THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA (1964)
Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 118 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: John Huston
Cast: Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, Sue Lyon,
James Ward, Grayson Hall, Cyril Delevanti
The Night of the Iguana is the John Huston (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre) directed adaptation of the Tennessee Williams' stage play, starring cinema-icon Richard Burton (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) as an de-frocked alcoholic minister who is relegated to working as a tour guide in Mexico. His most recent tour group are Baptist schoolteachers visiting religious sites South of the Border - except for flirty teenager Charlotte (Sue Lyon, Murder In A Blue World) who becomes obsessed with the notion of running off with the man-of-god. The libidinous Charlotte's crush on the former minister incurs the wrath of her closeted lesbian chaperone Ms. Fellowes (Grayson Hall, TV's Dark Shadows), who threatens to ruin the minister's already near ruinous life, causing him to have a mental meltdown. As a result he overtakes the tour bus and kidnaps his tourist charges, taking them to a dilapidated resort hotel run by a recently widowed old friend Maxine (Ava Gardner, The Sentinel). After hiding the distributor cap to thwart their chance of escape the group reluctantly settle into their new dig, and soon after a Nantucket spinster named Ms. Jelkes (Deborah Kerr, Eye of the Devil) and her ancient poet-grandfather Nonno (Cyril Delevanti, Night Monster) arrives.
Stacked with top-of-the-line talent the film is a masterclass in tension, melodrama and that messy thing that we call the human condition, exploring the delicious characters conjured by Tennessee Williams with a joy and veracity that leaps right off the screen. The main trio here is Burton, Kerr and Gardner, who find themselves entangled in a ménage à trois of existential crisis, with Lyons flirty teenager and her stern-faced chaperone adding some delightful powder keg spark to the proceedings, with taught and masterful direction from John Huston.
Audio/Video: The Night of the Iguana (1964) arrives in Blu-ray from the Warner Archive with a new 4K scan of the OCN framed in 1.85:1 widescreen. The black and white film looks marvelous, the refined monochromatic grayscale and contrast looks excellent, and grain texturing and fine detail are pleasing throughout - the tropical sundrenched visuals impress from start to finish. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono with optional English subtitles. It sounds appropriately vintage with good fidelity, the dialogue sounds great as does the the score from Benjamin Frankel (The Curse of the Werewolf).
Archival extras include the 10-min Night of the Iguana: Houston's Gamble featurette, originally made in 2006, with Tennessee Williams biographer Donald Spoto, and film historians Lawrence Grobel and Eric Lax. They dissect the film and talk about the shooting of the film on location, a practical joke Huston played on the cast involving guns, and how Burton's wife Liz Taylor was a constant presence on set. Another cool extras is a promotional piece shot in '64, the 14-min On the Trail of the Iguana, shot on film and in color it documents the shoot with some great behind-the-scenes glimpses at the location and process of shooting the film, with audio interviews from director Huston, stars Kerr and Burton, and cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa playing out over it. Extras are buttoned-up with 5-min of Theatrical Trailers.
Special Features:
- Night of the Iguana: Houston's Gamble (10 min)
- On the Trail of the Iguana (14 min)
- Theatrical Trailers (5 min)
Screenshots from the Warner Archive Blu-ray Review:
Extras:
