The Night of the Iguana (1964)

Director:

John Huston

Writers:

Tennessee Williams (play)
Anthony Veiller (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

6 August 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Man And Woman - Love And Lust - Ruin And Redemption - One Night They All Meet.

Plot:

A defrocked Episcopal clergyman leads a bus-load of middle-aged Baptist women on a tour of the Mexican coast and comes to terms with the failure haunting his life.

Plot Keywords:

Bus | Hotel | Bus Driver | Guide | Minister

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 2 wins & 12 nominations

Cast

Richard Burton	...	Rev. Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon
Ava Gardner	...	Maxine Faulk
Deborah Kerr	...	Hannah Jelkes
Sue Lyon	...	Charlotte Goodall
Skip Ward	...	Hank Prosner (as James Ward)
Grayson Hall	...	Judith Fellowes
Cyril Delevanti	...	Nonno
Mary Boylan	...	Miss Peebles
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Fidelmar Durán	...	Pepe (uncredited)
Emilio Fernández	...	Barkeeper (uncredited)
Eloise Hardt	...	Teacher (uncredited)
Gladys Hill	...	Miss Dexter (uncredited)
Barbara Joyce	...	Teacher (uncredited)
C.G. Kim	...	Chang (uncredited)
Roberto Leyva	...	Pedro (uncredited)
Billie Matticks	...	Miss Throxton (uncredited)
Betty Proctor	...	Teacher (uncredited)
Liz Rubey	...	Teacher (uncredited)
Bernice Starr	...	Teacher (uncredited)
Dorthy Vance	...	Teacher (uncredited)
Thelda Victor	...	Teacher (uncredited)

Directed by
John Huston

Writing credits
Tennessee Williams		(play)
Anthony Veiller		(screenplay) and
John Huston		(screenplay)

Produced by
Ray Stark	....	producer
Sandy Whitelaw	....	associate producer (as Alexander Whitelaw)
Emilio Fernández	....	associate producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Benjamin Frankel

Cinematography by
Gabriel Figueroa		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Ralph Kemplen

Art Direction by
Stephen B. Grimes		(as Stephen Grimes)

Costume Design by
Dorothy Jeakins

Makeup Department
Agnes Flanagan	....	hair stylist
Sydney Guilaroff	....	hair styles creator
Eric Allwright	....	makeup artist (uncredited)
Jack Obringer	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Production Management
Clarence Eurist	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Tom Shaw	....	assistant director
Jaime Contreras	....	second assistant director (uncredited)
Terry Morse Jr.	....	second assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Basil Fenton-Smith	....	sound
Van Allen James	....	sound editor (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Manuel González	....	camera operator (uncredited)

Music Department
Benjamin Frankel	....	conductor

Other crew
Angela Allen	....	script supervisor
Gladys Hill	....	associate: Mr. Huston
Abe Steinberg	....	production executive
Joseph P. Sinda	....	assistant: Richard Burton (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
• Seven Arts Productions

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1964) (USA) (theatrical)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1964) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Neue Visionen Filmverleih (19??) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1968) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)
• Living Colour Entertainment (2008) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (USA) (DVD)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2006) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Charles Bowden - Two Rivers Enterprises  adapted from stage production by

Also Known As:

"La noche de la iguana" - Mexico (imdb display title), Spain
"A Noite de Iguana" - Portugal
"Atesli geceler" - Turkey (Turkish title)
"Az iguána éjszakája" - Hungary (imdb display title)
"Die Nacht des Leguan" - West Germany
"Fanget i natten" - Denmark
"I nyhta tis Iguana" - Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title)
"Iguanans natt" - Sweden
"La notte dell'iguana" - Italy
"La nuit de l'iguane" - France
"Liskojen yö" - Finland
"Noc iguany" - Poland

Runtime:

125 min | Germany:112 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:12 (video rating) (1996) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Canada:R (Nova Scotia) | UK:X (original rating) | Australia:PG | Canada:14A (video rating) | USA:Approved (certificate #20613) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | West Germany:16 (f)

Filming Locations:

Mismaloya Village, Jalisco, Mexico

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

The original Broadway production of "The Night of the Iguana," which made its Broadway debut on December 28, 1961 and ran for 316 performances, was Tennessee Williams last hit play. Iguana was nominated for the 1962 Tony Award for Best Play.

Goofs:

Boom mic visible: A boom mic hits Shannon on the head.

Quotes:

Hannah Jelkes:Nothing human disgusts me, Mr. Shannon, unless it's unkind, violent.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Coming Attractions: The History of the Movie Trailer (2009)

Soundtrack:

Mxican Hat Dance

The best film of the Our Century

This film, all and all, only gets better with each viewing. I first saw it as a child, and thought it odd and amusing. Yet even then I sensed something magical was going on in it, though I lacked then the adult realism to penetrate the world of Tennessee Williams. Subsequent viewings have only reinforced my feeling that this film may be the greatest film of the twentieth century. I say that not because it is an epic, or because William's play is so grand, but just because this play seems to so perfectly capture the age in which we live. We live, just as the Reverend Shannon does, torn between the desire to believe in an absolute, and the perils of such belief, between a reductionist 'realism' and an equally reductionist indulgence. The actors Kerr, Gardener, and especially Richard Burton, have sensed this, and their roles are so nuanced as to make one believe that what one is seeing is REALITY and not a theatrical performance. The emotional climax of the film comes at the moment when the old poet completes his poem and asks over and over again, in a paroxysm of painful joy---"Is it good? is it good?"---- Then he dies. Only the genius of Tennessee Williams come make such melodrama seem utterly convincing. For the artist who wrote this play has been complimented by the artists who directed and acted it. Great art leaves everything opened but nothing settled--- creating the sense that justice has been fully achieved. Here, all too rarely for the art of cinema, both grace and justice have indeed been fully achieved.