What's Up, Tiger Lily?
| What's Up, Tiger Lily? | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release 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? is a 1966 comedy film directed by Woody Allen, his debut in this role.
Allen took a Japanese spy film, International Secret Police: Key of Keys,[1] and overdubbed it with completely original dialogue that had nothing to do with the plot of the original film.[2] By putting in new scenes and rearranging the order of existing scenes, he completely changed the tone of the film from a James Bond clone into a comedy about the search for the world's best egg salad recipe.[3]
During post-production, Allen's original one-hour television version was expanded without his permission to include additional scenes from International Secret Police: A Barrel of Gunpowder, the third film in the International Secret Police series,[2] and musical numbers by the band The Lovin' Spoonful. This experience helped convince Allen that he should secure creative control for all his future projects.[4] The band released a soundtrack album. 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.[3]
Contents |
Plot [edit]
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.
Cast [edit]
- Tatsuya Mihashi as Phil Moscowitz, a secret agent and self-described "lovable rogue"
- Akiko Wakabayashi as Suki Yaki, a beautiful woman who seduces Phil and later works alongside him as a spy
- Mie Hama as Teri Yaki, Suki's sister who helps Phil as well
- John Sebastian as Himself
- Tadao Nakamaru as Shepherd Wong, an evil gang leader who has stolen the recipe for the world's greatest egg salad
- Susumu Kurobe as Wing Fat, an evil gangster who teams up with Phil to steal the recipe from Shepherd Wong, but intends to keep it for himself
- Sachio Sakai as Hoodlum
- Hideyo Amamoto as Cobra Man
- Tetsu Nakamura as Foreign Minister
- Osman Yusuf as Gambler
- Kumi Mizuno as Phil's date
- Woody Allen as Himself / Dub Voice / Projectionist
- Zal Yanovsky as Himself
- Frank Buxton as Dub Voice[1]
Soundtrack album [edit]
| What's Up Tiger Lily? | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by The Lovin' Spoonful | ||||
| Released | September, 1966 | |||
| Genre | Folk rock | |||
| Label | Kama Sutra | |||
| The Lovin' Spoonful chronology | ||||
|
||||
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.[5] It reached No. 126 on the Billboard Pop Albums charts.
Track listing [edit]
- "Introduction to Flick" (2:14)
- "Pow!" (2:26)
- "Gray Prison Blues" (2:04)
- "Pow Revisited" (2:26)
- "Unconscious Minuet" (2:05)
- "Fishin' Blues" (1:59)
- "Respoken" (1:48)
- "Cool Million" (2:02)
- "Speakin' of Spoken" (2:41)
- "Lookin' to Spy" (2:29)
- "Phil's Love Theme" (2:23)
- "End Title" (4:06)
References [edit]
- ^ a b "What's Up, Tiger Lily?". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
- ^ a b Mavis, Paul. "What's Up, Tiger Lily?". DVD Talk. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
- ^ a b "International Secret Police". Tokyo Street Report. April 16, 2009. Retrieved September 15, 2010.
- ^ "Woody Allen". Screenwriter's Utopia. Retrieved September 15, 2010.
- ^ Ruhlmann, William. "What's Up, Tiger Lily? / You're a Big Boy Now". Allmusic. Retrieved September 15, 2010.
External links [edit]
- What's Up, Tiger Lily? at the Internet Movie Database
- Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kayaku no taru at the Internet Movie Database
- Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi at the Internet Movie Database
- What's Up, Tiger Lily? at the TCM Movie Database
- What's Up, Tiger Lily? at AllRovi
- DVD review and film's production history
|
||||||||||||||
