The Night of the Iguana
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Movie Reviews of The Night of the Iguana
Movie Review: Star Actors at Their Peak Inhabiting Tennessee Williams at His Most Flamboyant in a Rundown Mexican Resort
Summary: 5 Stars
Flamboyantly flawed characters are Tennessee Williams' oeuvre, and I doubt if any of his plays has more of them wallowing in their debilitated states of psychological disrepair than "The Night of the Iguana". This richly acted 1964 adaptation directed by the estimable John Huston has its share of excesses, veering wildly from melodrama to black comedy, but they are all for the sake of illustrating Williams' broader themes of alienation and redemption while screenwriter Anthony Veiller stays true to the playwright's Baroque flourishes.
The protagonist is Reverend Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon, defrocked from his church in Virginia for an indiscretion with a young girl. He desperately takes a job as a tour guide for a group of spinster teachers from Texas headed by the belligerent Miss Fellowes. Vacationing in Puerto Vallarta, they end up shanghaied by Shannon to a dilapidated beach resort run by his old friend and lover, the hedonistic slattern Maxine Faulk. Enter a caricature artist named Hannah Jelkes and her poet grandfather, penniless travelers who find themselves drawn by fate to the resort. Complicating matters among the tour group is a nubile blonde named Charlotte, as she tempts Shannon to repeat his previous misdeeds. His unrepentant desires all come to a head when Hannah and Maxine tie him to a hammock, and a series of cathartic moments occur among the principals.
Richard Burton is ideally cast as Shannon, as he seizes the screen with his Shakespearean voice and increasingly manic behavior. With her trademark gentility, Deborah Kerr brings a curious mix of hucksterism and guile to Hannah, but it's Ava Gardner who gives her career-best performance as Maxine - brash, funny and undeniably sexy surrounded by her maraca-shaking beach boys. Having just read Lee Server's illuminating biography of the tempestuous star, I get the strong impression that the character mirrors Gardner's real-life persona to a T. The last act, which highlights the thematic dynamics represented by Shannon, Hannah and Maxine, shows the actors in peak form. Sue Lyon plays Charlotte in her most appropriate post-Lolita manner, and Grayson Hall does her best to avoid the gargoyle-like caricature that Miss Fellowes represents. The one casting flaw is the wooden Skip Ward, a Troy Donahue look-alike, as the tour group assistant.
Better than what he did with Arthur Miller's "The Misfits" three years earlier, Huston does an impressive job balancing all the disparate elements without falling into the trap of making it too campy, even if the chorus-like beach boys do seem silly in hindsight. Gabriel Figueroa's crisp black-and-white photography is effective, though it is the one Tennessee Williams-related work that I wish took advantage of the colorful flora and fauna of the area. The 2006 DVD offers a couple of worthwhile extras - a vintage short, "On the Trail of the Iguana", which has interviews with cast and crew and give a sense of the paparazzi blitzkrieg surrounding the stars, especially Burton who was then living with Elizabeth Taylor before her divorce from Eddie Fisher was final; and a recent, more academic featurette, "Huston's Gamble" with comments from film historians on the movie's impact.
Movie Review: Fantastic!
Summary: 5 Stars
The Night Of The Iguana has always been my favorite of the films based on Tennessee Williams plays and it's great to see it on this sharp and clean DVD. The film belongs to John Huston as much as it does to Williams and that's no bad thing. Huston transfers the play to the screen with sympathy, empathy and respect for its characters, dilemmas, and - most of all - its lyricism. Like the play, the film engages the mind as well as the emotions as we discover bits of ourselves in nearly all of the characters.
Huston was always a good director with actors and here he brings out the best in a uniformly excellent if disparate cast. Richard Burton, still in his prime, gives one of his best screen performances - acting with his entire body and soul instead of just letting his expressive eyes and wonderful voice doing all the work. Perhaps Huston knew just how to push the right buttons, or perhaps the script and location inspired him. Or maybe he simply responded to the sparks from the other cast members.
Ava Gardner is quite magnificent in a role that finally lets her act instead of being mere decoration. Her earthy portrayal of the middle-aged widow seems to take her back to her southern roots and she displays her character's wide range of raw emotions with just the right mixture of abandon and self-control. Against the dynamic duo of Burton and Gardner, Debroah Kerr wisely underplays her part of a vaguely artistic New England spinster, getting maximum effect from the most subtle inflections in her voice and thoughtful half-pauses. In such company, Sue Lyon has to fight to hold her own and does so as much through costuming as she does with acting. But easily matching the stars of the film is Grayson Hall as the repressed and decidedly butch leader of the group of women whose Burton's character is taking on a guided tour of Mexico. Her performance has more layers than is initially apparent and, if I remember correctly, earned Hall an Oscar nomination.
Just a side comment to the previous reviewer who went out of his way to criticize Cyril Delevanti's portrayal of the 97 year old poet grandfather of Kerr's character. This person obviously has very little experience of either old people or poetry. Delevanti's performance is as good as anyone else's in the film and produces its genuinely touching moments.
If I have concentrated mostly on the actors it is because Night Of The Iguana is such a character-driven work. Elements such as photography, sound, music etc. are good because they do nothing to detract from the performances or the wonderful dialogue. The only possibly distraction is the location but then Mexico becomes almost another character in itself. The extras on the DVD show just how important the location was to the film, yet the decision to film in black and white remains the correct one. It draws us that much closer into the world of Rev. T. Lawrence Shannon and his temptors and tormentors.
A brilliant film that has stood up well over the years and one I never tire of seeing. The new DVD makes it look as good as new and adds a couple of interesting, if brief, extras. Definitely a classic.
Movie Review: Fantastic
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the tale of a man in turmoil and his resurrection by Miss Jelks.
The story begins with the tormented reverend (Burton) lashing out upon his flock for his unstable faith and failings. His congregation walks out on him,leaving him to flail and rail all for himself. Cut to some months later-the reverend Shannon is now in charge of a bible group tour bus way down in Mexico merrily singing "Happy Days Are Here Again" and "3 Little Fishy's" as the liguored-up,unhappy, barely-man-of-the-cloth rolls his eyes heavenward. Passengers included in the tour group include the eye-candy of her day Sue Lyon playing Miss Charlotte and flirting with the weakening pastor without mercy. Under the watchful eye of the bible group's leader Miss Fellowes(Grayson Hall) the girl and the reverend are told to keep it clean or ELSE!
When her warning goes unheeded Miss Fellowes is forced to report their unseemly behavior to the authorities-the owners of the bus tour company.
Shannon, now reeling with terror and fearing the loss of his tour guide position hijacks the bus and makes a beeline for an out of the way bungalow run by some old friends of his, much to the protests of the passengers.
Shannon finds only his friend Fred's widow on the premises, Maxine(Ava Gardner)looking like she borrowed Elizabeth Taylors black pants and loose top outfit from Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolfe? "Fred's dead" she tells him making me think of Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction telling his girlfriend "Zed's dead" when she asks where he got the motorcycle.
The weary tour bus passengers make their way up the hill to the villa and settle in as the games continue between the reverend, the girl, Miss Fellowes and a lonely but steely-eyed Maxine, when out of the blue arrives a spinster and her grandfather poet. Deborah Kerr plays the world-wise Miss Jelks who with her grandfather in tow have come to Maxine's without a penny to their name. Miss Jelks paints portraits of tourists for what little money she can earn while her grandfather recites his original poems also for the spare change a stranger might offer. Reluctantly Maxine allows the couple to spend the night when Miss Jelks' common sense and agility with a machete becomes evident.
Shannon becomes increasingly agitated and even suicidal wherein he is strapped tight to a hammock with Miss Jelks gently suggesting he drink of her poppyseed tea while the reverend screams "UNTIE ME!!".
The conversations between Shannon and Jelks/Jelks and Maxine/Maxine and Shannon/Shannon and Charlotte are the backbone of this movie as most any movie with the name Tennessee Williams attached is.
Wonderful dialogue, superb acting and I'm happy to report,a positive ending left me with a very warm spot in my heart for this film.
Movie Review: As good a version of this important Williams play as you are likely to see
Summary: 5 Stars
This John Houston film of a strongly acclaimed play by Tennessee Williams seemed a lot more strange and challenging in 1964 than it does in 2006. And yet its poetry and themes do hold up well, even if the (lack of) sexual mores seem almost quaint anymore. It is easy to praise the performances, which are all quite wonderful.
The story centers on a man who is quite lost. The Reverend Shannon (Richard Burton) is a defrocked minister who has some sense of God, but no faith and plagued with both lust and an addiction to panic and drink. He finds himself on a bus guiding a tour of female teachers on a tour of Mexico. Things go very badly and a little vixen named Charlotte Goodall (played by Sue Lyon) gets him terrible trouble with the leader of the group, the rigid Judith Fellowes whose protection of Charlotte may be more lustful and competitive than maternal, though she is likely unaware of her own motives.
In desperation, Shannon manipulates the tour group to the hotel owned and run by an old friend of his, Maxine Faulk (spectacularly played by Ava Gardner). She is a recent widow who has her own desires and designs on Shannon and is constantly surrounded by her beach boy toys. Now come into the mix the penniless sketch artist, Hannah Jelkes (powerfully played by Deborah Kerr) and her aged poet grandfather, Nanno.
The interactions of Charlotte, Maxine, and Hannah with the anxieties of Shannon are the center of the story. The rest of the characters add perspectives for the audience on these four and Nanno appears as a dottering and senile lost soul until the very end when he lets forth a fine poem as a Greek chorus in a last moment of clarity.
I doubt this play is for everyone, but it hit me powerfully when I was a youngster and I still find things about it to enjoy today, though, as I say, there are clearly aspects about it that have aged less well.
Frankly, I especially like Hannah and her healing effect on Shannon. She is almost an angel to him, though she is herself a bit of a hustler. But she also has a nobility and clarity about life and people that is quite interesting.
If you like Williams, you likely know this play. If you want to explore Williams, this is a good play to get to know and this film is as good a version as any you are likely to see.
Enjoy!
Movie Review: Running Away From His Sins!
Summary: 5 Stars
Director, actor and screenplay writer John Houston (1908-1987) was an enormous creator almost a savage force of Nature. He was nine times Oscar nominated and won one of the coveted statuettes from 1941 thru 1986. Suffices to say that the first film he directed was "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) and if that is not enough he also directed "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948), "The African Queen" (1951) and "The Misfits" (1961) amongst other great movies.
"The Night of the Iguana" (1964) based on Tennessee Williams' play is a relatively underrated film.
Nevertheless the viewers will assist to a deep human drama with paramount performances from Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, Grayson Hall (giving her greatest acting piece) and Sue Lyon.
The story is as follows: a defrocked Episcopal minister is auto-exiled as tourist guide in Mexico trying to run away from his past and find redemption from his sins. He leads a group of middle-aged Baptist women riding a depauperate bus into side track roads. The only young girl, Charlotte, in the group has set up her mind to seduce poor Reverend Shannon who tries to avoid her advances but to no avail.
Charlotte's chaperon, Ms. Fellowes, drives Shannon mad. He takes command of the bus and leads the party to an out-of-bounds hotel owned by a friend taking away the bus' distributor and marooning the tourists there.
There Shannon finds his friend is recently deceased, yet his widow accepts to help him in his predicament. Almost immediately an itinerant sketcher without a penny and her very old grandfather arrive completing the complex set of characters that will interact in this turmoil.
Playacting from Burton as Reverend Shannon, is incredible ductile, showing his internal uproar and struggle to overcome his human weaknesses. Deborah Kerr as Hannah shows strength and compassion with very economic gestures. Ava Gardner proves her classical strength and powerful characterization as Maxine. Grayson Hall gives her best performance and obtained a well deserved Oscar nomination.
Gabriel Figueroa's black and white photography is very beautiful and was Oscar nominated.
A Classic Movie not diminished by the more than forty years passed.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.