Night Of The Iguana (1964)

There is too much to say about this John Huston film, based on the Tennessee Williams play, a meditation on human need. The first part of the story is not entirely engaging, but it does come to life after awhile. Richard Burton's Shannon character is a defrocked alcoholic minister working as a tour guide in Mexico with a busload of tightly-wound church women from Texas visiting historic religious sites. Charlotte is an attractive teen who has been sent on the trip by her wealthy father in an attempt to separate her from the attentions of boy back home. Chaperoning her is Miss Fellowes, who has her hands full as Charlotte takes a liking to the handsome Reverend Shannon. He calls her emotionally precocious as he tries to defend himself when accused of seducing her.

Shannon is man on the edge of collapse, trying to stay on the wagon and keep his job after a lifetime of setbacks. Miss Fellows is determined to get him fired, but he hi-jacks the bus to a remote location in Puerta Vallerta where his friend, Maxine (Ava Gardner), runs a funky hotel on a hilltop high above the sea. She is closed for business after losing her husband, but Shannon convinces her to open up to accommodate his group of women. This is where the film gained my interest. Maxine feisty and alive, managing alone in the desolate place with a little help from her native beach boys, who appear at her command...tan and bare-chested, wearing nothing but thin white cotton pants...wiggling their hips to marachas. This film is full of stereotypes.

The party of women is joined by painter, Hannah (Deborah Kerr) and her elderly wheelchairbound grandfather who she claims is the oldest living poet. Are they artistic mytics or cons? Nobody is quite sure. She makes watercolor paintings and caricature sketches as the pair travel about and offering art to the tourists in exchange for whatever donations and sales they can muster. At present, they are flat broke and she must plead with Maxine to allow them to stay on. About her economic status, she calmly explains..."I am neither proud nor ashamed--it is just what happpened to us." Prim and proper, she wears a cliche white-collared "artist" smock with just a touch of smeared paint as she talks about her paintings to the raised eyebrows of the ladies. Grandfather calls the sea the "cradle of life" so he was eager to perch himself in this high spot to find that final bit of inspiration he had been seeking...a leathery, lined and bent-over gentleman with a mop of white hair who perks up now and then to recite his poetic words.

Meanwhile, Maxine tries to be a good host, offering drinks that the teetotalers refuse. The story's location is a dense rain forest populated with iguana that the locals catch with their bare hands. Maxine orders the beach boys to grab one..."tie it up, fatten it up, cook it up." Chinese cook appears stoned in the kitchen with the meal burning on the stove, but he offers his usual words of wisdom...Mei yoo guanchi, loosely translated to mean "no sweat," his typical response. Frustrated and wanting to offer a nice meal, Hannah helps by offering to cook up some fish, claiming her years on Nantucket taught her to prepare a nice meal with any fish.

Miss Fellowes files a statuatory rape complaint against Shannon and discovers his long history of similar accusations. The stress of this delivers him back to the bottle and we see him desparately snapping on his white collar, insisting that he has not been defrocked. Hannah describes herself as a spinster pushing forty as Shannon chips away at to learn more about her odd chaste lifestyle and she continues to reveal a deep nature and wisdom that stir his attention. She explains her lifestyle to him..."I don't regard a home as a place, but something two people have between them--a place to rest and nest. When one builds a nest in the heart of another the question of permanence and propagation are not so imporatant. What's important is that one is never alone."

Charlotte turns her interest from Shannon to Hank, the driver of the bus. They end up driving off with the church ladies, leaving Shannon to sort out his troubles with Maxine and Hannah. His dark demons drive him to crack up, something Maxine claims he does a couple times a year. The beach boys rescue him from a drunken dive into the sea after telling everyone he would swim to China. They tie him up restrained in a hammock while Hannah suggests poppy tea to calm him. The tonic seems to work as more of their souls are bared. He explains his problem..."When you live on the fantastic level as I have more and more lately but have to operate on the realistic level you get spooked." Hannah reveals her demons and claims..."Some take a drink--others take a pill. I just take a few deep breaths." Her gentle insights seem to heal Shannons troubles, as Maxine becomes a little jealous to observe this happening under her roof.

The iguana never does end up on the kitchen stove. Hannah instructs Shannon to liberate it. Lots of symbolism here and loose ends tied up nicely. Grandfather completes his final poem and solemnly offers the words to his companions at the hotel, a beautiful moment to watch, as he dies moments later. Hannah has anticipated this moment, free at last to move on in her life. Maxine, Hannah, and Shannon are left to unwind a complex emotional entanglement. The film is wonderful and the extra features tell how the film was made during a time when this location choice presented John Huston with a huge challenge. Richard Burton has Elizabeth Taylor with him on the set, a major distraction for the all, as she was still married to Eddie Fisher. John F. Kennedy was shot just before concluding the shoot.