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“The Boy With Green Hair.” Nostalgia Merchant. $19.95. Director Joseph Losey’s first film is a fascinating pre-Cold War relic: a lavish pacifist social fable, a pet project of then-RKO head Dore Schary, about a WWII orphan whose hair turns mysteriously green, underlining his “difference” in a Norman Rockwellian hometown. It’s a confused idea--the central gimmick is better suited to an attack on racial prejudice than against war. And, unhappily, within several years, Losey, co-writer Ben Barzman and cartoonist John Hubley (who did Losey’s storyboards here) were all on the blacklist. Yet the movie, despite some gauche fantasy scenes, has a haunting charm: cold, gentle, whimsical and compassionate. And the cast--especially Robert Ryan as a cop, Dean Stockwell as the orphan and Pat O’Brien as his vaudevillian guardian--is wonderful. Information: (213) 216-7900. *** 1/2
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