Warner Archive has finally released John Hustonโs 1964 film of Tennessee Williamsโ The Night of the Iguana on Blu-ray.
Williamsโ 1961 play was his last successful original Broadway production. Although many of his plays, including The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Sweet Bird of Youth, are still frequently revived, this one hasnโt seen a Broadway revival since 1996.
The filmโs Oscar-nominated cinematography by Gabriel Figueroa (The Pearl) and art direction and set decoration by Stephen Grimes (Out of Africa) shine more exquisitely than ever on the shimmering Blu-ray. Dorothy Jeakinsโ Oscar-winning costumes are among the finest of her long career, which included Oscar-nominated work on The Ten Commandments, The Music Man, The Sound of Music, The Way We Were, The Dead, and more.
The play, which is about a defrocked minister drinking himself to death in a Mexican resort town, originally starred Patrick OโNeal as the minister, Bette Davis as the hotel manager, and Margaret Leighton as the spinster accompanying her elderly poet grandfather, played by Alan Webb. Leighton won a Tony for her performance. Davis, who was extremely miscast as the sexually provocative hotel manager was replaced midway during the playโs ten-month run by Shelley Winters. A 1976 revival received Tony nominations for Richard Chamberlain as the minister and Dorothy McGuire as the spinster. Sylvia Miles played the hotel manager. Both the 1988 and 1996 revivals were flops. Neither the former with Jane Alexander as the hotel manager nor the latter with Marsha Mason in that role received any awards recognition.
Curiously, the only performer nominated for an Oscar for the film version was Grayson Hall in a supporting role as the lesbian tour guide with whom Richard Burton, as the minister, clashes. Ava Gardner as the hotel manager, Cyril Delevanti as the poet, and Hall were all nominated for Golden Globes for the film, which was also nominated for Best Picture โ Drama and Best Director. Burton was nominated instead for Becket. Deborah Kerr, who gave the filmโs most touching performance as the spinster, was curiously not nominated for either this or The Chalk Garden, although she was nominated for a BAFTA for the latter.
Kerrโs rebuke to Burton, โnothing human disgusts me,โ is second only to her โwhen you talk about this, and you will, please be kind,โ her last line from Tea and Sympathy, in the actressโ repertoire of immortal lines.
Huston was nominated for a Directors Guild award along with Peter Glenville for Becket, Stanley Kubrick for Dr. Strangelove, Robert Stevenson for Mary Poppins and the winner, George Cukor for My Fair Lady. Oscar nominated all but Huston, replacing him with Michael Cacoyannis for Zorba the Greek.
Huston, a Best Supporting Actor nominee the previous year for The Cardinal, had by this time received twelve Oscar nominations and wins for writing and directing 1948โs The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. He would receive just two more nominations in his lifetime, for writing 1975โs The Man Who Would Be King and directing 1987โs Prizziโs Honor.
On the streaming front, Netflix has both Where the Crawdads Sing and Lady Chatterleyโs Lover.
Where the Crawdads Sing is the first full-length feature film from director Olivia Newman. The screenplay is by Lucy Alibar (Beasts of the Southern Wild) from the bestselling novel by Delia Owens.
Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People) stars as a self-reliant girl who raised herself in the Southern marshes after the one-by-one departure of her parents and siblings. Adding to her heartbreak is her betrayal of the only boy she trusted, played by Taylor John Smith (TVโs Cruel Intentions). Accused of the murder of a local bully played by Harris Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness), she is defended by local lawyer David Strathairn (Nomadland).
The filmโs gorgeous cinematography by Polly Morgan (Lucy in the Sky) is Oscar worthy as are the Hollywood in Music Media Awards-nominated Score by Mychael Danna (Life of Pi) and theme song, โCarolina,โ by Taylor Swift.
The latest version of D.H. Lawrenceโs oft-filmed Lady Chatterleyโs Lover is exquisitely directed by Laure de Clairmont-Tonnerre The Mustang). It is a sumptuous production starring Emma Corrin (TVโs The Crown) as the unfulfilled Lady Chatterley and Jack OโConnell (Unbroken) as the gamekeeper who becomes her lover. Matthew Duckett has the thankless role of the ladyโs wheelchair-bound husband. Joley Richardson (TVโs Nip/Tuck) plays the housekeeper.
Richardson had previously starred in a 1993 miniseries version of the novel with Sean Bean as her lover, James Wilby as her husband, and Shirley Anne Field as the housekeeper.
Streaming on Prime is Claire Scanlonโs People We Hate at the Wedding.
The critics havenโt been kind to this one, a comedy of manners, or more precisely, the lack of them, but I thought it was charming enough to spend some time with.
Allison Janney (The Help) is top billed as the mother of three, but the filmโs larger roles are played by Kristen Bell (Frozen) and Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hanson) as her children from her second marriage, and Cynthia Addai-Robinson (TVโs The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power) as her biracial daughter from her first marriage who is the one getting married.
The plot revolves around the estrangement of the children from Janneyโs two marriages, who will, of course, kiss and make up, before the credits roll.
Dustin Milligan (TVโs Schittโs Creek) as the guy Bell meets cute on the plane is well utilized in the film, but Tony Goldwyn (Ghost) and Julian Ovenden (Bridgerton) are wasted in minor roles.
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