Sunday, December 20, 2015

Movie review - "Raw Wind in Eden" (1958) **

Disappointing movie despite a decent set up, location filming in Italy and colour - hoity toity model Esther Williams crashes on an island inhabited by mysterious loner Jeff Chandler. Williams and Chandler are a good match - he's a lot more virile than most of her co-stars, they have chemistry (an affair in real life), are clearly physical people, and had learned to act well enough by now. There are a few hot scenes where they are both out of the water and kiss and are clearly into it.

But it's a slight story that needed something add - either it should have been done as a musical, with palm trees, comic relief and songs (it's a shame Chandler, who could sing, never made a musical) or as an action film, with baddies and shoot outs, or a character drama with genuinely interesting characters and lots of sexual tension.

This is really a dull drama with a bit of action towards the end. The characters are all stock - dodgy Italian lover (Carlos Thompson), shallow model (Esther Williams), mysterious man who was actually a war hero and feels guilty for "killing" his ex when really he didn't (Jeff Chandler), wacky locals, sexy naive local girl.

Williams and Chandler were capable of stepping up to the plate but the writers and director Richard Wilson weren't. Really dull.

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