Take three family members with different accents (Shelly Winters with her New "Yawk" accent; Wallace Ford with his natural New England accent; and Elizabeth Hartman with her Southern accent -- these people are supposed to be related??) Put them living in some unrecognizable town or city; there is no sense of place; are they in a big city or a suburb? There seems to be a deli and an awful lot of people crossing the street. Where are we?? Throw in goody-goody Sidney (his brother however is believably played by Ivan Dixon) Shelly Winters' Oscar is so misplaced here; she should have won it for "Lolita". Winter's character is just too unbelievable; she treats "Serena" like something out of a Victorian Dickens novel. (even Sidney's character refers to this but the script isn't as self-aware as he is!) Throw in some message about tolerance and the people who are really blind in this world and you have a very strange film that for me never comes together. All the actors have been far better in other films.
Review of A Patch of Blue
