Review of The Night of the Iguana (1964) by Blake P — 24 Aug 2014

There are two types of Tennessee Williams films: ones that are marred by the Hays Code, turning into batshit crazy melodramas instead of meaningful works; or, there are the kinds, like "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", for example, that have just enough sauce and seasoning to keep Williams' boiling dialogue intact. "The Night of Iguana" is a type of the latter, and we can only thank John Huston for that.

He isn't a director that lets nonsense pass, and if the Hays Code had gotten to the film, there is no way it would have worked in the same way "Suddenly, Last Summer" did (and if you're wondering, "Suddenly, Last Summer" is a type of the previously mentioned batshit crazy melodramas).

Filmed in Mexican-bred superheat, "The Night of the Iguana" draws its attention to Rev. Shannon (Richard Burton), or, ex-Rev. Shannon. Controversy caused him to lose his job at the church, and he now works as a low-rent tour guide. Using a bus as big as a house for transport, his latest customers are a group of post-menopausal schoolteachers, lead by the shrew Judith Fellowes (a dynamic Grayson Hall). Shannon isn't fond of any of them, except for the buxom 16-year old Charlotte (Sue Lyon), who Judith has brought as a sort of guest.

Shannon and Charlotte flirt without seriousness in mind, but Judith catches wind of it with breakneck speed, and for the rest of the trip, threatens to have Shannon fired if he even lays a finger on Charlotte.

Later on, Shannon brings the group of ladies to a secluded hotel, run by his former lover, Maxine Faulk (Ava Gardner), whose extroverted personality doesn't sit well with Judith or her companions. But just as they begin to get comfortable, two other people arrive: Hannah (Deborah Kerr), a spinster-esque but beautiful artist, and her grandfather (Cyril Delevanti), a dying poet. That night, Shannon, Maxine, and Hannah reveal their deepest demons to one another - and it isn't all manners, all flirting as it once before.

Not knowing anything about the film, I assumed "The Night of the Iguana" was a nightmare behind the scenes. Burton brought Elizabeth Taylor to the set in swelteringly sultry Mexico, Gardner and Kerr were both past-40 (and actresses past 40 in vintage Hollywood were always having a hard time), and, historically, Tennessee Williams adaptations can be emotionally hard for the people that create or speak his words.

But John Huston, who had the same sorts of precautions in mind as me, knew that most onlookers were expecting a riot - and so he gave his entire cast guns, in case they got a little bit too fed up. From that, all tensions were gone, and everyone got along famously. And in the film, it shows.

When casts don't get along, it can be painfully obvious. With "Suddenly, Last Summer", Montgomery Clift and director Joseph L. Mankiewicz hated each other, and Williams, who was on set, wasn't pleased with the casting of Katharine Hepburn. It shows - Clift is basically cardboard and Hepburn seems rather uncomfortable. The ensemble in "The Night of the Iguana" is terrific, however, and they work well off of one another.

Adaptations of plays can be a tricky thing. You want them to have the same fire they had on the stage, but you also want to bring something new to the table. It was smart of Huston to photograph the film in black-and-white: by 1964, all sorts of new color photography was being introduced, and gone were the films that could exude grittiness without even trying. But without color, the sweat of the actors in "The Night of the Iguana" is practically dripping on us, and the heat of Mexico is ever more apparent. Most evidently, the black-and-white makes a trap-door prison so stifling that the situations feel much more honest, as if the truth was squeezed out of the individuals pouring out their inner most secrets.

Burton is as dependable as ever, but it's the leading women that leave the most lasting impression. Gardner gives one of her best performances of all-time, even if she never was truly confident in her acting abilities. She is earthy, self-confident ... at first, that is. Once she shifts gears into the bolted-down category, her acting muscles rip out - at 42, it seems almost like a breakthrough, after years of playing seriously sexy dames with conviction but never strain.

Kerr is sophisticated, and in an instant, her character draws in our interest. She could be a con woman; she could be setting Shannon up for a fall. But instead, she is a sexually-repressed woman who has many more layers than we originally think. Kerr's mannerisms are so acute that in an instant we can tell Hannah is flawless on the outside but tormented on the inside.

"The Night of the Iguana" doesn't feel like a John Huston movie, and it doesn't always feel like a Tennessee Williams adaptation. That's what's so good about it. The screenplay is so fascinating, the actors are so on-point, that there is no need for comparison, or a search of style. It's steaming hot drama that comes right out of the oven, and it still feels fresh after 50 years.