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Epicurus.com - Night of the Iguana
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List Price: $14.98
Our Price: $6.89
Your Save: $ 8.09 ( 54% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: MGM (Warner)
Starring: Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, Sue Lyon, Skip Ward
Directed By: John Huston
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786301977760
Format: Black & White
ISBN: 6301977769
Label: MGM (Warner)
Manufacturer: MGM (Warner)
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: MGM (Warner)
Release Date: 1994-06-30
Running Time: 125
Studio: MGM (Warner)
Theatrical Release Date: 1964-08-06
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Editorial Reviews:
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The Night of the Iguana may be Richard Burton's finest hour on the screen: beautifully cast as an anguished, defrocked reverend, doomed to his own purgatory in Mexico as tour guide to a group of nattering biddies. (The expression on his face as the ladies warble "Happy Days Are Here Again" on the tour bus is worth a Shakespearian monologue.) John Huston's clean, black-comic adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play is a forceful snapshot of a man down to his last chance, and the superb black-and-white location photography by Gabriel Figueroa captures the end-of-the-world vibe. The women who tempt and taunt the reverend are Ava Gardner (with her maraca-shaking beach boys), Deborah Kerr, and Sue Lyon. The movie--and its backstage publicity, with Burton and Liz Taylor carrying on their Cleopatra affair--put Puerto Vallarta on the map, but it deserves notice for Burton's gutsy acting and Huston's characteristic sympathy for life's losers. --Robert Horton
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Richard Burton, fans this movie rocks!
Comment: Okay, I love this movie. He was the most sexist animal out there. The movie is great, and a great cast to go alone with it! Girls those eyes! besides that it is a wonderful move and I recommed it highly. He was a great actor and should of been noticed more for his acting abilities. On stage he was great as well!
Customer Rating:
Summary: "I defy you! Shannon defies you! Get out your tomahawks!""
Comment: I love this movie. I check it out of the public library every chance I get.
I need it. It refreshes me.
First of all, think of all the heavyweight talents involved in this movie.
... John Huston -- arguably the best director of his time.
... Deborah Kerr -- the classiest actress ever to puff tobacco between two ears.
... Richard Burton -- sui (and-I-don't-mean-Ellen-de) generis.
... And Ava Gardner. Ava, Ava my love! To think you could have had me instead of Howard Hughes, Artie Shaw, Frank Sinatra and the entire backfield of the UCLA football team (1946 to 1959)!!!
Ava Gardner -- she was young, she was beautiful, she was the best canoe buddy a boy ever had, and I've had 'em all over the world!
But seriously, flock, this is a terrific movie. Yes, yes, I know, I know: Richard Burton hams it up, in spots (so what else is new?) -- but come on, what an actor! What a feency-schmency ecktah!
And, ok ok, so Sue Lyons is no Helen Bonham Carter or Tuesday Weld or Connie Stevens, even.
And, yes, yes, the bus driver is only slightly more talented than Troy Donahue. Yes, yes, I know, I know.
And the ladies on the bus are all rather one-dimensional, if not downright amateurs (which I believe they actually were). But the beauty of the movie is that John Huston and his talented collaborators, both in front of and behind the camera, make it all work.
Speaking of Troy Donahue -- do you remember Troy Donahue in Godfather II? Or Cybil Shepherd in Taxi Driver? Or George Hamilton in Godfather III? These stiffs were famous, and probably still are famous, for being notoriously inadequate, one-dimensional, "wooden" actors. But it didn't matter: the creative talent in the films they were in MADE THEM LOOK GOOD! This, I think, is one of the marks of a great movie -- there is a certain something created that raises all boats; makes great performers even greater, while eliciting from the just-adequate their best, most notable work.
Oh, and what a moment, when at the beginning of the movie Richard Burton bum-rushes all those WASPs from Sunday church! Man, that's as sweet as it gets. It's like giving Ozzie and Harriet a hotfoot.
Of course behind the entire project is, perhaps next to William Shakespeare, the greatest dramatist in the history of the English language: Tennessee Williams. (Boy, did that guy go far with all I taught him!) The characters Tennesse Williams creates are simply irresistible. So that perhaps we should leave it at this: if someone watches this picture and doesn't feel as though they've encountered *real* people or, better yet, if you don't feel that the essential nature of certain kinds of people hasn't been intimately revealed and, in turn, greatly understood ... then, Pilgrim, it's time you started hanging out with a different crowd of bipeds. Because (and get this straight because I'm not gonna repeat it) I defy you to not like this movie! Shannon defies you! My Aunt Tillie over on Elm Street defies you! All 15 of her children would, if they could be found on a given night, defy you! Lock your doors! Get out your tomahawks! Get out your tomahawks!!!
Just kidding, folks. Everybody can relax now.
You, too, Tonto.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Comment: This is the tale of a man in turmoil and his resurrection by Miss Jelks.
The story begins with the tormented reverend (Burton) lashing out upon his flock for his unstable faith and failings. His congregation walks out on him,leaving him to flail and rail all for himself. Cut to some months later-the reverend Shannon is now in charge of a bible group tour bus way down in Mexico merrily singing "Happy Days Are Here Again" and "3 Little Fishy's" as the liguored-up,unhappy, barely-man-of-the-cloth rolls his eyes heavenward. Passengers included in the tour group include the eye-candy of her day Sue Lyon playing Miss Charlotte and flirting with the weakening pastor without mercy. Under the watchful eye of the bible group's leader Miss Fellowes(Grayson Hall) the girl and the reverend are told to keep it clean or ELSE!
When her warning goes unheeded Miss Fellowes is forced to report their unseemly behavior to the authorities-the owners of the bus tour company.
Shannon, now reeling with terror and fearing the loss of his tour guide position hijacks the bus and makes a beeline for an out of the way bungalow run by some old friends of his, much to the protests of the passengers.
Shannon finds only his friend Fred's widow on the premises, Maxine(Ava Gardner)looking like she borrowed Elizabeth Taylors black pants and loose top outfit from Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolfe? "Fred's dead" she tells him making me think of Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction telling his girlfriend "Zed's dead" when she asks where he got the motorcycle.
The weary tour bus passengers make their way up the hill to the villa and settle in as the games continue between the reverend, the girl, Miss Fellowes and a lonely but steely-eyed Maxine, when out of the blue arrives a spinster and her grandfather poet. Deborah Kerr plays the world-wise Miss Jelks who with her grandfather in tow have come to Maxine's without a penny to their name. Miss Jelks paints portraits of tourists for what little money she can earn while her grandfather recites his original poems also for the spare change a stranger might offer. Reluctantly Maxine allows the couple to spend the night when Miss Jelks' common sense and agility with a machete becomes evident.
Shannon becomes increasingly agitated and even suicidal wherein he is strapped tight to a hammock with Miss Jelks gently suggesting he drink of her poppyseed tea while the reverend screams "UNTIE ME!!".
The conversations between Shannon and Jelks/Jelks and Maxine/Maxine and Shannon/Shannon and Charlotte are the backbone of this movie as most any movie with the name Tennessee Williams attached is.
Wonderful dialogue, superb acting and I'm happy to report,a positive ending left me with a very warm spot in my heart for this film.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Night of the Iguana
Comment: The Night of the Iguana is an excellent drama movie. The story is truly remarkable (from who else but Tennesse Williams), and the performances of Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, as well as Sue Lyon are outstanding. Too bad these days they do not make such good movies any more.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great film from beginning to end....
Comment: I loved this movie. Don't listen to the naysayers; they have no idea what great acting and great actors are. If you appreciate a fine story and interesting dialogue, you will enjoy this film.
Richard Burton plays a preacher who was defrocked because he "fornicated" with a young girl in the church. He is sent to do bus tours in Mexico, and ends up with a group of old hags who also set out to ruin him when a young girl, played by Sue Lyon, tries to seduce him. They blame him for it and do their best to drive him to the edge. Ava Gardner plays his friend who owns a hotel in Puerto Vallarta, and Deborah Kerr is an artist who helps him to find himself again. The movie has a good, satisfying ending. My only complaint is with Sue Lyon, who is terrible in any role she plays, this one included. Fortunately, she isn't seen in it quite as much as the rest. Everyone else is fantastic in their roles. I highly recommend this film.
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