Re-Release Of ‘Tiger Lily’ Offers Another Chance To Marvel At Allen

There was a time in which Woody Allen wasn’t a world-famous movie director. He still made television appearances. His former lovers weren’t accusing him of being a pedophile.

In those days (we’re talking about the early 1960s here), Allen had yet to win his several Oscars for various movie writing and directing chores. He was merely a quirky little guy who made jokes about “damaged-pet stores” where the cats were bent and the dogs stuttered (“bu-bu-bow wow,” they’d bark).

He’d been writing for others since his teens, and only reluctantly did he begin performing his own material in comedy clubs.

In 1965, he turned to making movies. First up was the spy parody “What’s New, Pussycat?” which he wrote and in which he starred.

And then came “What’s Up, Tiger Lily?”

“Tiger Lily” has one main running joke that, in lesser hands, could have resulted in a one-note comedy. It uses the same format, making fun of a real movie, that “Mystery Science Theater 3000” pulls off so well.

But there’s a difference. Like those movie spoofs done so well by the Los Angeles-based comedy group The Groundlings, “Tiger Lily” boasts a completely new soundtrack. Taking the 1964 Japanese movie “Kagi No Kag” (“Key of Keys”), itself a comic variation on the James Bond films, Allen superimposes his own dialogue.

The result is a film featuring various cliche spy types - the dashing hero, the curvy sex goddesses, the slimy bad-guy leaders, the snake-charming underlings - tricking and sometimes murdering each other over a secret formula for … egg salad?

Newly re-released on video in pristine condition by Anchor Bay Entertainment, “What’s Up, Tiger Lily” is purely a ‘60s-era creation. Its music is provided by the Lovin’ Spoonful, and the closing sequence in particular features Allen in what’s likely to be seen by some contemporary viewers as exploitative of women.

But is it funny? Well, some people don’t like Allen period. Others like his later films better than his crude early stuff (“Take the Money and Run,” “Bananas”), of which “Tiger Lily” is a good example.

Personally, I love Allen, past and present. I laugh at his comedies, I am moved by his dramas (“Crimes and Misdemeanors” in particular) and I marvel at his ability to blend the two styles in such films as “Hannah and Her Sisters” and “Deconstructing Harry.”

In the case of “What’s Up, Tiger Lily,” it helps that the underlying Japanese movie is an entertaining curiosity all by itself.

But Allen’s dialogue, as voiced by actress Louise Lasser and others, makes all the difference. It raises parody to, well, near-art.

Oscar preview

Those of you who pay to get HBO at home may already have caught one of the nominees for Best Documentary Feature, Spike Lee’s “4 Little Girls.” It debuted Monday at 9 p.m. I recommend it highly. A heart-wrenching study of the 1963 church bombing that killed four Birmingham, Ala., teenagers, this is the film that lives up to Lee’s promise (not to mention his promises).

Other Oscar previews: “The Full Monty” is due on video March 10, and former Spokane resident Neil LaBute’s “In the Company of Men” is due March 17. The Oscar broadcast is set for Monday, March 23.

The week’s major releases:

A Smile Like Yours

**

There are few plotlines older than the one about reluctant parents. And yet that is what screenwriter/director Keith Samples has chosen to explore in this very minor romantic comedy drama starring Greg Kinnear and Lauren Holly. He is an elevator contractor, she is a fragrance creator/shop-owner, and together they enjoy a full and active sex life - thanks in part to the aphrodisiac that she has invented, but thanks more to her desire to have a child. To overcome his fatherly reluctance, she concocts for them to have sex in every place and position imaginable (at least the San Francisco locations are scenic). But a dark cloud floats figuratively over this scenario in the form of her fibbing and literally in the form of a beautiful architect (Jill Hennessy of TV’s “Law and Order”).

The tension is only temporary, though. Neither Samples nor writing partner Kevin Meyer have thought their subject through enough to make this slight little story much more than an emotional puff piece. It’s as compelling as a car commercial, as deep as a diaper pail. Kinnear, Holly and especially Hennessy look good, and Joan Cusack fans will welcome her random tidbits of comic relief. But most of us are likely to forget all of them and their problems long before the credits crawl up your television screen.

Ratings note: Although the MPAA rated this movie R, the various sex scenes are all tastefully simulated, there is not one profane utterance, no violence and no nudity. If this is an R-rated film, then so is “Mary Poppins.” Rated R

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