Lilies of the Field (1963 film)

Lilies of the Field is a 1963 film adapted by James Poe from the 1962 novel of the same name by William Edmund Barrett, and stars Sidney Poitier, Lilia Skala, Stanley Adams, and Dan Frazer. It was produced and directed by Ralph Nelson. The title comes from Matthew 6:27-33, a portion of the Sermon on the Mount, and its parallel scripture from Luke 12:27-30. It also features an early film score by prolific composer Jerry Goldsmith. The film was turned into a Broadway musical in 1970, retitled Look to the Lilies, with Shirley Booth in the role of Mother Maria Marthe.

It tells the story of an African American itinerant worker who encounters a group of East German nuns, who believe he has been sent to them by God to build them a new chapel.

Plot

Homer Smith (Sidney Poitier) is an itinerant handyman/jack-of-all-trades who stops at a farm in the Arizona desert to obtain some water for his car. There he sees several women working on a fence, very ineptly. The women, who speak very little English, introduce themselves as German, Austrian and Hungarian nuns. The mother superior, the leader of the nuns, persuades him to do a small roofing repair. He stays overnight, assuming that he will be paid in the morning. Next day, Smith tries to persuade the mother superior to pay him by quoting Luke 10:7, "The laborer is worthy of his hire." Mother Maria Marthe (Lilia Skala, called "Mother Maria"), responds by asking him to read another Bible verse from the Sermon on the Mount: "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

Anemone coronaria

Anemone coronaria (poppy anemone, Spanish marigold, dağ lalesi in Turkish, calanit in Hebrew, shaqa'iq An-Nu'man in Arabic) is a species of flowering plant in the genus Anemone, native to the Mediterranean region.

Description

Anemone coronaria is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 20–40 cm tall (rarely to 60 cm), with a basal rosette of a few leaves, the leaves with three leaflets, each leaflet deeply lobed. The flowers are borne singly on a tall stem with a whorl of small leaves just below the flower; the flower is 3–8 cm diameter, with 5–8 red, white or blue petal-like tepals.

Cultivation

Anemone coronaria is widely grown for its decorative flowers. Numerous cultivars have been selected and named, the most popular including the De Caen and St Brigid groups of cultivars. The De Caen group are hybrids cultivated in the districts of Caen and Bayeux in France in the 18th century.

Etymology

Anemone coronaria means crown anemone, evoking regal associations.

The Arabic name is shaqa'iq An-Nu'man translated literally as the wounds, or "pieces", of Nu'man. One possible source of the name traces back to the Sumerian god of food and vegetation, Tammuz, whose Phoenician epithet was "Nea'man". Tammuz is generally considered to have been drawn into the Greek pantheon as "Adonis". Adonis died of his wounds while hunting wild boar. The deity is transformed into a flower, stained by the blood of Adonis. Tammuz's Phoenician epithet "Nea'man" is believed to be both the source of "an-Nu'man" in Arabic which came through Syriac, and of "anemone" which came through Greek. Another possible source of the name is An-Nu'man III Bin Al-Munthir, the last Lakhmid king of Al-Hirah (582-c.609 AD) and a Christian Arab. An-Nu'man is known to have protected the flowers during his reign. According to myth, the flower thrived on An-Nu'man's grave, paralleling the death and rebirth of Adonis.

Lilies of the Field

Lilies of the Field is a phrase used in Matthew 6:28 in the Bible. It may also refer to:

Lilies of the Field (1930 film)

Lilies of the Field is a 1930 American Pre-Code drama film directed by Alexander Korda, and starring Corinne Griffith, Ralph Forbes, and John Loder. It was a remake of the silent 1924 film Lilies of the Field, in which Griffith had played the same role. Both films were based on a 1921 play of the same name by William J. Hurlbut. Lilies of the Field was Griffith's first all-dialogue film. The film is not related in any way to the 1963 film of the same name, which starred Sidney Poitier.

Synopsis

Walter Hawker (Loder), who is married to Mildred Harker (Griffith), falls in love with another woman and wants to separate from his wife without losing custody of his daughter. He frames his wife and files for divorce, and Griffith ends up losing her daughter.

Mildred moves into a cheap apartment and gradually becomes a Broadway showgirl and drowns her depression in a life of alcohol and jazz. Ted Willing (Forbes), a wealthy man, becomes her devoted admirer, but after her experience with her ex-husband, Mildred finds it hard to trust anyone. When Willing offers Mildred financial help, she refuses to accept anything, fearing that her daughter may hear about it. Eventually she realizes that her daughter has completely forgotten about her and allows Willing to take care of her. One day, while she is at a party, Mildred hears of her daughter's death and has a breakdown. She is eventually jailed for vagrancy and disorderly conduct. Willing comes to the police station and rescues her.