What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)

Directors:

Woody Allen
Senkichi Taniguchi

Writers:

Woody Allen (writer)
Julie Bennett (writer)

Release Date:

2 November 1966 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

WOODY ALLEN STRIKES BACK!

Plot:

In comic Woody Allen's film debut, he took the Japanese action film "International Secret Police: Key of Keys" and re-dubbed it, changing the plot to make it revolve around a secret egg salad recipe.

Plot Keywords:

Recipe | Government Agent | Peeping Tom | Flamethrower | Eye Chart

Cast

Tatsuya Mihashi	...	Phil Moscowitz (archive footage)
Akiko Wakabayashi	...	Suki Yaki (archive footage)
Mie Hama	...	Teri Yaki (archive footage)
John Sebastian	...	Himself (as The Lovin' Spoonful)
Tadao Nakamaru	...	Shepherd Wong (archive footage)
Susumu Kurobe	...	Wing Fat (archive footage)
Sachio Sakai	...	Hoodlum (archive footage) (as A No Star Cast)
Eisei Amamoto	...	Cobra Man (archive footage)
Tetsu Nakamura	...	Foreign Minister (archive footage) (as A No Star Cast)
Osman Yusuf	...	Gambler (archive footage) (as A No Star Cast)
Woody Allen	...	Himself / Dub Voice / Projectionist
Zal Yanovsky	...	Himself (as The Lovin' Spoonful)
Joe Butler	...	Himself (as The Lovin' Spoonful)
Steve Boone	...	Himself (as The Lovin' Spoonful)
Frank Buxton	...	Dub Voice (voice)

Runtime:

80 min | Spain:76 min (DVD edition)

Country:

USA | Japan

Language:

Japanese | English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Spain:13 | Argentina:Atp | France:U | USA:PG | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan

Company:

Benedict Pictures Corp.

Trivia:

Woody Allen and a group of friends only did 60 minutes of dialogue for the movie. An additional 19 minutes was recorded using an actor mimicking Allen, plus footage of The Lovin' Spoonful. These additions were made without Allen's consultation.

Quotes:

Shepherd Wong: I'm dying. Call my rabbi.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in A Little Harmless Murder (2003)

A Humorous Experiment, But That's About It

Before he worked up the courage to grab directorial reigns himself, Woody Allen produced this curio that will be entertaining to anyone who's stayed up until 2:00 am making fun of bad movies that seem manufactured specifically for air time during the wee hours.

The format won't seem fresh to anyone who watches "Mystery Science Theater," but for the time I imagine this film struck people as giddy and inspired. Allen takes an existing Japanese film and lays his own jokey, kooky soundtrack over it. It's like a feature-length version of the "film dub" game played on "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" in which the players make up dialogue for random, obscure movie scenes.

You might find yourself tiring of "Tiger Lily" before it's over -- luckily it's not an exercise Allen felt compelled to repeat, and it never took hold as a sub-genre of its own. Some of it made me chuckle, much of it fell flat, and any substantial memory of the film vanished from my head five minutes after ending.

Grade: C