Garden of Eden

1954
1h 7m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

War widow and pre-teen daughter leave home of tyrannical father-in-law in Florida, get lost on a detour, and find shelter at a nudist camp.War widow and pre-teen daughter leave home of tyrannical father-in-law in Florida, get lost on a detour, and find shelter at a nudist camp.War widow and pre-teen daughter leave home of tyrannical father-in-law in Florida, get lost on a detour, and find shelter at a nudist camp.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

4.8/10

162

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
When the film played in Tampa, FL, for an adults-only audience, a married couple was turned away because the wife was only 20 years old. The woman, it turned out, had appeared in the film. Ironically, she was old enough to appear fully nude in the film, but too young to see herself nude in the film.

Quotes
Joan Latimore: Mommy, you're the only one with clothes on. Don't you feel funny?

Crazy credits
This picture was produced with approval of the American Sunbathing Association and supervised by its executive director, Norval E. Packwood.

Connections
Featured in Sex, Censorship and the Silver Screen: Look Ma, No Clothes (1996)

User reviews8

Review

Featured review

Entertaining Nudist Film

Garden of Eden (1954)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Susan (Jamie O'Hara) wants to get away from her awful father-in-law (R.G. Armstrong) so she packs up her young daughter (Karen Sue Trent) and heads off. Their car breaks down in Tampa and they are rescued by Johnny (Mickey Knox) who takes them back to his home. His "home" turns out to be a nudist colony where the conservative Susan learns a few things.

GARDEN OF EDEN wasn't the first nudist movie ever made but it is believed to be the first one that was actually shot in color. In fact, this really isn't your typical nudist film as there are professional actors here and the main point of the film is actually it's plot. Yes, there's actually a plot here. You'll also be interested in knowing that many of the cast members would go onto appear on television shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Leave It to Beaver as well as movies like THE GODFATHER PART III, PREDATOR and THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY among others.

This film actually turned out to be pretty good as there's a nice little story at the center of it. The lead female character's husband was killed in the war and she's having to deal with the rather annoying father-in-law. She then leaves town, ends up at this joint and has a lot to think about the future of her life. I thought all of this was handled quite well and it certainly helped that we were given some real actors and they turned in nice performances. This was especially true of O'Hara and Armstrong who was making his film debut.

As far as the exploitation nature, yes, the film was originally sold because of its nudity and it faced various legal issues in nearly each state that it tried to play. The nudist scenes are what you'd expect as we see people walking around, swimming and of course there's the volleyball sequence. The people are all of the attractive nature and there's no doubt that the nudity and the setting mix well with the story and in the end it really helps the picture.

There are some obviously flaws with the movie including some of the pacing as well as some of the moral preaching but for the most part I can comfortably say that GARDEN OF EDEN is the best nudist movie that I've seen.