During the ’80s, this film was released on U.S. VHS videocassette by Transworld Entertainment under the misleading title of BLUE PARADISE, but despite the “Adult” classification on the box spine, most people probably never bothered renting it. Given Transworld’s rather mundane cover art and generic re-title, the casual observer might have easily mistaken this as just another rip-off of Randal Kleiser’s then-recent smash-hit THE BLUE LAGOON (1980), but Luigi Russo’s and Enzo Doria’s ADAM AND EVE (1983) is anything but. Unbelievably, as if challenging the Power of God, this utterly ridiculous if sometimes perversely entertaining re-telling of the Adam and Eve story made its high-definition debut last year courtesy of those God-fearing souls at Severin Films.
Opening with grainy stock footage of the cosmos, which is accompanied by some brief introductory narration from the Book of Genesis (“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth.”), the film makes several allusions to the Bible, not the least of which is Eve being deceived into eating the apple from the Tree of Knowledge (“The apple is sweeter because it is forbidden.”). Here playing the largely-confused Adam, lanky long-haired prettyboy Mark Gregory had first gained recognition by taking the lead in Enzo G. Castellari’s futuristic gangster pic 1990: THE BRONX WARRIORS (1982) where he proved to be an engaging presence as Trash, the fiercely independent leader of a Bronx biker gang. As the first human created by God, Gregory’s casting seems very credible with ample footage of him showing off his chiseled torso and washboard abs, but in spite of losing all his inhibitions, he looks noticeably uneasy in some of the more salacious scenes, tasteful as they may be. For the most part, he does precious little throughout, looking more perplexed than anything else; perhaps he too is confused by the film’s many diversions from its literary origins.
First seen emerging from some sort of slimy amniotic sac buried in the ground, Adam “wanders the Earth alone” until he creates a female sand sculpture on the beach, which is then miraculously brought to life during a rainstorm. As Eve, Andrea Goldman actually fares a little better than her more famous co-star who emotes more convincingly without a stitch on - even though she barely keeps a straight face during her ‘birth’ – and is able to imbue the film with the necessary highly-charged erotic symbolism. However, given the film’s subject matter, nudity is kept to the bare (no pun intended) minimum, and when Adam and Eve are banished out of Eden, directors Russo and Doria even waste some extra time by having Eve involved in a love affair with a tribal chief (Angel Alcazar), which is strung-together by schmaltzy dialogue (“He meant nothing to me.”) and a maudlin love theme that is repeated mercilessly.
Guido and Maurizio De Angelis’ score also mixes-up cues from Ciro Ippolito’s ALIEN 2: ON EARTH (1980) and Antonio Marghetiti’s YOR: THE HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE (1983), which are surefire signs of the film’s cheapskate origins, but some of the production values are actually pretty decent, with lots of picturesque locations, including a lush replica of the Garden of Eden. Further incorporating some ingredients from Jean-Jacques Annaud’s QUEST FOR FIRE(1981), they also come across a clan of Neanderthal cannibals - which definitely stretches the chronology of human existence and evolution - and have a couple of run-ins with a squawking immobile pterodactyl (first seen courtesy of pilfered footage from Don Chaffey’s ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. [1966]!) and an outrageous, anatomically challenged black bear.
Released last year as part of their 2025 Black Friday sale, Severin’s new Blu-ray features an impressive new restoration from the original camera negative. This new transfer showcases all of the film’s lush landscapes – the Garden of Eden sequence looks especially vibrant – with a sharp and very colourful image that elevates the film’s financial and technical limitations. Some very minor wear occasionally appears including a brief, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it bit of damage at the 54m50s mark, but this is a massive upgrade from the previously-mentioned analogue version. Likewise, the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono tracks in both English and Italian also sound excellent (the latter with English subtitles), which allows viewers to take in all the “primitive languages” created by veteran voice talent ‘John Gaiford’/John Gayford. SDH subtitles are also included.
The brief special features include Forbidden Cut (21m21s), a nice sit-down interview with editor Gianfranco Amicucci where the veteran cutter shares his memories of working on ADAM AND EVE. Through his working relationship with producer Enzo Doria (“A stranger character. A bit of an intellectual.”) on Castellari’s THE SHARK HUNTER (1979), he was hired to try and help “sort it out,” which included acquiring stock footage to help camouflage the film’s many obvious shortcomings. He also goes over some of the very humble optical effects, his friendship with the De Angelis brothers, who he convinced to score the film, and some of the technical aspects of cutting the music together. The film’s English-language export trailer (3m09s) is also included, which, incidentally, is also narrated by John Gayford.
All pointless criticisms aside, those even slightly entertained by the crazier side of Eurotrash movies will find plenty of entertainment value with this low-grade nonsense, which was nicely brought back to life thanks to Severin Films’ excellent Blu-ray.
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