After what seems like an eternity of hand-wringing and navel-gazing, Woody Allen‘s protagonist in Stardust Memories (1980), a burned-out movie director, suddenly finds himself face-to-face with a descending spacecraft. As super-intelligent extraterrestrials greet the human race for the first time, the filmmaker blurts out his abiding angst: “If nothing lasts, why am I bothering to make films, or do anything, for that matter?” “We like your films,” the aliens intone, “Particularly the early funny ones.”
As has often been noted, there is a marked difference between Allen’s pre- and post-Annie Hall (1977) career. The former delights in absurd, random slapstick punctuated with one-liners; the latter aspires toward elegant drama, which often teeters precariously between sophistication and pretention with its indebtedness to popular ’50s art cinema, namely works by Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman.
But of all his early funny pictures, one of the most convulsively hilarious is his debut feature, What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (1966), released on DVD today by Image Entertainment. Long before MST3K delivered its countertextual derisions, Allen redubbed this lurid, sensationalistic Japanese spy thriller originally entitled Key of Keys (1964) as an absurd comedy with an entirely new storyline. After presenting an action prologue in its original Japanese language, Allen inserts footage of himself ostensibly being interviewed about the project. “To my recollection,” the interviewer muses, “I’ve never heard of this being done before, where the actors are acting one story and saying another.” “Oh, it was,” Allen nods, “Actually, it was Gone With the Wind.”
What follows is a lunatic espionage plot regarding a race to recover a stolen egg salad recipe, which will permit the Grand Exalted High Majah of Raspur (“a nonexistent but real-sounding country”) to establish his nation “somewhere between Italy and Greece” once a space opens on the map. (It’s no laughing matter, he assures the hero, all his people are packed in crates.) What makes the film especially funny is the way Allen’s dialogue seems to fit the action and performances perfectly, albeit outrageously. Spinning as many James Bondian clichÈs as possible, from idiot thugs to homoerotic machismo to random sexpots, Tiger Lily brims with nonstop humorous invention. (A maniacal killer rasps, “This Peter Lorre imitation is killing my throat!”)
According to Eric Lax’s biography of Allen, the film was largely written by Allen and his friends when he rented a hotel room and screened the film three times while everyone supplied their own spontaneous dialogue–the funniest lines made the cut. Of course, Key of Keys is a tasteless genre film with routine sexist and racist elements which encourage Tiger Lily‘s occasional forays into ethnic humor and stereotyping that won’t endear Allen to any of his PC critics. On the other hand, the overall silliness and disdain the dub forces on the film can undoubtedly serve as stinging critique.
And speaking of looney, DVD Toons has announced the first of Warner Brother’s long-awaited Looney Tunes DVD box sets, due for release on October 28, 2003. More details to come…