Raw Wind in Eden ** (1958, Esther Williams, Jeff Chandler, Carlos Thompson, Rossana Podestà, Eduardo De Filippo, Rik Battaglia) – Classic Movie Review 12,263

Director Richard Wilson’s 1958 American Universal Pictures widescreen Mediterranean Seas romantic adventure film Raw Wind in Eden stars Esther Williams, Jeff Chandler, Carlos Thompson, Rossana Podestà, Eduardo De Filippo and Rik Battaglia. It is shot in Italy in CinemaScope and Eastmancolor by Enzo Serafin.

Romance blossoms for the two travellers – fashion model girl Laura (Williams) and her playboy pal Wally Drucker (Thompson) – stranded with mismatched locals on a semi-tropical Mediterranean small island after their small plane crashes down there.

Raw Wind in Eden is an enjoyable escape to Fantasy Island with Ms Williams, as the American supermodel sex bomb in troubled waters abroad, ably coping with the ludicrous plot and clichéd script by Elizabeth Wilson and Richard Wilson (from a story by Elizabeth Wilson and Dan Lundberg).

Rossana Podestà as Costanza, Eduardo De Filippo as her father Urbano, and Jeff Chandler as beach bum/ beachcomber Moore, whom she plans to marry, are the island locals.

Raw Wind in Eden is perfect empty-headed rainy Sunday matinée material.

It was shot off the Tuscan coast between Rome and Pisa. Filming started in June 1957 and it was premiered on 5 August 1958.

It stars Esther Williams as Laura, Jeff Chandler as Mark Moore / Scott Moorehouse, Rossana Podestà as Costanza Verno, Carlos Thompson as Wally Drucker, Rik Battaglia as Gavino, and Eduardo De Filippo as Urbano Verno.

In Italy it was called Vento di Passioni [Wind of Passions].

Rossana Podestà was born on June 20, 1934 in Libya. She was an Italian sex siren of the late 50s and 60s, best known for Helen of Troy (1956), Le Ragazze di San Frediano (1955) and Ulysses (1954). She died on December 10, 2013 in Rome, Italy.

Esther Williams began a love affair with Jeff Chandler during the shooting of Raw Wind in Eden in 1956. Things went swimmingly till she discovered that Chandler was ‘happy and secure only in women’s clothing’ and that cross-dressing gave the actor a sexual thrill.

She said that one evening she found Chandler in red wig and flowered chiffon dress. Williams recalled: ‘Here was my lover – a strong, manly figure by anyone’s estimate – who had just been standing before me in high heels and a dress. This was no joke. He enjoyed that kind of thing. He was a cross-dresser.’

But Jane Russell, who played opposite Chandler in the 1955 melodrama Foxfire, said: ‘I’ve never heard of such a thing. Cross-dressing is the last thing I would expect of Jeff. He was a sweet guy, definitely all man.’

Russell recalled being in Honolulu in 1960 for a fund-raiser when Williams expressed misgivings about her relationship with Chandler. “She said she just had to get away and think, but she certainly never mentioned anything like what she has in her book. If there was anything going on, she would have told me then. She didn’t. Esther has a naughty side. She likes to nail people to the wall.’

And Marsha Hunt who starred with Chandler in The Plunderers (1960), said: ‘I never heard a word or whisper that intimated that about Jeff.’ And Fess Parker, who appeared with Chandler in the 1959 Western The Jayhawkers, said: ‘I was shocked and surprised to read something like that. I can tell you that there was no conversation, joking or otherwise, about that kind of thing on the set.’

 © Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,263

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com