Rent The Night of the Iguana (1964)

Whisky Priest. - The Night of the Iguana review by Steve

Passionate and philosophical adaptation of Tennessee WIlliams' last great play. It is set on the photogenic coast of the remote Mexican rain forest where wandering strays assemble by chance. It's a location where cinema rarely goes; not just on a map, but in the human heart.

Richard Burton plays a disgraced priest. And he is the image in the title, tied up and hysterical and essentially saved by a nomadic artist (Deborah Kerr). This is like alcoholics anonymous, but for people who can't outrun their demons. She has been there herself and knows what it takes to survive, to endure.

The reverend has been locked out of his church in America. Working as a tour operator, he leads a religious party headed by a repressed middle aged woman more interested in finding the comforts of home than the secrets of Mexico. He is tempted by a sexually precocious young woman (Sue Lyon) which is what got him into trouble in the first place.

There is an amazing cast: Burton, Kerr and Ava Gardner are all believable despite all the poetic mysticism. It's funny in the early scenes with Burton particularly good, driven loco by his frailty until he discovers that in the absence of god, we can only be saved by the kindness of strangers.

The Eye of the Storm, With Better Cheekbones - The Night of the Iguana review by griggs

Only just switched this off and I'm still sat here processing it. John Huston's Night of the Iguana has Richard Burton falling apart in that brilliant, controlled way he does — same wreckage he'd later bring to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, just with more sweat and worse weather.

Deborah Kerr is the one actually holding this together, though. Everyone else is losing their minds in the heat, and she's just quietly unbothered, like the eye of the storm with better cheekbones. Her scenes with Burton have this tender push-pull thing going on, and the "how'd you beat your blue devil" exchange is basically the whole film boiled down to one conversation — endurance as a survival tactic, whether that's poppy-seed tea, rum-cocos, or just breathing through it.

Huston lets every conversation run long enough to actually land, and the heat does half the acting for everyone. What I didn't expect was how tender the whole thing is underneath the chaos — it's not just people falling apart, it's people being surprisingly kind to each other while they do it.

It's talky and stagebound, so don't go in expecting plot. There's also a joke Ava Gardner's Maxine makes at Grayson Hall's expense that's aged like milk.

Still, this one's going to sit with me for a few days.