RAW WIND IN EDEN (1958)

‘Wet, she's a star. Dry, she ain't,’  Ziegfeld Follies star/Funny Girl Fannie Brice on swimming film star Esther Williams.  Easy to forget just how big a star she was, too (regular Top Ten lister for a decade); easy to forget how fast she fell after climbing out of M-G-M’s swimming pool.  Four pics & out, including this odd project from Orson Welles pal Richard Wilson.  Ignore that dangerous sounding title and the sexed up ad campaign, the film turns out to be more along the lines of one of those Doris Day/Rock Hudson romantic farces.  Esther even acting & sounding a lot like Doris as a statuesque fashion model flying home with new gazillionaire pal Carlos Thompson (distractingly dubbed with Paul Frees’ familiar voice).  But the plane goes down on Jeff Chandler’s island hideaway where he gets by with girlfriend Rossana Podestà, philosophizing papa Eduardo De Filippo and the occasional ‘visit’ by jealous ‘ex’ Rik Battaglia.  You’ll guess the rest.  Hint: Chandler’s not some beachcomber but an eccentric gazillionaire disappointed in mankind.  Well, something like that.  Italian cinematographer Enzo Serafin does unexpectedly fine work, and horror film composer Hans J. Salter makes with the laughs on a lousy music track.  The one working joke is that someone must have agreed with Fanny Brice and keeps Esther wet as much as possible.  But in this case, the Adriatic a pale imitation of M-G-M’s backlot pool.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: For Esther at her early prime, try BATHING BEAUTY/’44.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2012/05/bathing-beauty-1944.html