No Blade of Grass (1970) Reviews

“It came from a brilliant book, but Cornel Wilde, God rest his soul, I don't think he did it justice when it came to the screenplay. He seemed to go over the top and get some bits of egg on his face.”

– Wendy Richard

 

Cornel Wilde’s view of a global pandemic, this one a virus that destroys crops, reveals the shallowness of his aggressive masculinity and nihilistic view of humanity as merely meat puppets with vague social contracts threatening to implode at any second. There’s a kernel of a great idea here, most of it borrowed from the source material, done in the most overblown grindhouse way imaginable. You almost respect its uneasy juxtaposition of cheesy theme song and shocking rape scene for sheer film-making chutzpah alone. There was clearly plenty of effort involved here. Except it is in service of a truly ugly worldview and plays as something near camp with its excesses. No Blade of Grass throws everything it can think of – environmental worry, marauding gangs, murder, societal collapse, pollution – in service of a tonally confused product.

"The death of grass" in US "No blade of grass" is one my favorite novel from the british author Samuel Youd, under the name of John Christopher. Well-know for the "The Tripods" saga, Youd wrote several good novels as "The year of the comet" The world in winter" "The little people".
The 1970's adaptation, directed by magiar native Cornel Wilde (Kornél Lajos Weisz), yes the Academy Award actor, focused on a chinese virus strain has infected rice,wheat and barley crops causing massive famine and leaving world descending into anarchy. In a medieval England, engineer John Cunstance, played by british actor Nigel Davenport (the founding member of the English Stage Company), drove his family and friends in a journey of perils and pains, trying to reach John's brother's potatos farm.