The Night of the Iguana (1964)

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Having read several reviews of this film, I was disappointed that none of them even mentioned one of the most remarkable openings of any movie that I have seen recently. The congregants of Rev. Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon have braved a torrential rainstorm in order to seek spiritual fulfillment from the reverend's Sunday service, and, much to their horror, they witness a total nervous breakdown from the pulpit instead. Observe the shocked and disgusted expressions on their faces before they are forcibly driven from their holy sanctuary out into the cold, unforgiving rain. They may have grown suspicious of the respectability of their pastor, but they never expected anything like this. I'm surprised that he didn't strip naked during his very public and total psychological meltdown, but, hey, this was made in 1964. Just the mention of pot alone must have been considered risqué back then.The very powerful, carefully crafted opening and the ability to sustain the subsequent action, which could not have been easy, is to the credit of director John Huston. The director's success was assisted by a very intelligent original play from Tennessee Williams and a very able cast, most notably Richard Burton as Dr. Shannon and Grayson Hall, who deservedly gained an Oscar nomination as Judith Fellowes, the repressed and frustrated tour organizer. Deborah Kerr was very suitable for her role as the very reflective, articulate, and impoverished artist, and Ava Gardner was very entertaining as an emotionally volatile and vulnerable expatriate owner of a rustic hotel somewhere along the Mexican west coast near Puerto Vallarta. Sue Lyon looked great as Lolita, but this time her name was Charlotte. She still had no clue as to what she did to middle aged men, or did she? As good as Ms. Lyon looked, I found her acting flat and uninspiring, which is highly ironic when one considers her physical attributes.And how about Maxine's cabana boys and their unstoppable maracas? Once she finally abandoned them for Larry Shannon, I wonder if they ended up in MS-13 out of mere spite. That would be sad.

Released in 1964 and directed by John Huston based on Tennessee Williams' play, "The Night of the Iguana" stars Richard Burton as a defrocked Episcopal minister who resorts to a job leading bus tours on the Mexican west coast. As he guides a group of middle-aged Baptist women to Puerto Vallarta, he struggles with the attentions of a teen sexpot (Sue Lyon) and the antagonism of her curmudgeonly ward (Grayson Hall). The group ends up at a bed & breakfast where the effervescent proprietor (Ava Gardner) and a spiritual artist (Deborah Kerr) aid the ex-clergyman in coming to terms with the failures haunting him. Skip Ward plays the hunky bus tour assistant.As much as I appreciate this drama, it's too bad it was shot in B&W as color would've really enhanced it, particularly considering the resort setting. (I'll never understand why filmmakers insist on shooting in B&W when color is readily available). The movie is also marred by some contrived melodrama with Burton guilty of chewing too much scenery. At the same time, it's interesting to go back in time with these old dramas and observe the artificialities of the (over)acting based on the contrivances of an inflexible script.Despite my criticisms, there's a lot to savor here. The rich (and sometimes synthetic) dialogue is full of gems to mine. The film is an honest rumination on the human condition. The theme is to cease struggling and to ride out the hardships of life, whether they're the result of one's own folly or otherwise. The answer will come; just be on the look-out for the "messenger" or "assistant" and, of course, accept. On other fronts, Sue Lyon is outstanding as the Lolita, probably because she literally played Lolita in her previous film, 1962's "Lolita." Thankfully, she's more womanly here. She was 17 during filming and thoroughly sumptuous, particularly in her short shorts. Gardner also looked great at 41, but her character is too boozy and it's a turn-off. She's well contrasted by the almost saintly Kerr.Interestingly, there's a brief denouncement of lesbianism, which wouldn't work today. In our current upside down culture it would be hailed as the highest good, worthy of a call from the President (rolling my eyes). RUNTIME: 118 minutes. SHOOTING LOCATIONS: Puerto Vallarta and Mismaloya Village, Mexico. GRADE: B

In the annals of twentieth history American art and entertainment, it's a wonder the works of Tennessee Williams didn't worm their way into the thoughts of director John Huston sooner. Seemingly always focusing on damaged people on the end of their ropes, Williams's output has the steamy, melodramatic tinge that a natural adventurer and provocateur like Huston would have enjoyed. While I am a big fan of Elia Kazan's A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), there's a dark, destructive part of me that yens to see what kind of on-location tumult Huston could have mustered.Yet in comparison to "Streetcar," or for that matter "The Glass Menagerie" and "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof", "Night of the Iguana's" script doesn't quite gel as confidently. Somewhere underneath the familiar lusts and libations there's just something a bit off that sabotages the film from within.The Night of the Iguana concerns a wayward priest whose inappropriate relationship with a young Sunday school teacher got him ostracized by his congregation. Two years, and a nervous breakdown later, Reverend Shannon (Burton) now guides Christian tours for a tacky Mexican bus outfit. He spends a few days on tour with a flock of Baptist women, and sees history repeat itself when a 17-year-old Texas flirt (Lyon) gets him hot and bothered. High noon occurs at the Costa Verde Hotel where the vitreous Miss Fellowes (Hall) vows to have Shannon fired, defrocked and possibly arrested for messing around with a minor.Along for the ride are two additional women who help stir the sticky pot Shannon finds himself in. The first is Maxine (Gardner) the bawdy hotel owner whose late husband was a dear friend of Shannon's. The second is a chaste and impoverished painter named Hannah (Kerr) whose serendipitous arrival at the hotel befalls Shannon like a guardian angel. As an un-eclipsed star of the silver screen, Deborah Kerr is, as always a demure, stately vision. Despite being written inexplicably as a charlatan with a heart of gold and a gift for talking people off the ledge, she still carries through with the same verisimilitude she gave Sister Angela in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957).Unfortunately she and perhaps Miss Hall are the only people who seem to bring surprise and depth; a tall order considering their characters are pigeonholed as lesser versions of Mother Teresa and the Wicked Witch of the West. Ava Gardner, by all accounts a fine actress can't seem to find Maxine's center. One minute she's cloyingly passive aggressive in the way all Tennessee Williams vamps are. The next minute she's in histrionics, trading libidinous kisses with the cabana boys.Though if there be any performance that outright sinks this boat, it's Richard Burton, the flop-sweaty captain of this unlucky tug. His silver-tongued screeching and bellowing flies thick like mole over beans and rice, yet the thespian can't seem to grasp he's not on stage this time. He never takes the subtler, quiet moments that celluloid can afford him but rather blows up like a cannon every time a modicum of drama can be had. One particular scene involving him, the young Sue Lyon and a floor of broken glass feels almost cartoonish if it wasn't so airless and uncomfortable.Night of the Iguana is an overcooked mess made memorable less for its story and more for the drama behind the scenes. Unwanted set visitors included Tennessee Williams and Burton's second wife Elizabeth Taylor whose relationship still lives in Hollywood infamy. Additionally Burton was famous for being a petulant drunk during filming. This in turn attracted the paparazzi to the secluded coastal set and guaranteed headaches for the majority of the shoot. Rumor has it that Huston bought the cast custom pistols with engraved bullets, each having the name of the other cast members. The idea was whenever someone wanted to kill the other, they could do so in style. With so much gone wrong with this thing, I'd be going out guns blazing.

if for some reason you come across someone who just doesn't understand why Richard Burton or Tennessee Williams are two of the most important persons in American film or theatrical history, a viewing of "Night of the Iguana" should answer their questions.While "Igunaga" is the last of Tennessee's big plays (it debuted on Broadway on my birthday and perhaps that is why I have something of a cosmic obsession with this work), it is not a minor or faltering work in any manner of speaking. Tennessee's unspoken past psychological beatings of central characters and the hopeless devotion of at least one character to a loved one are both here ... these two ingredients almost always fuel a Tennessee play as they play against each other like a hot and cold weather front, approaching and retracting throughout until they collide and the tornado is born. Other ingredients common for this final maelstrom is the over-righteous and hateful 'Christian' who is so repressed they can only convey their thoughts through the meanest spirit they can muster. Also a young and overly-sexed vixen who is hellbent on ruining a man hanging by a thread rounds out the madness that swirls and swoops to the degree that each play deserved several readings or viewings before you can start lacing together all the symbolism and innuendo to complete the tapestry Tennessee is weaving.I would think only Eugene O'Neil can stand alongside Tennessee in the greatest of the American playwrights though I cannot call myself an expert on such things. I only know when I discovered Tennessee Williams' work in the sixth grade and started to devour everything written by him, I never understood many of the intricacies of his stories until I was much older. But the movement and lyrical dialog and the mysteries laying just beneath the surface fascinated me to no end. They were publishing series of Tennessee's play at this time in books entitled, "Three by Tennessee" or "Two by Tennessee" which were a great bargain and a great way to collect his plays. Also I found that the late movie on various channels always seemed to rely on the film versions of Tennessee's works and though it was disappointing not to be able to follow along with my copy of his original work, many of them are film classics that introduced me to even more of the finest American culture has produced.Of course, one of these late night movies was "Night of the Iguana". Not only did I love the rhythm of the title, I seemed to know many of the characters, mostly from the church I was raised in if truth be told. Many were like the chaperone, completely shut off from any sensual part of their person and wanting nothing more out of life than to ensure others are equally bottled up (this was apparently what Christianity meant to them). Even a struggling minister hanging onto the water-logged life preserver tossed to him made his way through my early years as he stumbled through a final assignment and a final chance at redemption, not from Christ but from his employer, and who was shipped off in a short time to wherever wayward and lost souls once entrusted with the shepherding of a flock of souls are relegated to.Burton I had discovered in 'Beckett', a stunning movie and one of his best roles (not to mention one of Peter O'Toole's as well) and once you are hooked on hearing Burton run through the English language with his exquisitely clipped and precise diction, a young boy with a speech impediment can do nothing else but hold him up as an idol though it is known in his heart he will never reach such heights of speech.For these personal reasons the combination of Burton and Tennessee work better than even Brando and Tennessee imho. Burton seems to completely understand the fraying rope Shannon is hanging onto just as Tennessee knows how to work the madness in and out with scenes of lucidity that make one think and hope that perhaps Shannon will grab hold of a more solid reign ... but for anyone who knows Tennessee, he doesn't deal in fiction to that degree but in what is real life and failure is far more a reality than success.So get a nice strong Rum Coco and sit back and enjoy what is truly a marvelous film. Have your friend nearby so you can see the realization dawn as to why these two men are so vital to 20th century art.