WHAT'S UP, TIGER LILY?, Woody Allen's first directorial effort, started life as a low-grade Japanese James Bondian spy drama called KEY OF KEYS. Executive producer Henry G. Saperstein bought the film and hired Allen to dub in an entirely new soundtrack, featuring brand-new dialogue (cowritten by the new voices) that turns the story into a riotously ridiculous search for the perfect egg salad recipe; Saperstein also added scenes with the Lovin' Spoonful to give the film a hip 1960s feel wholly out of touch with what is occurring onscreen. Allen did shoot some new scenes for the film, in which he describes the genesis of the idea and its place in film history, claiming that the first film to do this was GONE WITH THE WIND. The new story features the Japanese cast playing such characters as Phil Moskowitz, Terry Yaki, and Suki Yaki, battling to find out just the right amount of mayonnaise to mix in with chopped eggs. Many of the jokes are about food and sex, two things that Allen would go on to explore more and more in his films.
WHAT'S UP, TIGER LILY? is a no-holds-barred spoof of James Bond films compiled by the master of intellectual comedy, Woody Allen. In this farce, Allen takes an actual Japanese spy film (KEY OF KEYS) and dubs in English dialogue that comically alters the original plot, now sending the main characters in search of the perfect egg salad recipe.
Excerpt: "They wanted in Hollywood to make the definitive spy picture, and they came to me to supervise the project, ya know, because I think that, um, if you know me at all, you know that death is my bread and danger my butter...oh, no, danger's my bread and death is my butter...no, no, wait, danger's my bread, death, no, death, no, I'm sorry, death is--death and danger are my various breads and, and various butters."--Woody Allen near the beginning of the movie, explaining how the project came to be
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Widescreen - 16.9
Audio:
Dolby Digital Mono - English
Additional Release Material:
Trailers - 1. Original Theatrical Trailer
Distributor Notes: An evil mastermind with an addiction to egg salad! Sadistic, torture-hungry double crossers! Gorgeous girls hungry for lovin'! A weird marriage between a cobra and a chicken! Only one man is daring, clever and sexy enough to take on this kind of mission: superspy Phil Moscowitz! Woody Allen spoofs the spy thriller in one of his funniest films, a nonstop frenzy of skewed wit, hilarious parody and sidesplitting wackiness. With dialogue rewritten and redubbed for a Japanese James Bond-style movie, What's Up, Tiger Lily? turns the sex-and-danger world of filmdom's spy game upside down!
Source: Image Entertainment, Inc.
Voice
Louise Lasser: American Actress, MARY HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN
Voice
Mickey Rose: Screenwriter/Director
Voice
Woody Allen: Actor/screenwriter/director
Writer
Kazuo Yamada: Japanese cinematographer
Director of Photography
Kazuo Yamada: Japanese cinematographer
Review 1:
"...Poised for rediscovery -- and ripe to reclaim its cult status..."
Source: Entertainment Weekly
p.63 07/18/2003
Review 2:
"...A genuine oddity....[With] some classic moments..."
Source: Total Film
p.116 03/01/2001
Review 3:
"[Allen] took a generic Japanese spy thriller and inserted his own dialogue....[A] novelty."
Source: Premiere
p.108 08/01/2006
Review 4:
4 stars out of 5 -- "Woody Allen's first film as a director is one of the most surreal films ever made..."
Source: Uncut
p.113 02/01/2008
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