This is one of the mostly male oriented "moody" adventure films that were so popular in the 1950's.. it has excellent casting in Jeff Chandler and Esther Williams, some say TOO good ... that this film was beneath their skill level and was nothing more than a simple showcase for them. However, I like the story (it HAS one) and the setting.. the location is as much a star as the actors ... It is well done. It is a basic story about basic, not perfect, people and this is the strength of the film.
7 Reviews
Slick, Colorful
ducdebrabant15 February 2007
Gorgeous-looking film with Esther as a good-time girl and Chandler as a man hiding from his own café-society sleazy past, brought together by an accident that lands Esther and playboy Carlos Thompson on a Mediterranean island. The stars and the scenery look grand in Technicolor, and the film is very sexy, if inconsequential. There's a nice subplot in which a jealous local youth keeps shooting at everybody from his boat because Podesta won't marry him. Williams and Chandler make a hot pair, and it makes me even more regretful that she later talked trash about him in her memoirs. It's not even as if she had a score to settle. Carlos Thompson looks amazing, but he seems to be dubbed by another actor.
A Smoldering Story of Passion and Desire
dianerpessler-4616422 July 2015
Director Richard Wilson creates a super heated atmosphere of desire in this erotic story set in an exotic locale. Esther Williams reveals a different side to herself as she sets the screen afire in this film. She is all woman and smolders with a sensuality seldom captured in cinema. Jeff Chandler is excellent playing opposite her volcanic beauty. Williams not only proves herself as an actor of consequence, she seems to actually become the good time girl looking for passion and all she can get of it. It is a memorable performance and one that no one will forget who witnesses it explode like a fire ball before their eyes.
Timeless
ruthana12 February 2003
I really enjoyed this movie, A moral piece, with delectable Esther Williams, smoking Jeff, The classy rich good looking educated spoiled rich boy, A Drop out in life to find out his truth. Exploding into his world of escape all that he had ran from to the ends of the earth "The beautiful born poor model about to hook an easy life" The dilemma that befalls both he and she, go with your heart, flow with your passion. Follow the buck. This might have been a B movie; it might had been made on a shoestring budget. I found that on sight poverty wild style of living only enhanced the story line, It branded me "this" movie into my mind for all time. I saw it the first time over thirty years ago, and I still remember it with a smile. A very good movie, only for the steak movie consumer of moral/lust/love/ with a seasoning of ironic twist at the end. I really loved it can't you tell!!!!!
Exotic title for low-rent goods...
moonspinner5515 September 2009
Made in Italy, and financed on the cheap by Universal, "Raw Wind in Eden" isn't a particularly good-looking movie, but there are some compensations for its tatty look. Esther Williams plays a surly fashion model working in Rome who flies off on a date with a handsome millionaire; forced down on a small island near Sardinia--inhabited by a gypsy girl, her father, and a reclusive American--the couple renovate a boat in hopes of being rescued. Tedious romantic adventure, albeit one with a jaunty pace, has enough tart lines in the script to hold interest in the characters. Performances from both Williams (who gets to swim) and Jeff Chandler aren't too bad, though the filmmakers have no idea how to end this saga, and the hectic last reel is a squashy mess. Still, you have to give Esther credit: even while stranded in the sticks, she manages several changes in her hairstyle and goes through a myriad of colorful outfits. *1/2 from ****
Well, I liked it anyway!
JohnHowardReid19 July 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Photographed entirely in Italy on locations in Rome, the Tyrrhenian Sea, and in the city of Castiglione de la Pescaia in Tuscany. Producer: William Alland.
Copyright 1958 by Universal-International Pictures. New York opening at Loew's State: 19 September 1958. U.S. release: October 1958. U.K. release: 29 June 1958. Australian release: 27 November 1958. 8,402 feet. 93 minutes. Censored to 7,572 feet (84 minutes) in Australia in order to gain a "General Exhibition" certificate.
SYNOPSIS: Jilted by her American playboy, Laura (Esther Williams) accepts an offer from wealthy Wally Tucker (Carlos Thompson) to join a luxury yachting party near Rome. Flying off-course in a storm, the model and her would-be lover run out of gas and crash on a small island. They are rescued by a peasant, Urbano (Eduardo de Filippo), his granddaughter, Costanza (Rossana Podesta) and an American called Moore (Jeff Chandler). As their weeks on the lonely island are prolonged by Wally's leg wound, Laura becomes attracted to the taciturn Moore with whom Costanza is also smitten. The triangle is complicated when Wally falls in love with Laura.
COMMENT: Superlatively beautiful photography in color and CinemaScope by Italian master Enzo Serafin highlights Esther Williams slinking around some attractive scenery in a dazzling assortment of skimpy or revealing costumes — far from the chaste model she always projected at M-G-M.
Indeed "Raw Wind in Eden", as the advertising for once truthfully projects, is little more than an exploitation picture, with heavy emphases on the physical charisma of its stars. Jeff gets plenty of opportunities to flex his muscles, whilst Esther (38-27-34, as the publicity boys are keen to point out) not only swims and prances about but pours on the sexual charm at every drop of an eye-lid. And not to be outdone by any Hollywood goddess, Italy's own Rossana Podesta is also on hand. Although her wardrobe is more limited, she too seems eager to display her evident appeal.
OTHER VIEWS: Seldom exciting or even convincing... The script is not strong enough and the direction does nothing to disguise its weakness... Striking location backgrounds are an asset, and the music score is often very imaginative. - Variety.
The one commendable thing is the scenery. Halfway through it looks as if the producers lost the script and went right on shooting without it... As for the acting, the score is zero. - Bosley Crowther in The New York Times.
The ads promise Esther Williams, Jeff Chandler and Rossana Podesta living and loving in color and CinemaScope on a romantic Mediterranean island. For once, the movie actually lives up to its advertising, so what's everyone carping about? - JHR writing as George Addison.
Copyright 1958 by Universal-International Pictures. New York opening at Loew's State: 19 September 1958. U.S. release: October 1958. U.K. release: 29 June 1958. Australian release: 27 November 1958. 8,402 feet. 93 minutes. Censored to 7,572 feet (84 minutes) in Australia in order to gain a "General Exhibition" certificate.
SYNOPSIS: Jilted by her American playboy, Laura (Esther Williams) accepts an offer from wealthy Wally Tucker (Carlos Thompson) to join a luxury yachting party near Rome. Flying off-course in a storm, the model and her would-be lover run out of gas and crash on a small island. They are rescued by a peasant, Urbano (Eduardo de Filippo), his granddaughter, Costanza (Rossana Podesta) and an American called Moore (Jeff Chandler). As their weeks on the lonely island are prolonged by Wally's leg wound, Laura becomes attracted to the taciturn Moore with whom Costanza is also smitten. The triangle is complicated when Wally falls in love with Laura.
COMMENT: Superlatively beautiful photography in color and CinemaScope by Italian master Enzo Serafin highlights Esther Williams slinking around some attractive scenery in a dazzling assortment of skimpy or revealing costumes — far from the chaste model she always projected at M-G-M.
Indeed "Raw Wind in Eden", as the advertising for once truthfully projects, is little more than an exploitation picture, with heavy emphases on the physical charisma of its stars. Jeff gets plenty of opportunities to flex his muscles, whilst Esther (38-27-34, as the publicity boys are keen to point out) not only swims and prances about but pours on the sexual charm at every drop of an eye-lid. And not to be outdone by any Hollywood goddess, Italy's own Rossana Podesta is also on hand. Although her wardrobe is more limited, she too seems eager to display her evident appeal.
OTHER VIEWS: Seldom exciting or even convincing... The script is not strong enough and the direction does nothing to disguise its weakness... Striking location backgrounds are an asset, and the music score is often very imaginative. - Variety.
The one commendable thing is the scenery. Halfway through it looks as if the producers lost the script and went right on shooting without it... As for the acting, the score is zero. - Bosley Crowther in The New York Times.
The ads promise Esther Williams, Jeff Chandler and Rossana Podesta living and loving in color and CinemaScope on a romantic Mediterranean island. For once, the movie actually lives up to its advertising, so what's everyone carping about? - JHR writing as George Addison.
Colorful scenery, Poor film
FANatic-1020 August 2009
This is a meandering, rather oddball film which hopefully gave its stars a nice vacation in Italy (at a time when production was booming there), but did nothing for their careers. Esther plays a successful model working in Rome, but involved with a wealthy American tycoon back home. He sends word to her via his sleazy European partner and friend Carlos Thompson that his wife will not give him a divorce to marry her. Dejected Esther immediately agrees to go with Thompson on a yachting party thrown by another millionaire off Majorca. Thompson, however, crashes his private plane carrying them in a storm onto a tiny island near Sardinia.
This island is populated only by Eduardo de Filippo, his nubile and soon-to-be of age daughter Rosanna Podesta, and Jeff Chandler, a mysterious beachcomber who is betrothed to Podesta and helps out de Filippo. Rik Battaglia plays a date farmer from the mainland who is Chandler's rival for Podesta's affections. The rest of the film, which keeps a fairly light tone while throwing in bits of melodrama and a badly done attempt at action at the end, involves Williams' and Thompson's efforts to get off of the island while unraveling the mystery of who Chandler is and what he is doing there.
The only real interest the film has is the pretty Mediterranean scenery and the only teaming of Williams and Chandler, who were engaged for a time. Williams later did her best to posthumously trash Chandler's reputation in her autobiography by describing him as a cross-dresser! Not a very gallant thing for her to do, but whether or not it was true at least it might have livened things up a bit if Jeff had modeled some of Esther's frocks in this pointless exercise.
This island is populated only by Eduardo de Filippo, his nubile and soon-to-be of age daughter Rosanna Podesta, and Jeff Chandler, a mysterious beachcomber who is betrothed to Podesta and helps out de Filippo. Rik Battaglia plays a date farmer from the mainland who is Chandler's rival for Podesta's affections. The rest of the film, which keeps a fairly light tone while throwing in bits of melodrama and a badly done attempt at action at the end, involves Williams' and Thompson's efforts to get off of the island while unraveling the mystery of who Chandler is and what he is doing there.
The only real interest the film has is the pretty Mediterranean scenery and the only teaming of Williams and Chandler, who were engaged for a time. Williams later did her best to posthumously trash Chandler's reputation in her autobiography by describing him as a cross-dresser! Not a very gallant thing for her to do, but whether or not it was true at least it might have livened things up a bit if Jeff had modeled some of Esther's frocks in this pointless exercise.
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