The Night of the Iguana
Directed by John Huston
Written by Anthony Veiller and John Huston from a play by Tennessee Williams
1964/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Hannah Jelkes: Nothing human disgusts me, Mr. Shannon, unless it’s unkind, violent.[/box]
I expected something heavy and depressing but was pleased to get a poetic black comedy. John Huston is still batting 1000 with me.
Richard Burton plays the Reverend Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon, an Episcopal minister who lost his church to a sex scandal with an underaged girl. Shannon is now trying to battle his raging alcoholism while acting as a tour guide to a party of straight-laced middle-aged Texas ladies traveling through Mexico. The ladies do not appreciate Shannon’s proclivity to seek out slice of life experiences in the country. Still less do they countenance Shannon’s repeated encounters with Charlotte (Sue Lyon), a teenager who has decided she’s in love with him.
When Charlotte is caught in Shannon’s room, her chaperone (Grayson Hall) threatens to get him fired. Shannon takes the group to a fairly primitive ocean resort run by Maxine Faulk (Ava Gardner) then steals the distributor head to the bus to keep them there. Soon after the group’s arrival, penniless eccentric artist Hannah Jelkes (Deborah Kerr) seeks shelter at the resort with her grandfather (Ernest Thesiger), the world’s oldest living poet. The estrogen runs high as Shannon continues his possibly terminal crack-up.
The plot doesn’t sound at all amusing but Williams et al make it so with some fantastic dialogue. This film is much closer to something like Suddenly, Last Summer than it is the Summer and Smoke heavy psycho-drama that I was dreading. The acting is pretty wonderful as well. Recommended.
Night of the Iguana won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White. It was nominated in the categories of Best Supporting Actress (Hall); Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and White.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3XuKOAI5zQ
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