Review of What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966) by Steve M — 25 Dec 2006

What's up, Tiger Lily?

Starring: Tatsuya Mihashi, Akiko Wakabayashi, Woody Allen, Frank Buxon, and China Lee.

Directors: Senkichi Taniguchi and Woody Allen.

When I was a kid, Marvel published a humor magazine. I think it was titled "Crazy" or "Cracked." One of the features they did was to take pages from superhero comics and rewrite the dialogue balloons, changing the story that HAD been illustrated into a nonsensical, madcap comedy.

Woody Allen did the same with a Japanese spy movie that was originally titled "Key of Keys" and redubbed it so the characters are saying something quite different than in the original movie, and the story is also not at all what the original filmmakers provided.

I have no idea exactly what was going on in the original film, but what we have in "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" is super spy Phil Moscowitz (Miashi, dubbed into English) attempting to recover the world's greatest egg salad receipe before it is put to evil use by international criminals.

The film offers a number of laughs, but mostly you will find yourself chuckling while wondering "where are they going with this bit?" Unfortunately, often they are going nowhere with the various absurd situations the film places its characters in, but is instead being goofy for the sake of being goofy. (Allen acknowledges this, inserting a break halfway through the movie. Here, it is interviewed by someone who asks him to explain the plot. He refuses to do so.).

Allen appears in three original segments for the film, and the one referenced above and the one that closes out "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" are some of its funniest moments. The rest isn't bad, but I can't help but wonder if a little bit more thought had been put into the rescripting of some of the scenes, the entire film could have been funnier. It comes close to matching my recollection of those relettered comics. (Of course, if I were to read them now--25 or so years later--I may not think them quite as funny.).