A Patch of Blue Movie Review

PIty blind Selina (Elizabeth Hartman). She hasn't been marginalized so much as completely ignored by her family and society. She's a grown woman and yet she's never even been taught how to cross the street. Lucky for her she finds a savior in Gordon (Sidney Poitier), who takes her under his wing and teaches her the basics of getting around in modern society -- though he, of course, can see. A romance develops, but it doesn't go over well in these barely-unsegregated days. Whether this ends in total tragedy or a bittersweet parting is the only real question here (though the ending was altered from the novel) -- but the film is so well-acted and expertly written that you root for them nonetheless. Shelley Winters (inexplicably) won an Oscar for her role as Selina's bigoted mother.