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.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. 1958 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Judith Anderson, Jack Carson, Madeleine Sherwood, Larry Gates, Vaughn Taylor
Director: Richard Brooks
Available from Amazon as a deluxe edition DVD, as part of the TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection, or part of the Tennessee Williams Film Collection.

The Academy Award nominated film based on Tennessee Williams' play of the same name. Williams despised the finished film, though.

Brick Pollitt (Newman) drunkenly gets involved in a pick-up football game late one night, which sees him hobbling around on crutches after he injures his ankle. He and his wife, Maggie "the cat" (Taylor), are also visiting his family in Mississippi, just in time for Big Daddy's (Ives) 65th birthday. However, Brick spends most of his time inside, boozing it up, and resisting Maggie's affections, who is teasing him about the inheritance of Big Daddy's wealth. Big Daddy, who just returned from the hospital, unaware that he's dying from cancer because neither his doctors or his family will tell him or Big Mama (Anderson).

Eventually, Brick's issues are finally brought out into the open, and it's revealed that Maggie was jealous of Brick's best friend Skipper, who had committed suicide a year earlier, sending Brick on a path of alcoholism. Maggie planned to end their friendship by seducing Skipper, but didn't go through with it, and Brick still believes they did have an affair. Henceforth, Brick blames his wife for his best friend's suicide. Pretty soon, Brick comes to terms with his problems, having been confronted with Big Daddy's mortality. It's decided that the bulk of his fortune will be left to Maggie, because she is "full of life".

For the movie, the relationship between Brick and Skipper, which suggested that Brick was in love with Skipper in the stage play, had to be toned down considerably. Regardless of the times, this film adaptation is highly recommended.