Friday
Mar252011
Tennessee 100: Night of the Iguana
Friday, March 25, 2011 at 8:00AM 
JA from MNPP here, continuing Tennessee Williams Centennial Week with a look at John Huston's 1963 film The Night of the Iguana. I chose Iguana because it's one of the few adaptations of Williams' work that I hadn't seen already, and because IMDb's summary made it sound torrid in the best Williams way. Defrocked priests and wanton teen girls and sapphic spinsters all flitting about a Mexican beach cut off from civilization? Yes please.But truth be told, I found the film a little wanting, not wanton. Richard Burton's in full bluster, screaming and sloshing about as the drunken ex-man-of-the-cloth Shannon, Deborah Kerr barely registers as the sexless traveling painter he's too big a mess to end up with, and not a whole lot seems to gel.
I was fond of Grayson Hall as the lesbian intent upon Shannon's destruction (she was nominated for an Oscar, but lost to Lila Kedrova in Zorba the Greek), and kind of loved Ava Gardner as Maxine, the owner of the motel where they all end up marooned who keeps a couple of cabana boys for herself...
... but then, she was speaking my language. Bette Davis played the role of Maxine in the original staging of the play for four months before, according to her, her co-stars undercut her and she left the production and was replaced by Shelley Winters. I can picture both of them doing exquisite work in the role, but I really did like Ava Gardner here. (And scanning through Gardner's filmography I realize this is the first time I've ever seen her in anything!)
Iguana was shot in the Fall of 1962, right at epicenter of the tabloid insanity over the affair between Burton and Elizabeth Taylor - they'd just worked (among other things) together on Cleopatra - and Taylor actually accompanied Burton on the shoot in Puerto Vallarta, which led to all kinds of scrutiny upon the set. From Wikipedia comes this fun fact:
"By March 1964, months before the film's release, gossip about the film's production became the subject of a public parody when Huston received an Writers' Guild of America award for advancing "the literature of the motion picture through the years"; at a dinner where the award was presented, Allan Sherman performed a song, to the tune of "Streets of Laredo", with lyrics that included "They were down there to film The Night of the Iguana / With a star-studded cast and a technical crew. / They did things at night midst the flora and fauna / That no self-respecting iguana would do."
As you can tell, the stories surrounding the production are more interesting to me than the movie itself now. Perhaps the mega-quake that was Burton-Taylor was too strong a distraction to gel together an entirely satisfying, coherent film. Still there's some gorgeous black-and-white photography to be had...
And it did walk away with an Oscar for Best Costume Design (B&W), beating Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte and Edith Head for A House is Not a Home, so in summation let's take a look at a couple of those. It's refreshing to see an example of a non-period film winning a prize for its costumes, isn't it?
Reader Comments (16)
I must see this now... somehow i know nothing about it despite being a Tennessee Williams freak. I know you're not exactly recommending it but Ava Gardner with cabana boys and a best costume design nod? *puts on queue*
Ava Gardner cracks me the f*ck up in this role! She is wild! Have you read her bio by Lee Server -- it literally reads like a novel. Her life story is dying to be made into an HBO biopic...she had some crazy life. I've only seen her in this and The Killers though.
Sue Lyon was so young and beautiful in this movie. With Lolita and then this, one would have thought she'd have been the next big thing.
bia -- she did have a biopic -worthy life. I mean, just the Frank Sinatra stuff alone.
the challenge might be: who the hell could play her? I think the key role is THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA though, isn't it?
wait, so you've never seen anything else with ava gardner? girl, get yourself some netflix of the barefoot contessa & mogambo.
but i truly love this mess of a movie. there's so much going on, it never quite came together, but its a gorgeous mess. strong, varied performances coupled with a "stranded strangers" plot convention works very well. imperfect is often more interesting than perfection.
nathaniel - i could see angelina jolie or monica belluci as ava...both exhibit similar enough raw sensuality, wit, and cagey behavior that it could work
I always thought Ashley Judd resembled Ava a lot, but I don't know much about her acting skills.
ava gardner is SO GREAT in this role. definitely one of her bests. she brings the film so much energy.
'Oh courage! Could you not as well find a second place to dwell? Not only in that twisted tree, but in the hollow frightened heart... of me'...
is it finished, Hannah? Hannah?
Aint no doubt this film is the bomb - though it helps if you're an alcoholic poet with the unfortunate habit of being so desirable that you never get laid because all the girls fight over you and cockblock each other right out of the game... and you can't get it up anyway as you're HAMMERED all the time, and if you like iguanas, and playing god, and whining about your problems.... read my metatextual Iguana-rama here!
I kinda loved Kate B. as Ava in "The Aviator". Would LOOOOOVE to see Emily Blunt play her in a movie though.
Oh I love this movie! Great write-up, though I must respectfully disagree about Kerr, whom I think is absolutely wonderful here ( I am biased, I admit). Each and every actor is great, but Ava does walk away with the film I think.
The filming was indeed fascinating- there is a behind the scenes documentary that is well worth checking out ( I think it might even be on youtube). In addition to Burton and Taylor, Deborah Kerr's new husband who also accompanied her on location, was an ex-lover of Ava Gardner's, so that also added to the mix of awkwardness.
This is one of my favorite Ava Gardner movies, maybe because it is so different from her roles during her glamour girl days.
@Bia- YES!! Ashley Judd should be the only one allowed to play Ava, she has the look along with the wit and brashness to pull it off. However, she may be a bit too old to play young Ava.
Ava Gardner is absolutely great in the film and should've been nominated for an Oscar for it. I think she was a much better actress then the she and critics gave her credit for. As for her looks, to me she is the most beautiful actress to ever grace the silver screen.
Uncharismatic Kate Beckinsale did such a sorry job portraying her in The Aviator. I wish the would've cast Monica Bellucci, Ashley Judd, or Catherine Zeta-Jones instead.
Have't watched this one yet but I know Melina Mercouri was very close to playing the Gardner role.
I love the hotness that is this movie. Kerr playing a cooler version of herself and Burton and Ava Gardner hamming it up.
For some reason, I think after Monroe's death, they let ingenues and post-ingenues out of their beautiful shells and let them take riskier roles. Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn pulled some punches and strayed (slightly or totally) from their cleaner 1950's images. And Gardner, instead of always being the sultry one with the dress in her early films, became the force of nature that she was in this movie.
Also, I would have loved to see Grissom and Cherry Jones, who were the stars of the Broadway revival of this play.
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