Night Of The Iguana (1964)

An ex-minister (Richard Burton) after suffering a nervous breakdown (and an alcoholic) is reduced to being a tour guide for a third rate travel agency. At the end of his rope and desperate, he kidnaps a tour bus of female school teachers and at a rundown hotel in Mexico overlooking the sea must come to terms with his demons. Based on the play by Tennessee Williams and directed by John Huston. While NIGHT OF THE IGUANA doesn't have the regard of some of Williams' more renown works like A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE or CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, it features some of Williams' most eloquent writing. Huston maks some additions (like the sequences prior to the arrival at Maxine's hotel) and some deletions (like the German hotel guests) but for the most part is quite faithful to the play. No American playwright (with the possible exception of Eugene O'Neill) expresses the beauty and pain of the human condition as well as Williams. The performances are impeccable with Deborah Kerr as the New England spinster, also at the end of her rope, who has the play's best lines. Handsomely shot in B&W, one can't help wonder what color would have added to the film but perhaps the lushness of the tropical setting would have been too distracting. The subdued score is by Benjamin Frankel. With Ava Gardner, Sue Lyon, Grayson Hall (in an Oscar nominated performance), Cyril Delevanti and Skip Ward.