The Night of the Iguana

Though we don’t really know quite why at the time, it’s fairly clear the the “Rev. Shannon” (Richard Burton) has rather lost the confidence of his flock and so it’s not really surprising to find him now tour-guiding some evangelist American women round the sights of Mexico. This fellow has a penchant for the bottle and is little interested in his charges. Unluckily for him, the impressionable young “Charlotte” (Sue Lyon) is determined to seduce him, despite his own alarm bells telling him to leave well alone and her guardian “Miss Fellowes” (Grayson Hall) doing all she can to save the girl from the presumably menacing overtones of their manipulative host. As things get desperate, he resorts to retreating to an out of the way hotel owned by his feisty pal “Maxine” (Ava Gardner) whom he hopes might be able to get his passengers back on side. Before they get much of a chance to implement their hastily improvised plan, though, a weary old gent (Cyril Delevanti) is helped up the hill by his granddaughter (Deborah Kerr) and they try to blag themselves board and lodgings in exchange for her efficiently preparing a dog-fish and him doing the odd poetry reading. The scene is now set for a reckoning of home truths between these characters that exposes their vulnerabilities, demons and hopes brutally and at times mercilessly. Their spicy characters give both Gardner and Kerr a real chance to get the metaphorical daggers out, though in different ways, and always under the gaze of the almost maniacal and increasingly distraught Burton. There is an intensity to this drama, but it is also quite funny at times with plenty of earthiness and stinging sarcasm in the dialogue (especially from Kerr) and in some ways it reminded me a little of the “Sadie Thompson” type of judgmental scenario, only quite potently jumbled up. It’s also worth appreciating the efforts of the often hysterically persnickety Hall and of her elderly companions who pop up now and again and serve as a steam valve for the main storyline. The photography, the lively iguanas and the penetrative audio manage to convey the sweltering, almost claustrophobic, nature of their environment - even though it’s open air with the sea mapping peacefully nearby, and John Huston manages to encapsulate a fair degree of the original Tennessee Williams nuance in this characterful adaptation that ask lots of questions of god and humanity.

2019