Film #130 - What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)
Even before Woody Allen made What’s Up, Tiger Lily? people had been putting new dialogue to old movie footage. (Fractured Flickers, for instance.) The difference here was that Allen re-dubbed and re-edited the entire movie (in this case, the Japanese spy film Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi aka Key of Keys) to give it a completely new plot and characters.
Now, I still haven’t seen Kagi no kagi, despite many attempts to obtain a copy. (If you’ve got one, don’t hesitate to speak up.) Still, I can tell you that the performers in that film are at least partially responsible for the success of Tiger Lily. Allen did a fine job by choosing this particular film because all of the major performers are engaging in their own right.
It starts at the top with Tatsuya Mihashi (Tiger Lily’s Phil Moscowitz), who is the hero of the original film and still carries the comedy. He plays the comedic scenes from the original film with a sly smile that plays perfectly into the character Allen created for Phil.
The two girls in Phil’s life are played by Mie Hama (Teri Yaki - ha) and Akiko Wakabayashi (Suki Yaki). I’ve mentioned before how fond I am of these two as they also appeared together in King Kong vs. Godzilla and the James Bond film You Only Live Twice. (I’ve often suspected that they were only cast in Twice because of Tiger Lily. I can’t prove it, but it makes sense to me.) They are both attractive, yet capable of playing both the comedy and the drama necessary in the original film. Paired with the nigh-shrewish personas of Teri and Suki, their work is elevated to comedic gold.
Still, there’s a lot of hit and miss in Tiger Lily (more if you’re watching the “TV edit”). There’s more hit than miss, but it’s still an uneven affair. Luckily, the plot and cast are actually strong enough to carry the film through its bad patches.
One thing to note is the music by The Lovin’ Spoonful. They were apparently added to the film by the producers over the objections of Woody Allen. While I think I understnad why he felt they detracted from the film, I, myself, have always enjoyed the material they created for the film, so I’m going with the producer’s instincts on this one.
What’s Up Tiger Lily? is Woody Allen’s baby step into the world of full-blown filmmaking. It has a few of the touches that Allen would become known for (particularly in the framing sequences), but still has much of the air of Allen’s stanup routine in it. After the well-received, but artistically frustrating production of What’s New Pussycat, this film, followed by the disaster-prone production of Casino Royale, showed Allen that he needed complete control if his films were to succeed. When he did return to the director’s chair it would be in full control of 1969’s Take the Money and Run and he would never look back.