Customer Reviews

The Night of the Iguana [VHS]

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Tennesse Williams has rarely fared well in the transfer from stage to screen, but Night of Iguana is evidence that his work makes for powerful viewing. Stark visuals play against the subtle script and performances, with Ava Gardner giving perhaps her finest performance as the over-sexed, hard-bitten hotel owner who conceals a loving heart and honest nature behind an "I don't give a damn" mask. Burton has rarely been seen to such effect, and Deborah Kerr is quite fine. The supporting cast, featuring Grayson Hall and Sue Lyons, is remarkably strong as well. A powerful and unstinting screen adaptation of one of Williams' most powerful and unstinting plays.

This is arguably the best film made of any of Tennessee Williams plays. It's greatness is due in great part to the direction of John Huston and the magnificent cast he has assembled to tell this story. Richard Burton and Deborah Kerr, two of the finest actors from England,give terrific performances as a tortured, defrocked priest and a strong-willed woman who has learned to survive in an unkind world. Ava Gardner proves in this film that she was a marvelous actress capable of giving a gutsy, heartfelt performance of great complexity. Grayson Hall is also quite remarkable as a hateful woman whose nasty actions are sparked by her jealousy and desire for a young woman played by Sue Lyon. The stark black and white photography of this film beautifully contributes to the mood of Tennesse William's story. This is really one of the finest films of the 1960s. It is one you can view many times over and find many pleasures.

Great play ... Great acting ... Great direction ... although nobody won Oscars. Who cares? John Huston wisely filmed this in stark black and white reflecting its somber tone. Burton gives the performance of lifetime as Shannon at the end of his rope, and Kerr is fantastic, as always, imbuing a tender role with even more humanity. T. Williams' play, one of the best from America's best playwright, has everything. Conflict, strong characterization, wisdom, and of course humor. Some of the coarseness of the play has been excised (Shannon's), thus making him a more sympathetic character, but this does not hurt the movie. Huston sticks pretty much to the actual play, except for the ending, which was not in the play. However, this does not really hurt the film. Anyway, buy this film and enjoy it again and again. Your life will be richer for it.

THIS MOVIE IS SO BEAUTIFULLY FILMED IN BLACK AND WHITE, IT LITERALLY CRIES OUT FOR A CRISP, CLEAN, SHARP DVD TRANSFER. LESSER MOVIES ARE ALREADY OUT ON DVD, WHILE THIS ONE SEEMS CONDEMNED TO LANGUISH IN THE ETERNAL MURKINESS OF VHS....A VIEWING EXPERIENCE TANTAMOUNT TO DRINKING DON PERIGNON OUT OF A DIRTY TIN CAN. TSK TSK.
PUT IT OUT ON DVD; IT DESERVES TO BE SHOWCASED IN GORGEOUS QUALITY. WE ARE ALL WAITING!

This is truly one of the most amazing films you will ever see!!!It touches on "The Truth" and something much bigger/more acknowledging than perhaps we as human beings can understand in this lifetime-and does so with a magnificence and grace much more effective than almost anything I have ever seen. Although released in 1964, the messages of tolerance to other people, restoring faith, rising above our own potential self-destructivness, and MOVING ON WITH LIFE couldn't be more poignant for todays audience (perhaps even more striking and PRESCIENT!!). I agree with one previous reviewer- that it is comparable to the emotional depth/intellectual magnitude of a Bergman but perhaps much more easily digestable for a "pop-cultured" American audience-and that is truly unusual if nonexsistnat for an American Hollywood-type film. And Yet all the magic ingredients of A Hollywood Moneymaker are here...BIG STARS: Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, and Deborah Kerr (all of whom in my opinon deserved Oscars for their performances here), DIRECTED BY ONE OF HOLLYWOODS BEST/MOST SOUGHT AFTER DIRECTORS: John Huston BRILLIANT AND SMARTLY WRITTEN BY ONE OF THE BEST AUTHORs/ and POPULAR PLAYWRITES EVER!: Tennessee Williams. Their looks like there will be a 2005 re-release of this film but they NEVER LIVE UP TO THE ORIGINAL and I also agree that with one reviewer who states this is a film that was meant to be seen (and is much stronger) in its original black-and-white. I WILL NOT, (and I repeaat NOT)BUY the 2005 rerelase but I would however, dish out BIG MONEY for the original 1964 release of this film on DVD. This is truly one of the most powerful and worthwhile films you will ever see with performances by all players that are equally as strong!!! SO I REPEAT, WHERE IS THE DVD OF THIS BRILLIANT 1964 GEM??? MGM-PLEASE GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER!!!

This is a masterpiece. Yes, there are nits to pick, but overall, an incredible film. It's worth the price of the tape just to hear Cyril Delevanti recite his poem.

So, where is the DVD? It is a continuing mystery to me that so many really regrettable efforts make the transfer list and some wonderful films, like this one and "Becket" get ignored. Let's get with it, Warner!

Everything about this film crackles with energy and intelligence! Or, as the English might say, everything about it is on heat. We start with a script based on one of the most subtly-shaded of Williams' works (which began life as, believe it or not, a short story about two gay men on vacation in Acapulco), set it in lush, steamy Mismaloya (which Ava Gardner later called "Abysmaloya"), add great black-and-white cinematography, a spare but lovely soundtrack, and finally one of the greatest ensembles ever assembled for an American film. Richard Burton is magnificent as the defrocked "Shannon," he seems to be all sweat and emotional conflict. Deborah Kerr is serene and enigmatic as the sly "Miss Jenkins," and Ava Gardner makes a beautiful and free-spirited "Maxine." I can almost see the rum-cocos at work in Ava Gardner's very natural performance; she owns the role and makes it much more sympathetic than the earlier stage versions (Bette Davis played "Maxine" on Broadway). She is a tremendous talent and never seemed to receive the acclaim she deserved. Finally, Sue Lyons is perfectly cast as the scheming little nymphet whose sexual energy is the catalyst for all the action (and trouble) in Mismaloya. Funny, sad, and enlightening all at once, this is John Huston's most emotionally-satisfying film, and that's saying a lot. Are today's audiences intelligent enough to appreciate a film like this?

Richard Burton, Deborah Kerr, Sue Lyon, Grayson Hall, and the world's most beautiful animal, Ava Gardner all came together on Mismaloya Beach in 1964 to film John Houston's film of Tennessee Williams "Night of the Iguana". With this cast, this playwright and this director we are in for a rare treat.

Burton gives one of his best tortured soul performances, which is only surpassed by his George in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff?" Fresh off of his star making appearance in "Cleopatra" he displays the lessons he learned in screen acting from soon to be wife Elizabeth Taylor. Here he is not the great stage actor making a movie but a fine and immensely watchable film actor at the top of his craft.

Deborah Kerr is in top form too as a spinster artist down on her luck and at her ropes end. She is as always a fine actress who never disappoints the viewer. Sue Lyon of "Lolita" fame turns in a pitch perfect performance as a spoiled teenaged girl on the loose during a cheap vacation bus tour of Mexico. She is so good at being a brat that one forgets she is acting a part. She hits the mark of overdramatic teen in such a way that at first one thinks she is a poor actress, "Copa de Oro Larry..." but in fact it is right on the money.

Grayson Hall nearly steals the picture as the leader of the touring Baptist ladies. She is simply superb as a closeted lesbian drawn to Sue Lyon as both suppressed object of sexual desire and protective jealous mother figure. She is a joy to watch and a tragedy to witness.

But of all of Burton's ladies in the film this movie belongs to Ava Gardner. Here the famed beauty is blousy, raucous, delicious, and so ready for steaming that at 40 she hits her prime as a sexy real woman who knows who she is and what life is all about. Her Maxine is a work of love and understanding that Miss Gardner shares with us in a way that seals her place as more that just an M.G.M. beauty but as a real actress with muscle under her gorgeous façade. Gardner never considered herself an actress but rather a commodity that the studio system created and pushed through the meat grinder. She was wrong in her modest self-assessment. She was a rare star who was a fine actress. This is her greatest moment on screen.

John Houston was also a legend who was not only a great director but also a man who understood human nature and wasn't afraid to put it up there on the screen. This too is one of his masterworks as a director.

The score is moody and helps to create with a mix of traditional Mexican music and the themes by Benjamin Frankel an added demension of heat to the film. The camera work by Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa is also superb and a feast for the eye in silver nitrate.

One only hopes that in time this fine drama will make it's way to DVD with some interesting extras such as a mini documentary that is often shown on TCM about the making of the film.

How Richard Burton squeaked through the entire awards season of 1964 without a single win or even a single nomination for this powerhouse performance is utterly disgusting. In fact, I could base this entire review on that very injustice, but I won't.

More on that in a moment.

When it comes to film, there are few names that excite me more than Tennessee Williams. I just think the man is genius. I love individuals that were `ahead of their time' so-to-speak, and Williams surely made his fair share of controversy with his highly detailed and disturbingly realistic plays. Now, I have not seen or even read any of his plays (I really need to) but I have seen a large number of the film adaptations, and I must say that they are some of the best experiences of my cinematic goings.

`The Night of the Iguana' is high on that list.

Tennessee Williams is very good at elaborating on humanity at its weakest point; taking characters that are at the end of their ropes emotionally, fraying at the tip, and letting them sweat it out in some of the most obscene and bizarre situations imaginable. What is all the more engrossing about his work is that you never feel as though it is forced or manipulated; everything feels very, very real. The tension is palpable, relatable and crushing.

In `The Night of the Iguana', Williams takes us to Mexico. Here is where we meet the Reverend Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon, a defrocked man of the cloth who has been reduced to guiding tours in Mexico. On his latest tour he runs into some problems with a certain woman named Judith Fellowes who becomes rather alarmed and disgusted with Shannon's philandering with an underage girl under Fellowes watchful eye. When Shannon crosses one too many lines he finds himself facing possible unemployment, not to mention utter humiliation.

For me, this film is all about carnal desires and the stigma that comes from religious responsibility. In the films outset we have the Reverend Shannon addressing his `former' congregation in outrage over his own indiscretions and the judgment cast upon him by the eyes of his `sheep'. Religion and moral independence are two very touchy subjects that don't mix very well, and yet `The Night of the Iguana' finds the deep-rooted humanity that marries the two together seamlessly. We watch Shannon slowly deteriorate as he tries to hold fast to his past, refusing to admit defeat at the hands of the judgmental.

Accepting his own realities would only destroy his spirit and will to survive.

John Huston marvelously directs this lurid drama, infusing all the right elements that make this a definitive Tennessee Williams creation. From the lush backdrops to the sensual tension and the heartbreakingly realistic character development, `The Night of the Iguana' has it all.

The acting is also flawless.

The women surrounding the Reverend are an odd bunch, all of them distinct and beautifully fleshed out for us. You have Judith Fellowes, the strict and harsh older woman whose own self denial keeps her all the more judgmental of others. Hannah Jelkes is a seemingly frail yet surprisingly strong and insightful woman who has stunted her own emotional growth by hiding behind her dying grandfather. Charlotte Goodall is a young and precocious girl who uses the Reverend (and really any man she can seduce) as a means to rebel against the people set to restrain her. And then you have Maxine Faulk, the only woman who really understands Shannon. She is repressed by her own longings and yet she fronts as if she were impenetrable, all the while slowly withering away due to everything `wrong' in her life. The performances that accompany these women are outstanding, especially from Ava Gardner and Deborah Kerr. Gardner especially is remarkably in tune with her characters self destructive pattern, and she illuminates the screen with her fiery delivery.

But, this film is all about Richard Burton. While watching this film I was forced to realize something. Richard Burton is a man, and I mean a MAN. He is rugged and strong and handsome and he possesses that endearing `comforting' quality. Even in all of his character's flaws and grievances, you cannot help but rally behind him. There are very few actors who can define something as universal as `manly' (Russell Crowe and Paul Newman come instantly to mind) but Burton has it in spades. His performance here may be his finest, and that is why watching it go entirely ignored (granted, there were far less awards bodies in the 60's, but still) is just appalling. The way he captures the collapse of this man's soul is breathtaking, and the way he weaves his character around the films eventualities is stunning. This is an actor who understands his character and thus embodies him.

This isn't acting, it is living.

In the end I highly recommend this film (that probably goes without saying). It is a beautifully woven tragedy that ends with a sliver of hope for our protagonist, a man who struggles to define himself outside of his own preconceived notions of his `character'. This is a film about accepting our fates and finding solace in the fact that we can always move on, despite our own selfish imperfections.

"Night of the Iguana" for some reason is one of my all time
favorite movies. The humanity of this movie, and the characters
and the simple charm and directness of it always draws me
in as many times as I have seen it now.

When I was a teen ... long time ago, I thought this was a
SciFi monster movie, and since nothing else was on, I ended
up watching it, even though it wasn't. I ended up learning
alot and that movie really changed my life.

I fell in love with Ava Gardner, what a babe, and Deborah
Kerr both, but especially Ava.

In my local city they put on a production of NOTI in the
City Center, and it went more by the play, and I found
myself even more entranced by this wonderful story.

Something about this play/movie just resonated with me,
and has with many people I have seen the movie with.

The bottom line though is that I have to get this in
DVD ... I will not buy anything anymore in VHS, especially
one-offs or old stuff because the tracking something is
bad, and the video degrades. Can someone tell me something
about when this might be out, or why it is not?