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In my previous post I discussed the anti-drug and so-called “spy thriller” The Poppy Is Also A Flower from 1966 which was originally intended for broadcast tv but also had a limited run theatrical release the following year. I had vaguely known about Poppy for many years because it featured some of my favorite movie stars like Rita Hayworth, Stephen Boyd, and Angie Dickinson along with many other entertainers who made up the stellar cast (although the film itself wasn’t anything to set the world on fire!)
It was only through perusing my Amazon Prime Video that I realized it was finally available to watch as I don’t ever recall it being available on video or through cable tv at any previous time.So, naturally I was pleased it could now be viewed and only realized through further research that The Poppy Is Also A Flower was part of a larger series of tv films produced as goodwill pieces to promote the United Nations and its works around the world. As it turned out, only four of the six planned films including Poppy came to fruition, and I’d like to discuss these further in this post.
First off, it’s important to provide some background about the United Nations itself as it seems to have lost power and prestige around the world in our current era. In my estimation it seems faded and we don’t here much about it anymore. The organization began life in late 1945 in the aftermath of World War Two to try and help restore some semblance of peace and security in the wake of the largest most devastating conflict in recorded history. The United Nations was intended to replace the long defunct League Of Nations which had started in 1919 after World War One to serve the same purpose of restoring global cooperation and some sanity after another horrific conflict. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a dismal, squalid failure.
Nevertheless, the current organization has tried valiantly (if in vain in many cases) to send peacekeeping forces and humanitarian aid to areas ravaged by conflict around the globe. Now, let’s get to a discussion of the tv film series. The first one which aired on December 28, 1964 was called A Carol For Another Christmas written by Rod Serling of Twilight Zone fame and starring high profile actors of the day like Peter Sellers Eva Marie Saint and Sterling Hayden among others. In this updated version of Charles Dickens’ tale a crotchety, sour old industrialist (perhaps a John D. Rockefeller or Cornelius Vanderbilt prototype) who meets up with three ghosts who try to convince him of the need for global cooperation to avoid further conflicts among nations that could lead to nuclear catastrophe…which will be the end of everything, once and for all!
The response from critics was mixed at best with some downright scathing. For instance, Jack Gould of the New York Times declared Carol to be: “a pretentious and wearing exercise in garrulous ineptitude, one of the more dismaying TV disappointments in several seasons.” That was only his first review. After some viewers disagreed with this assessment Gould doubled down on his opinion with a second review stating: A Carol For Another Christmas was “condescending, pretentious, and dull, “platitudinous propaganda” among other ‘ouch’ comments! Apparently, Gould sharply disliked the church-type sermonizing trying to convince viewers that the United Nations was supposed to be so good for them.
The second film in this series was called Who Has Seen The Wind ?(1965). This story still has relevance today as it concerns a family of displaced refugees who are refused asylum everywhere. We’re all well aware that there is hostility to migrants and refugees regardless of where they come from, for whatever reason. Large numbers of native populations from most host countries bitterly resent taking in displaced peoples — and the reasons for this are not entirely due to xenophobia. If there was complete, open, and honest discussion about this thorny international issue we could admit there is considerable justification for it. That however, is another discussion entirely!
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From my research, though, it doesn’t appear that Who Has Seen The Wind ? is currently available for streaming platforms. However, I’m still eager to watch it somehow because the film is obscure (which always intrigues me) and the subject matter still timely. The film features a prominent cast including British actor Stanley Baker and the perennially popular Hollywood character actor Edward G. Robinson. In any event, I think it’s pretty difficult to imagine what it would be like to be a refugee on a tramp steamer endlessly traversing the seas and being rejected at every port-of-call, unworthy of being accepted anywhere as the synopsis of the story relates. If Who Has Seen The Wind ? does become available for streaming I will update this post. I will finish up the rest of the United Nations film series in my next post because I didn’t want this one to be overly long.
