(2006 Warner Bros./Turner DVD, 117 mins.)
Ah, the inimitable Tennessee Williams at the height of his fame. Shannon (Richard Burton) is a womanizing defrocked minister turned Mexican tour guide (a wonderfully politically incorrect rendition of a male-chauvinist woman-magnet) who lands at a run-down resort with a busload of women and who has to deal with a nubile teaser (played by Sue Lyon), a ‘loose woman’ hotel- widow-owner (played with depth) by Ava Gardner and by New England spinster-artist Hannah (played memorably by Deborah Kerr–she is the most unique character of the four stars). Hannah’s 90+ handicapped-poet-grandfather is well-acted as well by Grayson Hall; his powerful recitation of his final poem is the first climax of the play’s/film’s theme.
The appropriately black-and-white movie is skilfully directed by John Huston who gave each main actor a derringer and bullets with the other actors’ names on them as a tone-setter for the film’s shooting! He also forced them to travel by skiff to a peninsula every shooting day.
Spoilers: The iguana is the main symbol of Shannon and his ‘freeing’ from his worst self coincides with the freeing of the iguana. But his freedom is not the only one. Sue Lyon’s character goes off with the bus driver, Gardner’s character and Burton’s join together as proprietors of the hotel, and Kerr’s character goes off to sell her quick sketches in a nearby village after she is freed by her grandfather’s death. And it largely, and significantly, Hannah who changes the life of Shannon and Gardner’s character in the end.
Tennessee Williams’ work is more of an acquired taste than ever these daze, but Iguana is well-worth the effort for its truthful observations on endurance, salvation, and its views of relationships and those of men and women. Offbeat, strangely realistic, and highly recommended for those re-examining personal gender roles and possibilities.