THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA (1964) B/W widescreen 125m dir: John Huston

w/Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, Sue Lyon, James Ward, Grayson Hall, Cyril Delevanti, Mary Boylan, Gladys Hill, Billie Matticks

From Variety's contemporary review of the film: "This Ray Stark production is rich in talents. Performances by Richard Burton, Ava Gardner and Deborah Kerr are superlative in demanding roles. Direction by John Huston is resourceful and dynamic as he sympathetically weaves together the often vague and philosophical threads that mark Tennessee Williams's writing.

"Unfolds mainly in a ramshackle Mexican seacoast hotel where Burton, an unfrocked minister and now guide of a cheap bus tour, takes refuge from his latest flock, a group of complaining American schoolteachers who refuse to believe he actually is a preacher who lost his church. Frankness in dealing with his emotional problems as first he is pursued by a young sexpot in the party, then his involvement with the aggressive, man-hungry hotel owner and a sensitive, itinerant artist traveling with her 97-year-old grandfather, produces compassionate undertones finely realized in situations evoking particular interest.

"Burton has stature in the difficult portrayal of the Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon, a part without glamor yet touched with magical significant force as he progresses to the point of near-mental crackup. Gardner, in the earthy role of Maxine Faulk, the proprietress, is a gutsy figure as she makes her play for the depraved ex-minister, turning in a colorful delineation. Kerr lends warm conviction as the spinster who lives by idealism and her selling of quick sketches, a helpless creature yet endowed with certain innate strength."

THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA won an Oscar for Best B&W Costume Design (Dorothy Jeakins). It was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress (Hall), B&W Cinematography (Gabriel Figueroa), and B&W Art Direction (Stephen Grimes).