Blue,” in which he co-stars with Sidney Poitier and Shelley Winters, Wallace Ford’s role as a down-and-out bum called for him to wear shabby clothes, reveal a scraggly beard and, in general, to look thoroughly disreputable. _ On the way to the studio one morning, he stopped at a Sunset Strip coffee shop for breakfast. When, a few moments later, an attractive young woman seated herself at a nearby table, Ford observed that she glanced at him with a somewhat compassionate smile. But he wasn’t prepared when she rose to leave and handed him a small white card. It read: “Call Alcoholics Anonymous—We’re meeting tonight.”