Monday, July 11, 2011

The Night of the Iguana

The Night of the Iguana.
1964 Seven Arts Productions and MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, Sue Lyon, James Ward, Grayson Hall, Cyril Delevanti
Director: John Huston
Available from Amazon as a single DVD, or part of the Tennessee Williams Film Collection.

Richard Burton and Ava Gardner star in this low budget horror film about giant mutant iguanas terrorizing a small village in Mexico, and...

No, that's not right.

Richard Burton and Ava Gardner star in an excellent film adaptation of the 1961 play of the same title by Tennessee Williams. The film won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design in 1964, and Grayson Hall received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Two years after his nervous breakdown following his role in an inappropriate relationship with a "very young Sunday school teacher", the former Reverend Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon (Burton) now works for a cheap Texas tour company called Blake Tours as a tour guide. He's along for the ride as a large group of Baptist School teachers led by Miss Judith Fellowes (Hall) take a trip down to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Miss Judith's 17-year-old niece LolitaCharlotte (Lyon) attempts to seduce Shannon. After a fight with Judith, Shannon sabotages the bus and strands the group at a cheap Costa Verde Hotel in Mismaloya. This facility is run by the widow of one of Shannon's old friends named Fred, the widow Maxine Faulk (Gardner). Maxine's interests turn to Shannon from her two cabana boys.

Shannon also meets Hannah Jelkes (Kerr), a painter from Nantucket along with her elderly poet granddad Nonno (Delevanti). They're both broke, and Shannon convinces Maxine to let them stay. Still, over a long night, Charlotte continues to make advances to Shannon, and the stress of everything else in addition to that triggers another breakdown. The cabana boys tie Shannon up in a hammock, and Hannah tries to talk him down, using poppy-seed tea and blunt spiritual talk.

From there, Nonno finally finishes his last poem before dying, while Shannon and Maxine reconcile and decide to run the hotel together.

Highly recommended movie.

No comments: