Main Cast: Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, Sue Lyon, James Ward
Release Year: 1964
Country: US
Run Time: 125 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Filmed on location in Mexico by John Huston, Night of the Iguana stars Richard Burton as Rev. Shannon, an alcoholic defrocked minister, who scratches out a living as a south-of-the-border tour guide. His latest customers are several American schoolteachers, and he guides their bus to a rundown hotel owned by flamboyant widow Maxine Faulk (Ava Gardner). Attempting to dally with Charlotte Goodall (Sue Lyon), one of the schoolteachers, Shannon is caught in the act by the group's "den mother" Judith Fellowes (Grayson Hall), who threatens to have him fired. While he and Maxine connive to keep Judith from calling his superiors, artist Hanna Jelkes (Deborah Kerr) arrives at the hotel with her ailing, elderly poet grandfather (Cyril Delevanti, in a part reportedly offered to poet Carl Sandburg). The midsection of the film charts the vacillating sexual tensions among the besotted Shannon, the earthy Maxine, and the repressed Hanna. The perversions and demons plaguing the principal characters, merely hinted at in the original stage production of by Tennessee Williams, are expanded by Huston, who co-adapted the screenplay with Anthony Veiller. The film won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design for Dorothy Jeakins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Tennessee Williams' morality play is well adapted to the screen in writer-director John Huston's 1964 film version. Typically of a Williams effort, there's more than enough intense melodrama and sexuality to go around. This was one of the final films in the spate of screen adaptations of his work, which began with 1951's A Streetcar Named Desire. Changing sexual mores and an increase in sexual frankness may have made Williams' once-scandalous themes seem downright old-fashioned, but Huston's film has survived the test of time better than some others. In the hands of a lesser director, the movie might have become an aberrant sexual farce. All of the actors play their roles straight, and the film mostly benefits from their performances. The sultry Ava Gardner comes across well, though her career would slide into oblivion as the 1960s progressed. As the drunk and defrocked priest lusted after by three very different women, Richard Burton tends to go over-the-top. There was reportedly a great deal of tension on the set among the leads, who were stuck on location in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide
Grayson Hall - Judith Fellowes; Cyril Delevanti - Nonno; Mary Boylan - Miss Peebles; Gladys Hill - Miss Dexter; Billie Matticks - Miss Throxton; Barbara Joyce - Teacher; Fidelmar Duran - Pepe; Eloise Hardt; Robert Leyra - Pedro; Emilio Fernández - Barkeeper
The Night of the Iguana is a 1964 film based on the 1961 play The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams. Directed by John Huston, it starred Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, and Deborah Kerr. Actress Grayson Hall received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and the film was nominated for Academy Awards for art direction and cinematography, and won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.[1] The film drew considerable attention for stories around its production, since Richard Burton had brought his soon-to-be-wife Elizabeth Taylor to the location shoot.[2] The filming attracted large numbers of paparazzi, and turned the city of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico into a world-famous tourist attraction.
Ex-Episcopalian minister turned tour guide, the Reverend Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon (Richard Burton), was locked out of his church and institutionalized for a "nervous breakdown" after having an inappropriate relationship in Virginia with "a very young Sunday school teacher." When the film begins, Shannon, now a tour guide for Blake Tours in Texas, is taking a group of Baptist School teachers to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The group's brittle group leader is Miss Judith Fellowes (Grayson Hall), whose 17-year-old niece Charlotte Goodall (Sue Lyon) tries to seduce Shannon. Charlotte's aunt, a latent lesbian, accuses Shannon of trying to seduce the girl and fires him, declaring that she wants to ruin him. In a moment of despair, Shannon shanghais the bus and occupants, and tries to prevent her from calling his boss by stranding their bus at a cheap (and, he mistakenly thinks, phoneless) Costa Verde Hotel in Mismaloya on the coast of Mexico. Shannon thinks that the hotel is still run by an old friend named Fred, but finds that Fred has died, and the hotel is now run by Fred's widow, Maxine Faulk (Ava Gardner). Maxine is more interested in Shannon than her current two maraca-shaking cabana boys. Shannon also meets another woman there, Hanna Jelkes (Deborah Kerr), a beautiful and chaste itinerant painter from Nantucket who appears at the hotel with her elderly poet grandfather. Hannah and her grandfather have run out of money, but Shannon convinces Maxine to let them have rooms. Over a long night, Miss Fellowes' niece makes trouble for Shannon, who must wrestle with despair and madness, as he battles his weaknesses for both flesh and alcohol. He is "at the end of his rope", just like the iguana kept tied by Maxie's cabana boys. Shannon suffers a breakdown, the cabana boys truss him in a hammock, and Hannah ministers to him there with poppy-seed tea and frank spiritual counsel.
In the final scene, Maxine's grandfather delivers the final version of the poem he has been laboring to finish, a beautiful swan song of the human condition. He dies as the iguana is cut away from its rope. The characters try to make some resolve of their confused lives with the final reconciliation of Shannon and Maxine deciding to run the hotel together, and Hannah stoically walking away from her last chance at love.
Grayson Hall received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. The film won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design (B&W), and in addition to Ms. Hall's nomination, was also nominated for its art direction (Stephen B. Grimes) and Gabriel Figueroa's cinematography. [1]
Production notes
The film version removes the Nazi tourist characters from the original stage version.
The film was shot just south of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on La Jolla de Mismaloya (The Jewel of Mismaloya). Due in no small part to the presence of cast member Richard Burton and actress Elizabeth Taylor, who were carrying on a very public affair at the time (1963), the filming attracted large numbers of paparazzi, made international headlines, and in turn made Puerto Vallarta world-famous.
Three of the stars were involved in romantic affairs while the film was made, and all four stars had their share of arguments with Huston. A hotel and resort complex now occupies the bayfront at what is now the village of Mismaloya; it maintains the old sets as restaurants and tourist attractions.
A statue of John Huston was eventually erected in Puerto Vallarta, where it still stands, because of his role in creating the city's current reputation.
