Huston's 1964 "Night of the Iguana" stars classic ham sandwich Richard Burton as (in a great stretch for him) a drunken, defrocked priest. Burton is at his most over-the-top, even eclipsing his over-emoted later roles in "Equus" and "Bluebeard".
I admittedly have not seen every film Burton appeared in, but only his show-stopping performance as Father Lamont in "Exorcist II: The Heretic", where his overacting literally takes the rest of the movie hostage, comes anywhere near his Rev. T. Lawrence Shannon in 'Iguana'. But Huston was never a director who let his pictures be hijacked by anything, and we are treated to numerous scenes of the rest of the cast, particularly Gardner, Kerr, and Ward, deriding Burton's indulgent self-flailing. Too many outstanding performances for a Burton film, and the ham himself is left to wander around in a daze throughout most of the scenes, as he is assaulted from all sides. Lyon is renegade here from Lolita, playing essentially the same character... any more of her and the picture would resemble Lolita 2: Lolita does Mexico. But Kerr is marvellous, Gardner feisty, and character actress Grayson Hall is perfection as the uptight, bullish vocal teacher. The 'fight scene' with Ward being mercillously and acrobatically pummelled by the twin maracas-wielding rent boys is a hoot and a holler. Overall, Huston manages to make the whole thing work in the stifling heat of a Mexican summer, with Maxine and Hannah helping Shannon fight for his soul and sanity while Charlotte and Ms Fellowes drag him into "Hell and damnation..." It's a good companion to the later and superior Mike Nichols film "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" when fellow ham hall-of-famer and two-time spouse Liz Taylor has her turn at battering the infinitely batterable Burton. 'Iguana' is rewarding, funny, and dramatic, and its excesses do little to detract from the overall saga of temptation, loss, and redemption.
I admittedly have not seen every film Burton appeared in, but only his show-stopping performance as Father Lamont in "Exorcist II: The Heretic", where his overacting literally takes the rest of the movie hostage, comes anywhere near his Rev. T. Lawrence Shannon in 'Iguana'. But Huston was never a director who let his pictures be hijacked by anything, and we are treated to numerous scenes of the rest of the cast, particularly Gardner, Kerr, and Ward, deriding Burton's indulgent self-flailing. Too many outstanding performances for a Burton film, and the ham himself is left to wander around in a daze throughout most of the scenes, as he is assaulted from all sides. Lyon is renegade here from Lolita, playing essentially the same character... any more of her and the picture would resemble Lolita 2: Lolita does Mexico. But Kerr is marvellous, Gardner feisty, and character actress Grayson Hall is perfection as the uptight, bullish vocal teacher. The 'fight scene' with Ward being mercillously and acrobatically pummelled by the twin maracas-wielding rent boys is a hoot and a holler. Overall, Huston manages to make the whole thing work in the stifling heat of a Mexican summer, with Maxine and Hannah helping Shannon fight for his soul and sanity while Charlotte and Ms Fellowes drag him into "Hell and damnation..." It's a good companion to the later and superior Mike Nichols film "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" when fellow ham hall-of-famer and two-time spouse Liz Taylor has her turn at battering the infinitely batterable Burton. 'Iguana' is rewarding, funny, and dramatic, and its excesses do little to detract from the overall saga of temptation, loss, and redemption.