The USPS has issued a set of four stamps honoring great film
directors and the films for which they are most remembered. The four selected
are: John Ford (The Searchers), John Huston (The Maltese Falcon), Frank Capra
(It Happened One Night), and Billy Wilder (Some Like It Hot). We will be
exploring the lives and work of these directors over the next several weeks. In
this post LR Simon reviews The Night of the Iguana (1964).
If there’s a quest in John Huston’s film adaptation of The Night of the Iguana, it’s the Reverend Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon’s attempt to
repair his reputation. This quest fails early in the film. The more dominant
theme in this adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play is enduring (or
overcoming) one’s demons. The main character, Shannon (Richard Burton), opens
the film with an initially boring Bible lesson that gradually transforms into a
loud and public confession that results in Shannon’s dismissal from ministry.
We next see him as an unhappy tour guide, almost out of options.
The Night of the Iguana is a difficult film for a number of
reasons, but chief among these is the difficulty in believing that Charlotte
(Sue Lyon) would want anything to do with Shannon, which is due mostly to Lyon’s
unconvincing performance. While we can believe in her rebelliousness, her attempts to seduce the shamed ex-minister make the young actress look like she's acting, not seducing.
The story centers on aimless characters, and it
sometimes feels like Huston doesn’t really know what to do with them. The
characters with direction are minor characters who provide obstacles for the
major characters, but the major characters don’t drive much of the action, and
when they do, it’s usually a reaction to a minor character’s action.
Huston’s relationship with playwright Tennessee Williams was
much more harmonious than that with Ray Bradbury. Huston welcomed Williams’
visits to the remote set, even asking for his assistance when there were
difficulties on the set.
The Night of the Iguana is a mixed bag of a movie, and it
received mixed reviews when it opened. For all the problems with The Misfits,
it at least feels more like a movie and less like a filmed play than The Night
of the Iguana.
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