The Night of the Iguana poster & wallpaper

Ava Gardner, Cyril Delevanti, Deborah Kerr

An ex-minister works as a tour guide in a Mexican coastal town, falls into some romantic interludes with a group of schoolteachers, and then meets a beautiful artist at a run-down hotel where the prop...( read more  read more... )rietress is in love with him.

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85% liked it

3,653 ratings

Critics

71% liked it

14 critics

Unrated, 120

Directed by: John Huston

Release Date: August 6, 1964

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DVD Release Date: May 2, 2006

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Stats: 236 reviews

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The Night of the Iguana Ava Gardner and Richard Burton Ava Gardner and Richard Burton
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Flixster Reviews (236)

  • Saxia
    October 22, 2009
    Saxia
    I loved this movie. It has this clammy, sweltering feel to it. Ava Gardner was beautiful in her role as the nervous and passionate Maxine. Richard Burton was just as entertaining as in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

    The movie is based on a play by Tennessee Williams, and perhap...( read more)s because of that, the words and dialogs are superb (for me personally anyway).
    The characters of the three women are antagonistic and that's what makes it a joy to watch.

    Another plus: I thought the movie would be about a man lusting for different women, but that's not at all the direction it took!
  • pier007
    September 1, 2009
    pier007
    One thing that fascinates me about John Huston's body of work is the way he sympathizes with his characters, usually men drowned by sorrow and guilt whose dreams blew up on their faces and now only long for self destruction as the only way out.

    Yet, this great film is somewhat l...( read more)ess pessimistic, more restrained and a lot more hopeful than some of Huston's best exemplifications of inner turmoil.

    Richard Burton shows once more the brilliant actor he was.
  • stopitgoaway
    July 21, 2009
    stopitgoaway
    It is possible to watch a film on a wide range of emotional and intellectual levels. One can pay attention only to the visuals, only to the minute trivia related to actors and actresses, to the most obvious displays of physical action, to appeals to one's sympathies, or to the un...( read more)derlying content and profundity trying to be expressed and communicated to the viewer. Thus, films can be judged to fail on the one hand when they succeed on the other, and this, I think, explains the lukewarm response to what is the finest films ever made in the English language. Whether or not Richard Burton always plays a drunk, whether or not it should have been in colour, are not in the least bit relevant to the significance, the concepts and the issues at play in this brilliant film, this monument to the resilience of human souls, to the compassion that can bring such succour on long, tortured nights, to the precious decency that is for some a perpetual struggle to attain, and the search, the life-long search, for belief, love and light.

    The backdrop to the exploration of these issues that are so fundamental to individual lives is a Mexican coastal hotel. The central character is a de-frocked and unstable priest, T. Lawrence Shannon (Richard Burton) who, like the iguana that is tethered up in preparation to being eaten, is at the end of his rope. He walks alone, without the crutch of facile beliefs or human companionship beyond sterile physical conquests which only serve to heighten his own self-loathing and isolation. He arrives at the hotel in search of sanctuary in light of his mental deterioration. On his arrival he meets his old friend, the lascivious but no less desperate Maxine (Ava Gardner), a poet on the verge of death who is nevertheless striving for one last creative act, one last stab at beautiful self-expression, and his grand-daughter Hannah (Deborah Kerr), a resilient woman painfully trying to reconcile herself to loss, loneliness and the bitter struggle she faces with her own personal demons. They are united in that they are divided, in that they are all tortured souls seeking beauty, life, meaning and engaged in battles to stand tall, to live with integrity and love. On a hot, cloying night, a night of the iguana, when all their ropes snap taut, they meet.

    The pivotal and most crucial part of this film is the conversation between Lawrence and Hannah. The former is in the throes of a nervous breakdown, the latter has survived and endured through the same. They are kindred souls that aid one another through the therapy of human connection, of empathy in the long, lonely walk. It is in this conversation that Tennessee Williams explores the issues make this film so important: through his characters, who are throughout depicted not as mere shallow cliches but individuals with histories and feelings that run deep, with subtleties that bring them to life, he meditates upon the struggle to find meaning in one's life, the need for companionship, the importance of compassion, and the way in which people endure, all the time grasping at what dignity they may have, and which may be forever threatened by trials, doubts and pain. These are not issues that date, that diminish in relevance, or that relate only to certain people - they are concepts that are universal, that speak to each individual and relate to fundamental facets of the human mind and spirit.

    Because Night of the Iguana sets out to tackle such issues, it is elevated far beyond the level of most films. It is profound, but also deeply emotional, made more so by the superb characterisations (aided, in addition, by universally superb performances). One is afforded an insight into characters, into people, who live, breath, cry, shout, scream, and endure. They are fallible, capable of spite, caprice, and baseness, but they are also thoughtful, courageous and strangely noble. To watch them interact, thrown together as they are on a Mexican veranda, is affecting both emotionally and intellectually, and it is this interaction which is responsible for creating a film that stands (tall and dignified) above nearly all others.
  • wellmeetagain
    December 7, 2007
    wellmeetagain
    Maybe I wasn't in the mood for this one but it was less than what I expected. Just okay.
  • mjgildea
    October 31, 2006
    mjgildea
    Burton is fantastic, Gardener is a great burn-out and Sue Lyon rehashes her Lolita persona. But somehow I like it...
  • mihaha
    November 19, 2009
    mihaha
    Ava Gardner is so good!!!
    I would like to see the remake of this.
    cool learning points.
  • SageSlowdive
    August 15, 2009
    SageSlowdive
    One of Tennessee Williams's best!
  • tequilamockingbird82
    August 2, 2009
    tequilamockingbird82
    Unfortunate changes from the play, but not as bad as CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF. Richard Burton is the most criminally misused actor in Hollywood history: this and WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF (both, significantly, based on great plays) might be the only two really good movies that...( read more) this genius ever starred in.
  • MikeKiddo
    July 24, 2009
    MikeKiddo
    It took me WAY too long to see it, but now I finally have - it makes me realize I need to see more of Richard Burton urgently, it has Ava Gardner playing against type and rocking at it in every single way, Deborah Kerr is surprisingly memorable and Sue Lyon is such a whore, I lov...( read more)e her. About the film, is near perfect, it's funny and shocking just when it needs to be and there's absolutely nothing out of touch with the dramatic parts - Tennessee Williams is seriously a god (but everyone knows that by now). More people need to see this gem.
  • UsernameMissing
    February 2, 2009
    UsernameMissing
    Definitely one of my favorite classics,and my Tenneesee Williams fave,Ava Gardner is unbelievably hot and they make a great couple with Richard Burton who is btw fantastic.

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The Night of the Iguana Trivia

  • Whats the movie where 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.  Answer »
  • Name the actress that appeared in all of the following films: Casino Royale The Night of the Iguana Separate Tables An Affair to Remember Julius Caesar   Answer »
  • In what resort destination did the movie "Night of the Iguana", starring Richard Burton and Ava Gardner, take place?  Answer »
  • Which classic screen siren played Maxine Faulk in John Huston's adaptation of "The Night of the Iguana"?  Answer »
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