The Night of the Iguana is a 1964 film directed by John Huston, adapted from a 1961 play by Tennessee Williams (which was in turn adapted from a 1948 short story).
T. Lawrence Shannon (Richard Burton) is a former Episcopal minister who was defrocked due to an inappropriate relationship with a too-young Sunday school teacher. Two years later he's working as a tour guide for Blake's Tours, a low-end Texas company, and as the main story opens he is ferrying around a group of teachers from a Baptist women's college on a bus trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Shannon is plagued by the attentions of teenaged temptress Charlotte (Sue Lyon), to the ire of Judith Fellowes (Grayson Hall), Charlotte's middle-aged chaperone and one of the teachers.
After Charlotte sneaks into Shannon's room and Judith finds them there together, she vows to get him fired. Desperate, Shannon drives the bus to a seaside hotel run by his old friend Fred, a place where there is no phone, so Judith can't place a call to Texas. He is unpleasantly surprised to discover that 1.) Fred died a month ago and his widow Maxine (Ava Gardner) is running the hotel, and 2.) the hotel actually has a phone now.
Meanwhile, Maxine's hotel receives two more guests: Hannah Jelks (Deborah Kerr), a sketch artist, and her ancient grandfather Nonno (Cyril Delevanti), a poet. They are broke, and Hannah is hoping to cadge a free room out of Maxine. Shannon is attracted to Hannah, much to Maxine's irritation.
Judith Fellowes eventually manages to place her angry call to Texas and, sure enough, Shannon is fired. Shannon, who has already pronounced himself "at the end of my rope", says he will commit suicide.
Tropes:
- Adaptation Expansion: The stage version begins with Shannon already at Maxine's hotel in Mexico, and Judith already suspects him of having slept with Charlotte; the prologue of his last sermon as an Episcopal minister and the chaos of the tour before the group arrive in Puerto Vallarta were added for the film.
- Adapted Out: The play includes a group of German tourists who sing Nazi marching songs and provide comic relief; they are not present in the film.
- The Alcoholic: Shannon has a serious drinking problem. In the first scene in Mexico he's shown hiding a flask in a hole in the wall, while showing the tour group an old church.
- Ambiguously Gay: Maxine's diagnosis of what's really going on with Judith and Judith's incandescent rage at the sight of Charlotte together with Shannon. She makes a very pointed remark about how "if it wasn't for the dikes, the plains of Texas would flood", then says that the real reason Judith's so angry is that "that little quail of yours has a natural preference for men instead of—". At that point Shannon interrupts and tells her to stop.
- Animal Motifs: The tethered iguanas ready for slaughter are this for Shannon, who also feels trapped and "at the end of his tether".
- Armoured Closet Gay: It's quite apparent (as pointed out by Maxine) that Judith's protective attitude towards Charlotte and jealous hatred of Shannon is driven by her repressed lesbian tendencies. Shannon correctly observes that not only does Judith hide this from others, at some level she doesn't acknowledge or even understand her own feelings.Shannon: Miss Fellowes is a highly moral person. If she ever recognized the truth about herself it would destroy her.
- Betty and Veronica: Shannon's two love interests, Maxine and Hannah. Maxine is brassy and earthy and talks unashamedly about how she screws the cabana boys when she gets horny, and she has dark hair. Hannah is prim and proper (even if she is broke), and extremely British, and apparently is still a virgin, and she has light hair. (It's a black and white movie, but Deborah Kerr was a redhead.)
- Bittersweet Ending: Shannon loses his job with Blake's tours and has no hope of returning to his previous vocation as a minister, while Hannah leaves for good after Nonno's death - presumably destined to live the rest of her life as an Old Maid - once it becomes apparent that a relationship with Shannon would not be possible. However, Shannon is no longer suicidal, and will probably start a new life together with Maxine, while Nonno was able to complete his last poem just before his death.
- Bungled Suicide: Shannon dashes off into the sea in what Maxine correctly perceives as a half-hearted suicide attempt. Her cabana boys pull him out of the water and tie him up in a hammock for his own good.
- Call-Back: An early scene shows iguanas leashed with ropes, and Shannon commenting that they're being sold for food. Later Shannon pronounces that he is "at the end of my rope." Near the end, Shannon sees an iguana tied up at the hotel (presumably by the cabana boys), says that the lizard has "got to the end of his rope," and tells Maxine to cut it loose. It's symbolic of how Shannon has gotten past his own moment of crisis and despair.
- Dies Wide Open: Nonno does, sitting on the hotel's veranda, immediately after finishing his long poem.
- Distant Prologue: The opening scene has Shannon, in a pulpit, having a nervous breakdown in front of his congregation, with him screaming at them before they all walk out. The film then skips forward two years to Shannon in Mexico.
- Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: Shannon himself says "There's nothing lower than Blake's Tours," and he refuses to admit that he was defrocked. That doesn't mean he isn't desperate to hold on to his crappy job.
- Fille Fatale: Charlotte, who is underage and who is crawling all over Shannon, much to Judith's fury. Judith promises to have a warrant issued for Shannon's arrest.
- Insistent Terminology: Shannon will not admit that he was defrocked, instead insisting that he was "locked out" of the church.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Reverend Shannon is a cynical, often rude, womanizing alcoholic. Despite all this, one aspect of his personality shows that he takes Christian ethics and teachings seriously: his compassion for other people and his complete lack of any vindictiveness or ill will, even towards those who have wronged him. For example, when Maxine tries to humiliate Judith by making references to her closet lesbianism, Shannon stops her, because he doesn't want to see Judith emotionally destroyed. This despite the fact that Judith hated Shannon and arranged to have him fired from Blake Tours.
- Match Cut: From an iguana scampering about the undergrowth, to Shannon thrashing about in a hammock, where he's been tied up by the cabana boys after his half-hearted suicide attempt.
- Old Maid: Hannah is not only unmarried but apparently still a virgin, in her mid-40s. She tells Shannon that the closest she ever came to sex was when a pervy guy asked for her underwear, and she gave it to him.
- Rage Breaking Point: In the opening scene, Shannon is already struggling to get through his sermon, as he knows his congregation have learned of his inappropriate relationship with a young Sunday school teacher (it doesn't help that the subject of his sermon is Proverbs 25:28, "He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls"). But when they begin whispering amongst themselves, he hurls the text of his sermon aside and begins ranting at them for using their faith to condemn him.Shannon: For... how weak is man. How often do we... h-how often... how often do we s-stray from the straight and narrow. For only when we abide in the Lord, aren't we like cities without walls. Only then can we defend ourselves against Satan and his temptations. We cannot rule ourselves alone. [some of the congregation begin whispering to each other] God only is our... [Shannon sees the whispering] our... [long pause] God only is our... help... [voice tensing in anger] And our salvation. [grabs the text of his sermon and hurls it aside, enraged] All RIGHT! YOU KNOW! [the congregation begin murmuring] That's why you're here! To see this city with its broken walls! Whenever "two or three are gathered together in my name" is what the Scripture says! But that's not why you're here. Let's change the words. Let's re-write the order of the morning prayer! Whenever two or three, or twenty or thirty, or two hundred or three hundred are gathered together to make whispered comment, to sit in judgement upon, er, the condition of, of a what? [the murmuring grows louder, and people begin standing up and filing out of the pews] Yes, of a man of God! I SAID "MAN OF GOD"!
- Suicide by Sea: Discussed Trope. Shannon mentions the possibility of taking "the long swim, to China," and later is about to do it when he's grabbed and tied up by Maxine's cabana boys.
- Tastes Like Chicken: The old ladies on the tour bus are appalled to see local peasants selling iguanas as food. Shannon proclaims that they taste like chicken.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Maxine's "beach boys", two cabana boys that are always shirtless and, bizarrely, are always shaking maracas. Maxine is unashamed to say that she goes to them to satisfy her "biological urges".
- You No Take Candle: Chang the Chinese cook in Maxine's hotel, who says stuff like "Me no cook" when he's too high on marijuana to function.
