What's Up, Tiger Lily?

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What's Up, Tiger Lily?

original film poster
Directed by Woody Allen
Senkichi Taniguchi
Produced by Charles Joffe
Written by Woody Allen
Louise Lasser
Len Maxwell
Julie Bennett
Frank Buxton
Mickey Rose
Bryan Wilson
Starring Woody Allen
Louise Lasser
The Lovin' Spoonful
Music by The Lovin' Spoonful
Editing by Richard Krown
Distributed by American International Pictures
Release date(s) April 1966
Running time 80 minutes
Country United States
Language English

What's Up, Tiger Lily?, a 1966 comedy film, is the first film directed by Woody Allen, who also wrote and appeared in it. Allen took International Secret Police: A Barrel of Gunpowder and International Secret Police: Key of Keys, two in a series of Japanese spy films[citation needed] and overdubbed them with completely original dialogue that had nothing to do with the plot of the original films. By putting in new scenes and rearranging the order of existing scenes, he completely changed the tone of the films from a James Bond clone into a comedy about the search for the world's best egg salad recipe.[1]

Louise Lasser, who was married to Allen at the time, served as one of the voice actors for the "new" dialogue soundtrack, as did Mickey Rose, Allen's writing partner on Take The Money and Run and Bananas.[1]

During post-production, musical numbers by the band The Lovin' Spoonful were spliced into the movie against Woody Allen's wishes. This helped convince Allen that he should secure creative control for all his future projects.[2] The band released a soundtrack album.

Replacing a foreign movie's soundtrack for comic effect has been used in numerous television shows and movies. Fractured Flickers, which predated Tiger Lily, dubbed silent films with comedic dialogue. Can Dialectics Break Bricks? was a political re-dubbing of a Chinese martial arts film produced in 1973 by the French director René Viénet of the Situationist International. A group called "The L.A. Connection" also dubbed silent films with comedic dialogue in the 1970s and 80s in live shows and led to a show called Mad Movies with the L.A. Connection. The Japanese overdubbing idea was used in the American version of Takeshi's Castle, which was released in the USA as MXC. Three examples of more recent films directly influenced by the cinematic methods used in What's Up Tiger Lily? are: Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters (1982), What's Up, Hideous Sun Demon (1983), A Man Called... Rainbo (1990) and Kung Pow! Enter the Fist (2002).

Contents

[edit] Plot

The plot provides the setup for a string of sight gags, puns, jokes based on Asian stereotypes, and general farce. The central plot involves the misadventures of secret agent Phil Moskowitz, hired by the Grand Exalted High Majah of Raspur ("a nonexistent but real-sounding country") to find a secret egg salad recipe that was stolen from him. The movie has an ending unrelated to the plot, in which China Lee, a Playboy Playmate and then-wife of Allen's comic idol Mort Sahl, who does not appear elsewhere in the film, does a striptease while Allen explains that he promised he would put her in the film somewhere.

[edit] Characters

Within Woody Allen's altered version, the main characters include:

  • Phil Moscowitz — (played by Tatsuya Mihashi) A secret agent and self-described "lovable rogue" and "amiable zany".
  • Suki Yaki — (played by Akiko Wakabayashi) A beautiful woman who seduces Phil and later works alongside him as a spy.
  • Teri Yaki - (played by Mie Hama) Suki's sister who helps Phil as well.
  • Shepherd Wong — (played by Tadao Nakamaru) An evil gang leader who has stolen the recipe for the world's greatest egg salad.
  • Wing Fat — (played by Susumu Kurobe) An evil gangster who teams up with Phil to steal the recipe from Shepherd Wong, but intends to keep it for himself.

[edit] Soundtrack album

What's Up Tiger Lily?
Soundtrack album by The Lovin' Spoonful
Released September, 1966
Genre Folk rock
Label Kama Sutra
The Lovin' Spoonful chronology
Daydream
(1966)		 What's Up, Tiger Lily?
(1966)		 Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful
(1966)

The soundtrack album to What's Up Tiger Lily? was released in 1966. It contains music by The Lovin' Spoonful. It was re-released on CD along with You're a Big Boy Now, the Spoonful's soundtrack for the 1966 Francis Ford Coppola film.[3] It reached No. 126 on the Billboard Pop Albums charts.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Introduction to Flick" – 2:14
  2. "Pow!" – 2:26
  3. "Gray Prison Blues" – 2:04
  4. "Pow Revisited" – 2:26
  5. "Unconscious Minute" – 2:05
  6. "Fishin' Blues" – 1:59
  7. "Respoken" – 1:48
  8. "Cool Million" – 2:02
  9. "Speakin' of Spoken" – 2:41
  10. "Lookin' to Spy" – 2:29
  11. "Phil's Love Theme" – 2:23
  12. "End Title" – 4:06

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b ""''International Secret Police''", tokyo street report, April 16, 2009". Tokyostreetreport.com. 2009-04-16. http://www.tokyostreetreport.com/events/2009/04/international-secret-police/. Retrieved 2010-09-15. 
  2. ^ "http://www.screenwritersutopia.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=2725". Screenwritersutopia.com. http://www.screenwritersutopia.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=2725. Retrieved 2010-09-15. 
  3. ^ Ruhlmann, William. "Allmusic entry for CD release of both soundtracks by the Lovin' Spoonful". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r366126. Retrieved 2010-09-15. 

[edit] External links

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