FAQ

Tchaikovsky, Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op 48,Second Movement, Valse: Moderato - Tempo di valse

Eighteen-year old Selina D'Arcey (Elizabeth Hartman) has been blind since she was five years old and lives in a slum apartment with her abusive mother Rose-Ann (Shelley Winters) and her drunkard grandfather, whom she calls Ole Pa (Wallace Ford). The only bright spot in Selina's life is sitting in the park and stringing beads. There, she meets Gordon Ralfe (Sidney Poitier), and they become friends. As Selina gets to know Gordon better, she starts falling in love with him. One day, Rose-Ann sees Gordon and Selina together and forbids Selina to see him again because he is "colored." Undaunted, Selina continues to see Gordon until things finally come to a head.

The film was adapted from the novel Be Ready with Bells and Drums (1961) by Australian author Elizabeth Kata. The novel was adapted for the screen by English film-maker Guy Green, OBE (1913-2005), who also directed the movie.

"A patch of blue" comes from one of things Selina remembers from her childhood before she got blind. When she was a small girl, too small to see out the window, she could only see a patch of blue sky above the windowsill, and that was one of very few colors she remembered. The first day that Ole Pa takes her to the park, Selina asks, "The sky's blue, isn't it?...I remember blue". Director Guy Green said that the title came from the blue patch of a British army unit. Because of their insignia, the unit was referred to as "the patch of blue". When trying to think of a title, they linked that up with her remembering the color "blue" and decided to use the phrase for the title.

When Selina was five years old, her father (Harry) came home to find her mother in bed with another man. A fight broke out, and Rose-Ann tossed a bottle of hydrogen peroxide at Harry. Hydrogen peroxide is always stored in dark bottles to prevent light from decomposing it. The bottle thrown was a light colored bottle and most likely didn't contain hydrogen peroxide. Selina doesn't say what was in the bottle, but it was more likely nail polish remover or some other corrosive chemical.

Gordon gives Selina a music box and then sings along to the melody. The words are in French. The song is called "Il pleut, il pleut, bergère" [English: "It's raining, it's raining, shepherdess"], composed in 1780 by French playwright (Philippe François Nazaire) Fabre d'Églantine (1750-1794).