This film essentially begins with several scenes of pollution on a massive scale throughout the world with the result that a new virus has developed which begins killing a great amount of the cereal grasses mankind depends upon for food. Naturally, with this development, starvation begins to take a devasting toll starting in Africa and spreading across the world with social unrest following in its wake. The scene then shifts to London where a relatively influential scientist named "John Custance" (Nigel Davenport) has obtained information about drastic actions about to be implemented throughout Great Britain and he decides to take his wife "Ann Custance" (Jean Wallace) and teenage daughter "Mary Custance" (Lynne Frederick) to a more rural area up north where his brother "David Custance" (Patrick Holt) has a farm. Also traveling with him is his assistant "Roger Burnham" (John Hamill) who also just happens to be Mary's boyfriend. Be that as it may, realizing that there are violent mobs between them and their final destination they decide to stop at a gun store along the way to purchase additional firearms and ammunition. Unfortunately, when the shop owner refuses to sell them anything, things take an immediate turn for the worse resulting in the owner being killed by his own employee "Andrew Pirrie" (Anthony May). In gratitude, John agrees to allow both him and his wife "Clara Pirrie" (Wendy Richard) to travel with them. What John doesn't realize, however, is that Andrew is much more aggressive than most people and it will take all of the leadership skills John has to keep him in line. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that--as far as early apocalyptic films are concerned--this is probably one of the better ones out there. At least for that specific time period. It does, however, seem a bit mild in comparison to those produced within the last 20 or 30 years--but that's probably to be expected. Of course, whether or not viewers in this day and age will enjoy this movie is another matter entirely.
Review of No Blade of Grass
