Night of the Iguana

Year: 1964
Genre: Drama
Directed: John Huston
Stars: Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, Sue Lyon, Skip Ward, Grayson Hall, Cyril Delevanti, Mary Boylan, Fidelmar Duran, Roberto Leyva, Emilio Fernandez, Gladys Hill
Production: MGM

In the annals of twentieth history American art and entertainment, it's a wonder the works of Tennessee Williams didn't worm their way into the thoughts of director John Huston sooner. Seemingly always focusing on damaged people on the end of their ropes, Williams's output has the steamy, melodramatic tinge that a natural adventurer and provocateur like Huston would have enjoyed. While I am a big fan of Elia Kazan's A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), there's a dark, destructive part of me that yens to see what kind of on-location tumult Huston could have mustered.

Dysentery on me for everyone!

Yet in comparison to "Streetcar," or for that matter "The Glass Menagerie" and "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof", "Night of the Iguana's" script doesn't quite gel as confidently. Somewhere underneath the familiar lusts and libations there's just something a bit off that sabotages the film from within.

The Night of the Iguana concerns a wayward priest whose inappropriate relationship with a young Sunday school teacher got him ostracized by his congregation. Two years, and a nervous breakdown later, Reverend Shannon (Burton) now guides Christian tours for a tacky Mexican bus outfit. He spends a few days on tour with a flock of Baptist women, and sees history repeat itself when a 17-year-old Texas flirt (Lyon) gets him hot and bothered. High noon occurs at the Costa Verde Hotel where the vitreous Miss Fellowes (Hall) vows to have Shannon fired, defrocked and possibly arrested for messing around with a minor.

Along for the ride are two additional women who help stir the sticky pot Shannon finds himself in. The first is Maxine (Gardner) the bawdy hotel owner whose late husband was a dear friend of Shannon's. The second is a chaste and impoverished painter named Hannah (Kerr) whose serendipitous arrival at the hotel befalls Shannon like a guardian angel. As an un-eclipsed star of the silver screen, Deborah Kerr is, as always a demure, stately vision. Despite being written inexplicably as a charlatan with a heart of gold and a gift for talking people off the ledge, she still carries through with the same verisimilitude she gave Sister Angela in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957).

Of course they cut before it gets good.

Unfortunately she and perhaps Miss Hall are the only people who seem to bring surprise and depth; a tall order considering their characters are pigeonholed as lesser versions of Mother Teresa and the Wicked Witch of the West. Ava Gardner, by all accounts a fine actress can't seem to find Maxine's center. One minute she's cloyingly passive aggressive in the way all Tennessee Williams vamps are. The next minute she's in histrionics, trading libidinous kisses with the cabana boys.

Though if there be any performance that outright sinks this boat, it's Richard Burton, the flop-sweaty captain of this unlucky tug. His silver-tongued screeching and bellowing flies thick like mole over beans and rice, yet the thespian can't seem to grasp he's not on stage this time. He never takes the subtler, quiet moments that celluloid can afford him but rather blows up like a cannon every time a modicum of drama can be had. One particular scene involving him, the young Sue Lyon and a floor of broken glass feels almost cartoonish if it wasn't so airless and uncomfortable.

Bottoms up!

Night of the Iguana is an overcooked mess made memorable less for its story and more for the drama behind the scenes. Unwanted set visitors included Tennessee Williams and Burton's second wife Elizabeth Taylor whose relationship still lives in Hollywood infamy. Additionally Burton was famous for being a petulant drunk during filming. This in turn attracted the paparazzi to the secluded coastal set and guaranteed headaches for the majority of the shoot. Rumor has it that Huston bought the cast custom pistols with engraved bullets, each having the name of the other cast members. The idea was whenever someone wanted to kill the other, they could do so in style. With so much gone wrong with this thing, I'd be going out guns blazing.

Final Grade: D