The Green Girl

I wasn't expecting too much after reading some of the critical reviews on here, but after watching this (twice) I think that some have been a bit too harsh considering that Susan herself wasn't still alive to give an interview, that many people who knew her had already passed away, and that she kept many things to herself throughout her life. It's understandable that this film might lack a little "depth" in regard to who she was and what she was like off screen, but I felt that what was known was covered as well as it could be.It's quite obvious that a LOT of effort went into compiling this work. So many clips of her many appearances were included it was amazing. I can only imagine the amount of work it took not only to to track all these clips down, but to then negotiate usage rights and also compile everything. A lot of very well known industry people were interviewed as well. The making of this film was clearly a monumental effort. I'm thankful that George Pappy, Jr. made this film. Susan Oliver deserved it.As some have commented, many of the interviews were shown broken up into short "5-second" clips. I think this was to try to break up the monotony of watching so many samples of her performances. It did seem a bit fast paced at times, but never boring. I liked the fact that the names (and relation) of the people interviewed were shown repeatedly as they appeared as opposed to one time when they first appear and never again. It made it easier to follow. Some of the clips were so short that I had trouble reading the name tags.Her flying activities were well covered with a lot of great footage of her flying and interviews with fellow aviators. There are a lot of photos from her childhood. There's nowhere else you're going to see this stuff. It's wonderful it was documented before it was lost forever.I didn't get the sense that the film "skipped around" is a disjointed way, as one reviewer described. There were a lot of clips shown of her performances. One clip might be from 1964, the next clip maybe from a film 2 years earlier, then back to 1964 or 1965, but it was only a couple of years, so I wasn't at all bothered. The story started at the beginning and ended at the end, in more-or-less chronological order.The film goes into her close relationship with her mother, who was often present on set. Susan never found her soul mate and never had any children, although she supposedly turned down 3 marriage proposals. Why she never married is a bit of a mystery. Several people interviewed speculated that her ever-present mother may have sabotaged her relationships. Some may point to this as an example of "lack of depth" in the film, but if nobody knows, nobody knows. Susan wasn't alive for comment.She was quite well off and lived in a mansion. She owned at least nine properties at one time, most of them rentals I believe, and lost virtually all of them due to signing some bad contracts. Unfortunately, details of this weren't explained.The end for her was quite sad. Her health declined due to cancer. At the age of 58 she looked to be in her 70's. She put too much faith in holistic treatments in Mexico which cost her her life. She pretty much died alone after a brief stay at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital. She deserved better.I paid $12.99 for this DVD and I think it was a great value. I highly recommend this film.

In the 1950s and all through the 1960s, it was almost impossible to turn on the television and not see actress Susan Oliver guest starring in one TV show after another. She was a highly sought after young actress who had an almost otherworldly angelic appearance with her blond hair, beautiful skin and very startling blue eyes. What was impossible to believe and harder to explain was why the movie roles didn't come her way. She did some movies but not the kind of high quality movies an actress of her stature deserved. Don't be fooled by the fact Susan was blond and blue eyed. She was young and smart as a whip. She was a skilled airplane pilot, having the certification, I believe, for flying a commercial airline. How many women could say they could do that? In the 1960s or 1970s? Susan's downfall as a movie actress, apparently, was passing on a role for a movie so she could appear on the stage. This was back in the day after the studios had presumably lost their power to hold actors and actresses to long term contracts and dictate what movies they could or would appear in or not appear in.So, Susan had the occasional movie role and the occasional guest starring role on television. Once you saw her, she made an impression on you. And if you saw her name in the credits of the television shows she appeared in, you made it a point of watching that TV show. Same for any movie she was in. However, Susan not only passed on a movie, she also passed on doing a television series that could've made her more of a household name. Like a lot of young people of her time and afterwards, she demanded success on her own terms. Later on, when her acting career was on the downhill slide, she turned to directing shows. including an episode of "M*A*S*H."But, all the while, Susan Oliver remained an enigma, even among her diehard fans (including yours truly). Susan, a chain smoker, died of lung cancer in 1990 at age 58. becoming more of an enigma because there were no biographies out there. She didn't deserve to be forgotten like that. The documentary "The Green Girl" is the first biography (in video form) exploring who Susan was, and it may be the only biography, though I can't imagine that. Some have complained about what this video doesn't have in trying to document Susan's life, though given the stage of her life most people are interested in is now going on 50 to 60 years ago, the number of people who could provide some detail to what her life isn't a large number and shrinks every year. One can find fault with everything. As a fan of Susan Oliver's, this documentary will do until something better comes along. And even then, the video disc is worth having because of the footage there is of the beautiful lady. And what a beautiful lady she was!By the way, regarding Susan's age, up until her death, her year of birth was given in the yearly almanacs as 1937. That information was supplied by the studios, agents and managers. And while it's not surprising a manager or she shaved off five years of her life, at some point, most actors and actresses give on the charade and fess up to what their actual year of birth was and how old they really are. I never did see any mention of Susan being born in 1932 until after her death. And even then, some were claiming she was even older, claiming she was born in 1928. Apparently, some just can't conceive there might be two or more people with the same name. Susan was born Charlotte Gerckes, taking her mother's maiden name and changing her name to Susan to make her a more commercial actress. But, whether you do or don't buy this documentary (buy it!), if you see a rerun of an old TV show or movie from the 50s and 60s with Susan in it, watch it. You can't help but be impressed.

Wonderfull