THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ADAM AND EVE (1960)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *metaphysical*

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

In my review of producer-director Albert Zugsmith's SEX KITTENS GO TO COLLEGE, I compared analyzing that film to sussing out an ancient building that had been badly constructed. For the same creator's PRIVATE LIVES OF ADAM AND EVE-- which Zugsmith did not write, though it seems of a piece with all the movies he did write-- a better metaphor would be the time-tested notion of finding diamonds amid the rubbish. PRIVATE, though surrounded by a metric ton of junky, wink-wink nudge-nudge sex-humor, actually contains the hard skeleton of a plot that goes like this:

First woman Eve, frustrated because God talks to Adam but not her, submits to the blandishments of the Devil and talks Adam into eating the forbidden fruit. This places her relationship with Adam in danger, because the Devil keeps trying to break up the First Couple. When Adam seems to have betrayed Eve, she apologizes to God, but not without complaining about his silence toward her. At last God does (apparently) speak to Eve, but only to herald the birth of her first child, which immediately ends the conflict. All of this is an accurate statement of things that happen in PRIVATE's plot, but it's hard to see for all the junk around it-- though in the case, it was the junk that was meant to sell the movie, and thus it's peculiar that there's anything gem-like in the film at all. (Note the peculiar poster-art above, in which the viewer is placed in the same position as the pitchfork-toting Devil, peeking in at the sexual congress of mankind's Daddy and Mommy.)

PRIVATE's actual plot, a contrarian yet still reactionary take on Genesis, takes the form of a "delirious dream" experienced by the film's two main characters, who exist in a generally naturalistic cosmos. Evie (Mamie Van Doren) boards a bus to "divorce capital" Reno, Nevada in order to sever ties with husband Ad (Martin Milner), apparently because marriage isn't what it was cracked up to be. Ad pursues her by joining her on the bus with six other individuals, which struck at least one IMDB reviewer as an imitation of Steinbeck's book THE WAYWARD BUS. However, of the six, four are just bare stereotypes not involved in the central plot, who add little beyond extra local color, played by Cecil Kellaway, Paul Anka, Mel Torme, and a not-yet-famous Tuesday Weld. The final two are Nick (Mickey Rooney) and Lil (Fay Spain), also on the way to be divorced in Reno. The trip is sidelined when a Nevada flash floods breaks, and the travelers must take refuge in an empty church. After a little discussion of Adam and Eve by the religious bus-driver, Evie and Ad fall asleep and share a dream in which they cast themselves as Adam and Eve in the Garden. For good measure, they cast Nick as the temptation-happy "Old Nick," and Lil as Lilith.

I'm not sure if any reference to the story of Lilith had ever appeared in an American film before PRIVATE. The name appears in the Christian Bible just once, where it's in the nature of a generic demonic presence. The first conception of Lilith as "Adam's first wife" appears in a Jewish story collection dated (at latest) from the tenth century AD, though second wife Eve is not explicitly mentioned there. The modern interpretation is that Adam and Lilith were both created by God to be the First Couple, but Lilith rebelled on grounds of sexual incompatiblity and became a demon, after which Eve was created as a more compliant mate for the Father of Humanity.

Now, the highly unusual plot-skeleton of PRIVATE doesn't strictly follow this narrative any more than it follows Genesis. The Lilith here is one of several sexy demons serving Rooney-Satan, but she is in Eden before Eve gets created from Adam's rib (though Eve first appears amid the waters of a lake, slightly like the birth of  Aphrodite). Lilith tries to tempt Adam into sexual congress but he's too much of an amiable doofus to figure out what she's talking about. When Eve comes along, Satan sees his chance to mess up God's design by urging her to eat the forbidden fruit, which of course leads to the First Couple's expulsion from the Garden. Satan continues his plot to break the couple up by sending Lilith after Adam again, thus proving that the Devil's a big fan of divorce. Rooney-Satan and his demonesses also anticipate the comic strategy of Disney's genie from ALADDIN, in that they're constantly indulging in anachronisms like this one...

...except that generally PRIVATE's humor isn't funny. Or at least it didn't work on me. I don't know how much putative co-director Mickey Rooney might have been responsible for this, but it does seem to match a lot of his comic antics in his other works of the period. 

I'm not necessarily saying that PRIVATE would have been a good film if the makers had excised the goofy jokes. Based on the other productions with which the three credited writers were associated, I see a certain level of competence, but no excellence. And as I said, Zugsmith wanted a smutty comedy, and that's what the writers gave him. 

Anyway, Lilith introduces Adam to an item he's never seen, a bed, but still can't get across the idea of him bedding her. But when Eve comes looking for her husband, the demoness (who's probably been watching sex-romps on Devil-Vision) tells Adam to hide under the bed. Eve, despite also having never seen this piece of furniture before, instantly knows what "hiding under the bed" signifies, and she storms off in a huff. But the dream's used up its running time, so she has her Job-like moment complaining to God, who seems to answer her plaint by quickening her womb. The dream ends, Ad and Evie reconcile, and she confesses a sudden urge to eat pickles. The flood waters recede, letting everyone survive, and the forces of devilish divorce are defeated-- because, as we all know, a couple having a child makes ALL their problems just go away.