Phoebe Cates made her screen debut with TV teen heartthrob Willie Aames in Paradise, a landlocked Blue Lagoon with unfriendly Arabs lurking on the borders of Paradise. It's definitely got some nice nude shots of both young performers to gratify the prurient.
The two young people are in Bagdad of 1823 then part of the Ottoman Empire and governed rather loosely from Istanbul. Cates is with her guardian who is your proper British official and Aames is the son of a bible thumping reverend and his wife. All of these people haven't a clue about where they're at, just an exaggerated sense of western superiority.
But the beautiful and nubile Cates has caught the attention of a sheik who's in the slave trade. He could get some good bucks for her or keep her as private stock. He and his people ambush the caravan, but the kids escape and come to a hidden oasis where they set up and play house.
The similarities to the Blue Lagoon are rather obvious even in the looks of the protagonists. But whereas those kids had been shipwrecked on their island since they were still in single digits in The Blue Lagoon, in Paradise these two young people already know the facts of life, it's just that they have that Protestant Christian upbringing.
The film was shot in Israel and the scenery is magnificent with and without Aames and Cates. Given that Aames is now a born again Christian he probably wants those male nude shots off the market, so hang on to your DVDs and VHSs.
