DON CAMILLO MEETS THE FLOWER CHILDREN

It's unfortunate that American editors go along with the popular misconception that the gentle, pacific and unwashed ""flower children"" are one and the same as the angry, hostile and unwashed Hell's Angels sort that attack the physical and moral sensibilities of Don Camillo in this latest flotsam from the banks of the Po. Now Don Camillo, an elderly but exceedingly muscular priest, comforted by the continued lofty malevolence of his old enemy (the Communist mayor, Peppone), puts down Satan in the form of rebellious youth, welfare state politics, reforming practices within the Church, and the blasphemous behavior of his fiendish niece, lovely (if unkempt) Flora. It is Flora who directs assaults upon his priestly person, encourages the political and social involvement of an unpleasant young prelate, becomes Miss Unity for a day in a Communist parade, hides in the belltower, and raises hell generally. But in the end Flora weds the Mayor's son in an orthodox church wedding; the young hoodlums seem reformed temporarily at least; and justice and the Right prevail. For a conservative audience who will be glad to know Don Camillo is on their side.