It's a shame that Richard Burton never played Shannon in "Night of the Iguana" on stage - ditto Deborah Kerr and Ava Gardner - because all three are perfect casting for Tennessee Williams' wonderful play, on which this film is based. The story concerns a man of the cloth - well, sort of - Shannon, who, after an accusation of fornication and the nervous breakdown that followed, is locked out of his church and forced to take work as a tour guide for a cheap touring company. He is taking a group of Baptist women through Mexico showing them religious places when, while fighting off the advances of an underaged girl on the trip (Sue Lyon),he is accused by her chaperone (Grayson Hall) of giving into them. In order to keep her from reporting him to the tour company, he steals the bus distributor and holes up with them at the hotel of his friend, Maxine (Gardner). It is there that he meets the gentle artist, Hannah Jelks, and her aged poet grandfather Nonno. Under a dark Mexican sky, as an iguana being fattened for dinner is tethered below, the three confront their demons.

Knowing the actual play as well as I do, and having seen it performed, it's a little hard for me to judge this film, except that the acting across the board is marvelous. Gardner is fabulous as Maxine, the no-nonsense, earthy owner of the hotel who hankers after Shannon and isn't above a little jealousy. This is a role originated on Broadway by Bette Davis. It is rarely cast with someone as sexy and beautiful as Gardner, but those qualities make great additions to the role. Kerr as the spinster Jelks, facing a life of loneliness once her grandfather dies, is exquisite in the role, bringing to the role an analytical quality that normally isn't as apparent. Shannon could have been written for Burton - funny, drunk, with an underlying kindness, he is handsome, spirited, and a little nuts.

The additional characters of the underaged girl and the bus driver seem unnecessary additions, though Lyon was very good in a well-written role. Grayson Fall was great, but why was the recurring line she yells at Shannon - "Please take your hand OFF my arm!" removed from the script? Somehow the stage version is funnier and moves faster, though if you haven't seen it, you will still find this version amusing in sections and thought-provoking in others. The ending is changed as well. The play is a little heavier, a little more compelling, a little sadder, a little better and, naturally, pure Williams. But you couldn't ask for a better cast.

John Huston brought his crackpot vitality to this screen version of a not terribly well-known Tennessee Williams play. On stage it was epigrammatic and full of William's faux poetry but on film it has a nice line of lewdness running through it. Before this film I don't think the cinema knew what to do with Richard Burton but here he's perfectly cast as a defrocked clergyman working as a tour guide in Mexico. There is a twinkle in his eye and he's good fun. Ava Gardner, too, is well cast as the blowsy hotel owner, (she plays the part like Ava Gardner gone to seed). Only Deborah Kerr is a bit of a bind in this one. She supplies the faux poetry as the genteel artist traveling with her ancient grandfather. (Margaret Leighton played the part on Broadway and won a Tony).

The rest of the largely female cast is made up of Sue Lyon as a slightly older Lolita type and Grayson Hall as an hysterical, thinly veiled lesbian, (it was 1964, after all). The superb black and white photography is by the great Mexican cameraman Gabriel Figueroa. It's a very 'opened-out' version of a play, not theatrical at all, and while lively, it never insults our intelligence.

The Night of the Iguana was a Tennessee Williams masterpiece, probably the last one he ever did. It ran 316 performances on Broadway during the 1961-1962 season and starred Bette Davis, Margaret Leighton, and Patrick O'Neal in the roles played on the screen by Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, and Richard Burton. For some astonishing reason, John Huston changed the ending and ruined the whole thing. Why couldn't Huston follow the wise example of Elia Kazan who brought A Streetcar Named Desire intact to the screen is beyond me.

Not that the performers do so bad here. Ava Gardner for instance is wonderful in the part of the earthy hyper sexed hotel owner from Puerto Vallarta living on her meager income and her two Mexican beach boys for those cold nights. Then again this was no stretch for Ava because she was merely playing herself in this part at this time of her life.

Ava is reunited with Deborah Kerr who she co-starred back in their salad days at MGM in The Hucksters. Kerr is the itinerant artist who travels with her 97 year old grandfather Cyril Delevanti doing sketches for supper.

Richard Burton chews up the scenery with his part as the disgraced Episcopal minister who let his libido get the better of him. With nubile Sue Lyons around, he's about to let it happen again.

Margaret Leighton got a Tony Award for her performance on stage, but the only acting nomination for this film went to Grayson Hall as the repressed lesbian tour guide who takes an uncommon interest in Sue Lyons's virtue. Words like 'butch' and 'dyke' are used in the script to describe her character showing the Code was coming down. Tennessee Williams's work is loaded with sexual innuendo, but this was even kind of daring for him to be that upfront. Grayson Hall was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, but lost to Lila Kedrova for Zorba the Greek.

I'd see a stage production of The Night of the Iguana before seeing this film. It's the only way you can understand my critique about how the new ending turned a great film into a good one.