What's Up, Tiger Lily? - Wikipedia

1966 film by Woody Allen, Senkichi Taniguchi

What's Up, Tiger Lily?
Theatrical re-release poster
Directed by	Woody AllenSenkichi Taniguchi
Written by	Woody AllenLouise LasserLen MaxwellJulie BennettFrank BuxtonMickey RoseBryna WilsonHideo Andô
Conceived by	Ben Shapiro
Produced by	Henry G. SapersteinReuben BercovitchTomoyuki TanakaShin Mortia
Starring	Woody Allen
Cinematography	Kazuo Yamada
Edited by	Richard Krown
Music by	The Lovin' Spoonful
Productioncompanies	Benedict Pictures CorporationToho
Distributed by	American International Pictures
Release date	November 2, 1966 (1966-11-02)
Running time	80 minutes
Countries	United StatesJapan
Language	English
Budget	~$400,000[1]

What's Up, Tiger Lily? is a 1966 American comedy film directed by Woody Allen in his feature-length directorial debut.

Allen took footage from a Japanese spy film, International Secret Police: Key of Keys (1965), and overdubbed it with completely original dialogue that had nothing to do with the plot of the original film.[2] He both put in new scenes and rearranged the order of existing scenes, producing a one-hour movie from the 93 minutes of the original film. 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. 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 (1969) and Bananas (1971).[3] In 2003, Image released the film on DVD, with both the theatrical and television (called "alternate") soundtracks.

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 Macha of Rashpur ("a nonexistent but real-sounding country") to recover a secret egg salad recipe that was stolen from him. The recipe, in the possession of gangster Shepherd Wong, is also being sought by rival gangster Wing Fat, and Moskowitz, assisted by two female Rashpur agents, temporarily teams up with Wing Fat to steal the recipe from Wong.

The movie has an ending credits scene unrelated to the plot, in which China Lee, a Playboy Playmate and wife of Allen's comic idol Mort Sahl who does not appear elsewhere in the film, does a striptease while Allen (who is also on-screen) 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" (other people call him "amiable zany")
• Akiko Wakabayashi as Suki Yaki, a beautiful woman who has escaped from prison; she seduces Phil and later works alongside him as a spy
• Mie Hama as Teri Yaki, Suki's sister who helps Phil as well (cf. sukiyaki, teriyaki)
• Tadao Nakamaru as Shepherd Wong, an evil gang leader and egg salad addict 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 plans to then sell it back to him.
• 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
• Julie Bennett as Dub Voice
• Frank Buxton as Dub Voice
• Louise Lasser as Dub Voice
• Len Maxwell as Dub Voice
• Mickey Rose as Dub Voice
• The Lovin' Spoonful as Themselves

Both female leads appeared the following year as legitimate Bond girls in the Japan-based You Only Live Twice.

Soundtrack album

[edit]

What's Up, Tiger Lily?
Soundtrack album by the Lovin' Spoonful
Released	August 1966 (1966-08)
Recorded	April 11–12, 1966[4]
Studio	National, New York City[5]
Genre	Folk rock[6] instrumental rock[7]
Length	28:57
Label	Kama Sutra
Producer	Jack Lewis
The Lovin' Spoonful chronology
What's Shakin'(1966) What's Up, Tiger Lily?(1966) Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful(1966)

The soundtrack album to What's Up, Tiger Lily? was released in August 1966.[8][9] It contains music by the Lovin' Spoonful. The audio engineer at National Recording Studios was Fred Weinberg, who went on to produce and engineer many other films and albums. It was re-released on CD along with You're a Big Boy Now, the Spoonful's soundtrack for the 1966 film by Francis Ford Coppola.[10] It reached No. 126 on the Billboard Pop Albums charts.

Track listing

[edit]

All tracks written by John Sebastian, Joe Butler, Steve Boone and Zal Yanovsky, except where noted.

Side one

1. "Introduction to Flick" (Woody Allen, Lenny Maxwell) – 2:03
2. "Pow (Theme From 'What's Up, Tiger Lily?')" (Sebastian, Butler, Boone, Skip Boone, Yanovsky) – 2:28
3. "Gray Prison Blues" – 2:15
4. "Pow Revisited" (Sebastian, Butler, Boone, Yanovsky, Skip Boone) – 2:30
5. "Unconscious Minuet" – 2:05
6. "Fishin' Blues" (trad., arrangement by Sebastian) – 1:58

Side two

1. "Respoken" (Sebastian) – 1:48
2. "Cool Million" – 2:20
3. "Speakin' of Spoken" (Sebastian) – 2:40
4. "Lookin' to Spy" – 2:30
5. "Phil's Love Theme" – 2:15
6. "End Title" – 4:05

Reception

[edit]

The reviews were mixed upon the film's release. Expressing disappointment in the movie, The New York Times stated that "the peppery English sound track wears thin as the action churns around in absolute chaos."[11] Variety wrote, "The production has one premise – deliberately mismatched dialog – which is sustained reasonably well through its brief running time."[12]

Aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports 81% approval of the film from 26 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10.[13]

The film is considered Woody Allen's directorial debut, although Allen distanced himself from it in a 2020 interview.[14] It has been noted that it is not Allen's voice we hear at the end of the movie. In an interview with Brett Homenick, S. Richard Krown – the credited film editor – admitted that the voice was his own.[15]

See also

[edit]

• List of American films of 1966
• Mad Movies with the L.A. Connection
• Kung Pow! Enter the Fist
• Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

References

[edit]

1. ^ B is for Low Budget and Big Box Office Bucks, So Sam Arkoff is Proud to Be Called Hollywood's King of the B Pictures. Archived May 23, 2014, at the Wayback Machine People Magazine. Retrieved May 23, 2014.
2. ^ a b Mavis, Paul. "What's Up, Tiger Lily?". DVD Talk. Archived from the original on May 4, 2012. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
3. ^ a b "International Secret Police". Tokyo Street Report. April 16, 2009. Archived from the original on July 4, 2010. Retrieved September 15, 2010.
4. ^
   • Boone, Steve; Moss, Tony (2014). Hotter Than a Match Head: My Life on the Run with The Lovin' Spoonful. Toronto: ECW Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-1-77041-193-7.: "We weren't due back in a recording studio until June, but just before we were to depart to Europe, an interesting offer came in that was too good to pass up. ... The timing was not good – we'd basically have two days to record the soundtrack before we left for an important tour overseas ..."
   • Moriarty, Daniel J. (1966). What's Up, Tiger Lily? (Liner notes). The Lovin' Spoonful. Kama Sutra. KLP 8053.: "The Lovin' Spoonful have never written a movie score and they're leaving for England on Wednesday. Today is Monday."
   • Anon. (April 7, 1966). "News of the Pops: For 'Ready, Steady Go'". The Runcorn Guardian. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.: "A POPULAR American group, The Lovin' Spoonful, will visit Britain for the first time next month. They will arrive on [Wednesday] April 13 for a general promotion visit ..."
5. ^ Boone, Steve; Moss, Tony (2014). Hotter Than a Match Head: My Life on the Run with The Lovin' Spoonful. Toronto: ECW Press. pp. 112–114. ISBN 978-1-77041-193-7.
6. ^ Ruhlmann, William. "What's Up, Tiger Lily? – The Lovin' Spoonful". AllMusic. Archived from the original on March 7, 2023. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
7. ^ Segretto, Mike (2022). "1966". 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Minute - A Critical Trip Through the Rock LP Era, 1955–1999. Backbeat. p. 96. ISBN 9781493064601.
8. ^ Anon. (1990). Anthology (Liner notes). The Lovin' Spoonful. Rhino. R2 70944.
9. ^ D.J.W. (August 27, 1966). "Teenage Beat". The Springfield Union. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
10. ^ Ruhlmann, William. "What's Up, Tiger Lily? / You're a Big Boy Now". Allmusic. Retrieved September 15, 2010.
11. ^ "Screen: Woody-Allenized:'Tiger Lily,' Innovation of Sorts, Is Here The Cast," The New York Times, Friday, November 18, 1966. Archived January 6, 2018, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved January 5, 2018.
12. ^ "What's Up, Tiger Lily?". Variety. December 31, 1965. Archived from the original on May 17, 2016. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
13. ^ "What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
14. ^ Woody Allen interviewed by Alec Baldwin (2 june 2020) Archived October 22, 2020, at the Wayback Machine, Alec Baldwin Podcast, uploaded, June 2, 2020 (LSSC YouTube channel)Baldwin: "Tiger Lily is the first film you direct, correct?" Allen: "No. That was an odd little abhorrent project. Some guy called me and said he bought a Japanese film and would I dub it with comic American? I don't count that as anything. I was even going to sue to keep that from coming out because I thought it was such junk. It was successful so my manager at the time said, 'Shut up and go with the flow and don't make a fuss.'"
15. ^ "GODZILla's CROWNING MOMENT! UPA's Post-Production Supervisor Richard Krown on Americanizing Toho Classics!". September 14, 2021.

External links

[edit] Wikiquote has quotations related to What's Up, Tiger Lily?.

• What's Up, Tiger Lily? at IMDb
• What's Up, Tiger Lily? at the TCM Movie Database (archived version)
• DVD review and film's production history

v t e The Lovin' Spoonful
John Sebastian Zal Yanovsky Steve Boone Joe Butler Jan Carl Jerry Yester
Studio albums	Do You Believe in Magic Daydream Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful Everything Playing Revelation: Revolution '69
Soundtracks	What's Up, Tiger Lily? You're A Big Boy Now
Compilations	What's Shakin' The Best of the Lovin' Spoonful The Very Best of the Lovin' Spoonful The Best... Lovin' Spoonful Anthology Greatest Hits
Live albums	Live at the Hotel Seville
Singles	"Do You Believe In Magic" "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice" "Daydream" "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" "Summer in the City" "Rain on the Roof" "Nashville Cats" "Darling Be Home Soon"
Other songs	"Good Time Music" "Younger Girl"
Related	Discography Drug bust The Mugwumps

v t e Woody Allen
Filmography Bibliography Awards and nominations
Films directed	What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966) Take the Money and Run (1969) Bananas (1971) Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972) Sleeper (1973) Love and Death (1975) Annie Hall (1977) Interiors (1978) Manhattan (1979) Stardust Memories (1980) A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982) Zelig (1983) Broadway Danny Rose (1984) The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) Radio Days (1987) September (1987) Another Woman (1988) New York Stories (segment "Oedipus Wrecks", 1989) Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) Alice (1990) Shadows and Fog (1991) Husbands and Wives (1992) Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) Bullets Over Broadway (1994) Don't Drink the Water (1994, TV) Mighty Aphrodite (1995) Everyone Says I Love You (1996) Deconstructing Harry (1997) Celebrity (1998) Sweet and Lowdown (1999) Small Time Crooks (2000) The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) Hollywood Ending (2002) Anything Else (2003) Melinda and Melinda (2004) Match Point (2005) Scoop (2006) Cassandra's Dream (2007) Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) Whatever Works (2009) You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010) Midnight in Paris (2011) To Rome with Love (2012) Blue Jasmine (2013) Magic in the Moonlight (2014) Irrational Man (2015) Café Society (2016) Wonder Wheel (2017) A Rainy Day in New York (2019) Rifkin's Festival (2020) Coup de chance (2023) Short films Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story (1971) Sounds from a Town I Love (2001)
Films written only	What's New Pussycat? (1965) Play It Again, Sam (1972)
Television	Woody Allen Looks at 1967 (1967) The Woody Allen Special (1969) Crisis in Six Scenes (2016)
Theatre	From A to Z (1960) Don't Drink the Water (1966) Play It Again, Sam (1969) God (1975) Death (1975) The Floating Light Bulb (1981) Central Park West (1995) Writer's Block [two play anthology "Riverside Drive & "Old Saybrook"] (2003) A Secondhand Memory (2004) Honeymoon Motel (2011) Bullets Over Broadway (2014) Brooklyn Story (2024) Pure Madness (2025)
Books	Getting Even (1971) Without Feathers (1975) Side Effects (1980) Mere Anarchy (2007) Apropos of Nothing (2020) Zero Gravity (2022) What's With Baum? (2025)
Albums	Woody Allen (1964)
Works about	Meetin' WA Wild Man Blues Woody Allen: A Documentary (2011 miniseries) Allen v. Farrow (2021 documentary)
Family	Louise Lasser (second wife) Soon-Yi Previn (third wife) Ronan Farrow (son) Letty Aronson (sister)
Related	Inside Woody Allen Sexual abuse allegation Monument to Woody Allen (Oviedo, Spain)
Category

Authority control databases
International	VIAF
National	United States Spain