Sadly not on DVD: Night of the Iguana

When a film's pre-credit sequence has Richard Burton (as a priest) suffering a complete nervous breakdown in front of his parishioners, you know you're in for something special. Of all the filmed adaptations of Tennessee Williams' plays, John Huston's Night of the Iguana (1964) is easily one of the best. This tale of a defrocked, alcoholic priest (Burton) and the various women in his life contains the typical Williams themes -- guilt, repressed sexuality. and spiritual torment. The best thing about the film (besides the wonderful black and white photography by cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa) is the performances by the three leads -- Burton, Ava Gardner, and Deborah Kerr. Some have claimed that Richard Burton is being too Richard Burton in the film, but Filmbrain believes it is one of his best performances, running a close second to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Ava Gardner, looking a bit haggard after her Sinatra years, gives a stellar performance, as does Deborah Kerr. Sue Lyon, in a near reprise of her role in Lolita, looks right for the part, but simply cannot keep up with her co-stars. The story is set in Mexico, and most of the action takes place at a mountaintop inn run by Maxine Faulk (Ava Gardner). Locked out of his church, the alcoholic Reverend Lawrence Shannon (Burton) now operates bus tours of Mexico for wealthy American women. He incurs the wrath of Judith Fellowes (Grayson Hall -- born to play this sort of character) when she suspects that Burton has seduced nymphomaniac jailbait passenger Charlotte Goodall (Sue Lyon). Determined to destroy him, Burton has no choice but to hijack the group and keep them at his friend Maxine's inn in order to prevent Judith from reporting the affair to both the tour company and the clergy. Also staying at the hotel is Hannah Jelkes (Deborah Kerr) a New England spinster traveling with her ninety-two year old poet grandfather Nonno (Cyril Delevanti). A great hodgepodge of characters as only Williams can create. The world at the inn is one dominated by women -- the nymphet, the vamp, the spinster and a handful of old crones -- and Burton finds himself increasingly set upon by all of them. In fact, other than Maxine's two servants cum sexual playthings, Pepe and Pedro (always shown shirtless and shaking maracas), Burton is the reluctant rooster in the hen house. (The bus driver, old poet, and stoned Chinese cook pose no threat to that paradigm.) Though he and Maxine have had a sexual past (even while she was married), he's more consumed by chasing his demons than the women who desire him. The dialogue is sharp from start to finish, and screenwriter Anthony Veiller did a great job with the adaptation. For example, when Maxine suspects that Hannah has eyes for the Reverend, she brushes it off with "I'm a New England spinster who is pushing forty", only to be met with Maxine's "Well who the hell isn't?" Or when it's revealed that Ms. Fellowes' hatred of the Reverend is due to her own Sapphic desire for the young Charlotte, Maxine (she really has the best lines) delivers the following -- "Do you know that if it wasn't for the dikes, the plains of Texas would be engulfed by the gulf?" -- a great way to address a then-taboo subject. Yet Night of the Iguana is truly Burton's film. Whether he's screaming at parishioners, walking on broken glass, or thrashing about while tied to a hammock -- this is a masterful performance. The paranoia, the fear, the fever-driven madness -- Burton pulls it off without once going over the top. The pristine letterbox print that shows occasionally on Turner Classic Movies is ripe for DVD -- hopefully someone will resurrect this wonderful film so that all can experience it.