What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Woody Allen to me has always been an interesting director who is witty and insightful, showing themes that are relatable to anybody and having characters that are neurotic but very compelling in how real they are. He and his films are not for everybody, some people don't like the neurotic approach he takes to his characters and he has been criticised for being self-indulgent. Of all his films, What's Up, Tiger Lily has a number of good things but it for me is one of Allen's weakest films with a sense that he was yet to properly find his voice(it was in Annie Hall when he found it). And it is one of his most polarising. There are things to like about What's Up, Tiger Lily. It is made very well, not audacious but skillful. The acting is more than serviceable and the voices while purposefully cartoony are really entertaining to listen to, particularly the snake-obsessed henchman. The soundtrack is also very catchy in a groovy way but the best thing about What's Up, Tiger Lily is the dialogue and the use of mismatched words, much of it is just hilarious as well as very quotable and has Allen's witty, acerbic style all over it. Not all the humour works, the egg salad part is just silly and some of the ahead-of-the-time jokes may seem in bad taste now(some are not going to take lightly to a few of the sex jokes. The film had such a great idea but it came off in a way that felt over-cooked and under-cooked, basically a one-joke idea that did run out of steam too early. The film starts off brilliantly and the dialogue is all great, the story though is paper thin and much of the pacing is dull and in serious need of a tightening up. Not helped by The Lovin' Spoonful music interludes, the music is really good but the interludes are just bizarre(done in a way that feels completely out of kilter with everything else), are not really all that interesting and just slow the film down considerably. They were put in without Allen's consent apparently and it shows. John Sebastian adds very little here and just seems out of place and somewhat annoying. In terms of direction in What's Up, Tiger Lily, Senkichi Taniguchi's is fine while Allen's is competent but with a sense that he was understandably(considering it's a debut) yet to find or refine his style. All in all, not a very easy film to rate or talk about, it does have a lot of laughs and shows some effort but it could have done much more with the concept it had and Allen has done far better. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Many years before 'Mystery Science Theater 3000' popularized making fun of bad films to a whole new generation, Woody Allen - in his first 'directing' gig - had a field day completely re- dubbing this unintentionally silly Japanese spy film into a very intentionally silly comedy about the desperate search for the recipe for the perfect egg salad.It has a few dry spells, and I thought the spliced in musical numbers by 'The Lovin' Spoonful' were pretty embarrassing in a now dated attempt to make the film 'hip'.But where it's funny, it's very, very funny. And not only are there a slew of choice new lines, but the voice talents are all excellent, really capturing the awful, stiff voice acting we all got used to hearing in cheaply dubbed imports. A one-of-a kind comedy, and worth checking out if you're in a silly mood, or are any sort of fan of Woody Allen's non-sequiters and wit. Yes, it's adolescent compared with where Allen would go just a few years later, but that doesn't mean it's not a lot of fun!

On Woody Allen's first outing as director, instead of making a real film, he spliced two Japanese films and had voice actors re-dub the dialogue so it tells a much different storyline from the source material. However, during the intro where Woody is interviewed, he makes it clear that what happens with the action and what happens with the spoken plot are supposed to be two completely different things, they end up being very similar. Most of what happens mirrors, although more comically(supposedly), what seems to happen in the action.This isn't even an original idea(it had been done before with silent films). Only a few parts are actually funny and even those aren't that great. I've seen some other Allen films and they were superior in every way to this nonsensical garbage. The jokes are painful. I think a bunch of frat boys could have come up with funnier dialogue that was completely opposite of what was happening in the action.In fact, I'd rather watch the actual two Japanese spy films with their original dialogue(even if it wasn't dubbed and was in subtitles) than re-watch What's Up, Tiger Lily.The two best aspects of this "film" are the 80 minute runtime and the striptease by the very "healthy" China Lee at the end of the film. If you are a Woody Allen fan, then I suppose you "must" see this, however, if you are not, totally avoid this film. Watch Mystery Science Theater instead, if you must see something that's similar.

My friends and I have traded lines from this movie since I first saw it in high school in the 80's. Spartan Dog! Spanish Fly! I still laugh my ass off at this movie today. People may say it's dated but if you love Woody and get all the jokes (which I think most kids today won't) it is hilarious and will always be a classic. Woody is probably kicking himself he let this out of his ownership hands as many people are commenting on edited or re dubbed versions shown on TV. When I heard the great line again in the beginning when Phil Moscowitz looks at the girl when he opens her towel & gives his third Presidential answer as Lincoln (referring to his beard) I couldn't help but laugh had this been written today & he could have answered Bush! Just plain silly stuff that I still cry at including the shower peeking scene, "MOM!?" and "Where am I going to get a long thin coffin?!!" This movie is diffidently meant as background to a group hangout with friends accompanied by some intoxicants.