What's Up Tiger Lily?

By today's standards, it doesn't seem like such a novel movie concept -- take a low-budget film, re-dub the soundtrack adding new dialogue, music and sound effects, and create an entirely new experience. That's what Steve Oedekerk did recently in Kung Pow: Enter the Fist (2002) -- he reworked a 1977 martial-arts movie entitled Savage Killers. And before him, the Mystery Science Theatre gang was dabbling in similar territory, inserting their presence into films like This Island Earth (1954) while providing a steady stream of wisecracks and insults to accompany the original soundtrack. The real master of the form, however, is Woody Allen, who first explored the concept in What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966), a crazy-quilt concoction - now availabe on DVD from Image Entertainment - that is alternately hilarious and absurd and includes random appearances by The Lovin' Spoonful, John Sebastian's folk-rock group. Sight and Sound magazine proclaimed it "a frantic counterpoint of sound and image as deliriously silly as a Tex Avery cartoon...this inspired screwball one-off remains as fresh as the day it was born." On the strength of his success as the screenwriter of What's New, Pussycat? (1965), a surprise box-office hit, Allen was offered an unusual project -- to write comic dialogue for a Japanese spy thriller entitled Kagi No Kagi (Key of Keys). American International Pictures, the distributor, had already created an English-dubbed version of the film, but when it was previewed before audiences it provoked intermittent gales of laughter. Producer Henry G. Saperstein suddenly had a brainstorm -- why not take it to the other extreme and record comical dialogue for the entire film? Allen's genius for one-liners and stand-up comedy were well known and he soon focused all of his attention on the re-editing and re-dubbing of Kagi No Kagi. Operating on a limited budget of $75,000, Allen and several actors, including Louise Lasser, Frank Buxton and Lenny Maxwell, holed up in a room at the Stanhope Hotel in New York City and screened the film several times, compiling jokes, one-liners and funny dialogue which were then worked into the script. The new plot centers around Phil Moscowitz, a Japanese imitation of James Bond, who is on a quest to find the world's greatest egg salad recipe, before it falls into the wrong hands. The outrageous incongruity of the whole enterprise is heightened even further by the ethnic New York accents (Allen, Lasser and screenwriter Mickey Rose provided the voices) emanating from the mouths of the Japanese cast. Typical of the film's humor is the scene where a scantily clad female spy, wearing a raincoat, creeps up on a male adversary and flashes him as she pops the question, "Quick, name three presidents." After re-dubbing the dialogue, Allen still felt that the movie needed some padding so he added a few comic inserts featuring himself and a handful of sight gags, bringing the running time to barely over an hour. You'll notice that Allen makes four appearances in What's Up, Tiger Lily?: first as an animated character in the title sequence, then as an interview subject, later as a superimposed silhouette on the screen, and finally as an observer to a striptease performed by former Playboy centerfold China Lee (the real-life wife of comedian Mort Sahl). After Allen left the project, the producer felt that the running time was still too short and stepped in to add additional scenes and several musical interludes featuring the top-forty hitmakers The Lovin' Spoonful, who perform "Fishin' Blues," "Respoken," "Pow," and other tunes. Allen was so angered by Saperstein's meddling with the project that he sued him and tried to halt the picture's release. His attitude changed though once the reviews began to appear and several mainstream critics actually praised the movie's sense of lunacy and comic invention. If nothing else, What's Up, Tiger Lily? launched Allen's directorial career and is a virtual blueprint of his humor and comic obsessions, which would be further developed in his later films. It was also during the making of this film that Allen married his fellow collaborator, Louise Lasser, who would later score a hit as the title character in the TV soap opera parody, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976). The Image DVD of What's Up, Tiger Lily? is presented in its original 2.25:1 theatrical aspect ratio (enhanced for 16:9 TVs) and features one of the best color transfers we've seen in some time - a kaleidoscope of electric blues, reds, pinks and purples that make this shaggy dog of a movie a pure pleasure to watch. Although skimpy on extra features, the disk does include both the original theatrical audio track and the alternate audio version for the television release. The difference between the two makes for an entertaining comparison; the TV version offers a considerably more benign sense of humor, avoiding off-color jokes and sexual innuendo. For example, there's that famous scene where a prison escapee lands on Phil's car and hijacks it, leaving Phil's female companion chasing after it. In the original version, the woman calls out as the car speeds away, "Hey, you've got my vibrator!" But in the TV version, she fumes, "Hey, that's a rented car!" Otherwise, the only other extras are a Woody Allen filmography and a "hidden egg" which includes the recipe for Green Chili Egg Salad. It would have been fun to see the original version of Kagi No Kagi added as an extra feature but for Allen fans, this disc is the ideal showcase for his first solo effort. For more information about What's Up, Tiger Lily?, visit Image Entertainment. To order What's Up, Tiger Lily?, go to TCM Shopping. by Jeff Stafford