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What's Up, Tiger Lily? Actor: Woody Allen Directors: Woody Allen, Senkichi Taniguchi Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen Format: Color, Widescreen Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Running Time: 80 minutes Studio: Image Entertainment Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-07-15 Buy from Amazon |
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From Amazon.com What better way for writer-star Woody Allen to cash in on the success of What's New Pussycat? than to write a quickie exploitation comedy that makes fun of quickie exploitation films? In some respects What's Up Tiger Lily? is a forerunner of Mystery Science Theater 3000, only instead of having actors sit back and make sarcastic comments about a cheapo movie, here they dub new dialog onto a ridiculous Japanese spy extravaganza. Allen's exquisite sense of the absurd is in fine form as espionage professionals pursue a top-secret recipe for egg salad. At one point during the planning of a break-in, a spy unfolds a map of their quarry's residence, explaining that the man "lives here." "He lives on that small piece of paper?" questions one of the henchmen. It's that silly. But it's often uproarious. Louise Lasser, Allen's former wife (and co-star of Bananas and future star of TV's Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman) is among the voice actors. --Jim Emerson From Description An evil mastermind with an addiction to egg salad! Sadistic, torture- hungry double crossers! Gorgeous girls hungry for lovin'! A weird marriage between a cobra and a chicken! Only one man is daring, clever and sexy enough to take on this kind of mission: superspy Phil Moscowitz! Woody Allen spoofs the spy thriller in one of his funniest films, a nonstop frenzy of skewed wit, hilarious parody and sidesplitting wackiness. With dialogue rewritten and redubbed for a Japanese James Bond-style movie, What's Up, Tiger Lily? turns the sex-and-danger world of filmdom's spy game upside down! |
 "An enduring gem. Very atypical Allen, but worth it anyway"`What's Up Tiger Lily' is a puzzle in Woody Allen's body of work. On the one hand, it is such a creampuff I expect it's primary value is as material for the question on daytime `Who Wants to be a Millionaire': Which 1960's folk-rock band was featured as performers on Woody Allen's `What's Up Tiger Lily'?: A. The Byrds B. Buffalo Springfield C. The Lovin Spoonful D. The Mamas and the Papas The answer, Meredith, is C. Final Answer. An even more difficult question is who, exactly directed the movie, who wrote it, and who filmed it. Woody Allen's name is above the title on the front, yet he gets no credit as writer, although it is pretty obvious that he was the primary writer of the English dialogue you see on the screen. He also makes brief appearances in mock interviews where he is credited with the idea of the movie and with the dialogue. There is virtually nothing in common in this film, released in 1966, with Allen's first full time actor / writer / director work, `Take the Money and Run', released in 1969 and produced by the usual Rollins and Joffre team. American International, the B-movie studio of Saul Arkoff whose stock in trade was cheap second-rate movies and imports, released this movie, of all things. I must say that I rarely agree with blurbs on the front of DVD jackets, but I really think there is something to the statement `The film that began America's laugh affair with Woody Allen. Funny then, funnier now!'. Remarkably, aside from the very `60's act by the Lovin Spoonful, there is virtually nothing in the movie that dates it. Some of the parodies apply as effectively to the latest `Lethal Weapon' opus and, even more amazingly, to `Kill Bill' as it does to the cheap spy / martial arts Japanese movies of the 1960's. The stated premise of the movie is that the American producers (Allen is credited as an Associate Producer) took the film of a cheap Japanese flick and put their own dialogue into the Japanese characters' mouths. The transplant works so well, I almost find it hard to believe this is what they really did. While I recognize some of the names of the dubbing actors (Louise Lasser, for example), I recognize nothing on the screen, and, no credit is given for the Japanese actors, writer, director, cinematographer, or gaffer. I guess this was all part of the deal with the Japanese producer that they got the raw film with no credits given. I also happen to agree with the blurb from Leonard Maltin who says this is `...One long, very funny joke'. In a sense, for all the parodies done by both Allen and Mel Brooks, this is probably the one from Allen that is most similar to Mel Brooks' style, where the whole premise becomes part of the joke. I must warn those to whom this is important that all the bad things you see about the filming of movies in the 1950's and 1960's is true of this flick. There is none of the great Gordon Willis cinematography, let alone any of Allen's high talent guest lensmen such as Sven Nykvist or Carlo De Palma. Allen fans should not pass this up as they may with `Casino Royale' and `What's New Pussycat', where Allen is simply paying the rent by acting in these high cast comedies. "Don't watch this if you like Woody for "interiors""If you love Woody Allen because of "interiors", "fog and mist and darkness" (or whatever that was), and "What's new Pussycat" don't waste your time in this, because you wouldn't like it and it would probably cut into your reading of the latest book on "Asian Philosophy", or the "How to act more sophisticated than you really are" guide. Seriously, this is for someone who wants to see a unique, creative, and truly funny movie. The idea is to dub a cheap James Bond knockoff movie made in Japan, with English dialogue written by Woody Allen. You'll have to see it to truly understand the hilarity of it all, but if you're still hung up on the fact that "Fog and Mist and Darkness" wasn't the correct title for your favorite movie, then, as I said before, skip it and go wine tasting. ""hello...hello...MOTHER!""I've always been a Woody Allen fan, and his early genius is solidly established in this imaginative and clever endeavor. If you're reading this, you already know of the circumstances surrounding Woody's re-imagining of this dumb film. Fact is, it's beautifully photographed; stereotypes are so plentiful that they become non-existant after a short while. Sound effects are exquisite. And the laffs are happening all the time. It's too silly to explain, and silly is good. We need a whole lot of silly these days. And, yes, a great egg salad would be terrific! Thank you, Woody!  "Better than ordinary egg salad"I'm glad that What's Up Tiger Lily is actually marketed here because, from what I've read, Woody Allen would just as soon bury it. It is, as others before me have mentioned, highly sophomoric and silly... but I would say that this is true in the best sense, not in any insipid frathouse-movie sense. The jokes are freewheeling and effortless; a film you'd have to have your head up your crack to intellectualize about. What I like most about this film is the surreal-edged humor which is also consistent with the canon of books that Allen put together (Without Feathers, Getting Even & Side Effects) from New Yorker pieces of the same vintage. The only really sour note: the gratuitous inclusion of The Lovin' Spoonful in the film is not so well-matched. But it's a seminal piece and a 60s movie... so what'ya gonna do? If this is a footnote or odd artifact of Allens career, then it's a very entertaining one. "sublime surreal silliness"Drop-dead funny. In my top 25 funniest films. Sure some it is just dumb, and most of it is dated (but who cares?), but the sublime surreal silliness of it is contagious. A very very funny and very very goofy film. For those who appreciate this sort of thing, check out Fractured Flickers (ASIN/B0002F6BJW) which may well have inspired the concept. |
