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Lizards in Movies
 
The Night of the Iguana (1964)
 
Spoiler Alert !

Some of these pictures and descriptions may give away plot details that you might not want to know before watching the film.
 
Night of the Iguana Night of the Iguana Night of the Iguana
Night of the Iguana Night of the Iguana Night of the Iguana
Night of the Iguana Night of the Iguana Night of the Iguana
Night of the Iguana Night of the Iguana Night of the Iguana
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This great John Huston directed movie based on a Tennessee Williams play really lives up to its title - there are lots of shots of Iguanas in it.

First, we see a large live male iguana under the opening credits.

Then, from inside a moving tour bus we see several Mexican boys holding large live Iguanas over their heads on the side of a road, offering to sell them. Richard Burton, a tour guide on the bus, tells the the tourists that they are Iguanas that will be eaten, and they are reported to taste like chicken.

At Ava Gardner's hotel in Puerta Vallarta her two beach boys chase an iguana and catch it to be tied up, fattened up, and eaten. We see it tied up in a few scenes. It scares Sue Lyon (who played Lolita in Kubrick's movie) in one scene. Deborah Kerr tells Richard Burton, an alcoholic former minister who's at the end of his own rope, that the Iguana is one of God's creatures, that he should set it free. So he cuts loose "one of god's creatures at the end of his rope" as he puts it, with heavy-handed symbolism, and it runs off into the forest. I love a movie with a happy ending.