The Private Lives of Adam and Eve

I saw this movie when I was 6 or 7 and it enchanted my young mind. In my polluted older age mind the enchantment remains. (I would love to see it again, but I can't find it anywhere.) I recall that several people are on a bus and have to stop and take refuge in a church on the side of the road because of a severe thunderstorm. They spend the night in the church and one of the people on the bus has a dream about the Garden of Eden. Some of the people on the bus are characters in the dream; Mickey Rooney, the bus driver, is the devil. If anyone who reads this knows how I can get a copy of it, please email me with the information - afainca75@hotmail.com.

Very peculiar comedy is alternately clever and lame... but ultimately it succeeds in providing some mild amusement. It's hard to fathom why it was so soundly condemned in its day, perhaps making a surreal comic travesty out of part of the Bible was just too far ahead of its time. It is certainly far less irreverent than "The Life of Brian." Some sequences (such as the devil's playing piano and having a barbecue) may have provided the inspiration for such scenes as the Herod scene in "Jesus Christ, Superstar." Another thing that might have irritated the bluestockings is the fact that Adam, Eve, and Lillith are definitely hot, Milner looking better out of his clothes than he ever looked in them. It's kind of like a sexy, live action Flinstones, altogether harmless and amusing. Catch the cave scene where A&E quarrel over moving the boulders (furniture)and the one in which the devil convinces Eve to cut her long hair (strategically pasted to her breasts) only to reveal a leaf -pattern bra underneath! It's full of little comic gems and some funny dialog regarding the pair's living conditions and social standing. Eve: "If I had a mother, I'd go home to her!" Adam: "Don't be silly...I AM your mother!"

I don't care what everyone else said but I liked this film.

Sure it's silly with the dream sequence in the middle and

alternates between black and white and color, but it's god a sense of fun about it. It's also got some really nice looking ladies and Eve manages to walk in a skirt that looks almost too tight to fit into. LOL.....

Sure the film didn't win or for that matter deserve to win awards for production or such but it's fun.... I had fun watching it and it just felt like there was a sense of fun in the story.





6/10

One may say "The Private Lives of Adam and Eve" should be judged on its own terms, that of a low-budget drive-in entry without any aim other than being a mild amusement; that is to say, it doesn't aspire to be high art--but then, since it isn't amusing, it must be noted that the movie has questionable aspirations, without the proper handling to steer it in the right direction. A small busload of people en route to Reno, Nevada stop off in nearby Paradise, where the driver picks up a teenage hot-rodder and two married couples on the rocks; after their trip is sidelined by a storm, the passengers take refuge in a church, where one of the frightened couples share the same dream about the Garden of Eden. Co-directed by Albert Zugsmith and Mickey Rooney (who also stars), the film is a shambles on even the most basic cinematic level. In the crude but watchable black-and-white framing story, we at least have Cecil Kellaway as the Christian bus driver who suggests the group sings "Rock of Ages" when the flood waters come. This section also has Tuesday Weld as a possible runaway and Paul Anka as the crooning teen (he also sings the title song in the film's kickiest sequence). But the color dream sequence in Eden, with Martin Milner and Mamie Van Doren as Adam and Eve, is amateurish in the extreme, particularly with an excruciatingly hammy Rooney playing the Devil. Still, one can't dismiss the movie as camp quite so easily. There is quite a bit of serious talk early on about God and the Bible, and later Van Doren shouts and cries to the Heavens, asking God to speak to her. It's a mind-boggling venture that wants to be two different things: a quickie flick for sniggering teens and an earnest character portrait in the manner of John Steinbeck's "The Wayward Bus". But you don't have to see it to believe it, because the picture isn't worth seeing. * from ****

i saw this movie on late-night t.v. back in 1962. i had no idea what it was about, as i had never watched it anytime before. i was a teenager and really am a fan of teen oriented movies, and like Paul Anka and his singing, i decided to see the movie and observe where it was headed. i noticed it was in b&w and an obscure film. after seeing it, i looked for it to play maybe at a later time but years passed and it was never shown. this makes me realize the rarity and vintage appreciation of the film as i myself am a vintage-teen movie buff and i try to collect as many 40's-50's-and 60's movie that i can find .some are shown on pay-cable t.v., others on e-bay to purchase, most reproduced on to d.v.d. the private lives of Adam and eve, i feel, even though the story is weak, due to it's obscurity and the vintage of its production era, it's a collectors prize.