What's New Pussycat?

What happens when you throw brilliant but raw talent into a zany mix of farce and camp? Certainly not a stark movie like Faces. Instead, with What's New Pussycat? (1965), What's Up Tiger Lily? (1966), and Black Lizard (1968), we are treated to bizarre flashes of disordered genius set aganst the backdrop of the psychedlic 60s. Visual moments sparkle with wild color and zany movement, some of it completely wacky.

Pussycat is one of those fantastically weird intersections: Woody Allen, Peter O'Toole, Peter Sellers, Romy Schneider, Capucine, Paula Prentiss and Ursula Andress mixing it up in France -- and of these players, Woody Allen is only at the very beginning of his movie career, a little rough and experimental, barely scratching the surface of his vast capabilities. You can imagine backtracking to his writing table, watching him come up with anarchic Marx Brothers-style scenes and pithy one-liners a la Duck Soup (1933). The other players are along for the ride, or so it appears.

What we see unveiled includes a conflicted Adonis run amok (O'Toole), a deranged psychiatrist with the accent of Dr. Strangelove (Sellers), the prototype Woody Allen protagonist, a comical American poet repeatedly making campy suicidal gestures, and assorted other "pussycats," including the drop-in Andress character (Casino Royale, anyone?) And let's not forget the trademark title song performed by Tom Jones, which he still belts out in Vegas: perhaps he'll drop in and sing it as a duet with Engelbert Humperdinck at the Macomb Center for the Performing Arts later this year.

What's Up Tiger Lily?

Woody Allen snapped up the 1965 Japanese flick International Secret Police: Key of Keys (Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi) -- a film in the James Bond tradition -- then re-edited scenes and over-dubbed it with ludicrous English dialogue. A bit crazy, but it works! I wouldn't want to spoil the ending. . . . . especially given its eerie similarity to the recently foiled Coke/Pepsi recipe conspiracy.


Black Lizard / Kurotokage

Of the three movies in today's post, Black Lizard is the most bizarre, combining elements of 007 with visions of Edgar Allen Poe dancing through the plot line. In fact, the movie is based on a novel by the mysterious Rampo Edogawa (word scramble of Poe, Japanese style) and directed by Kinji Fukasaku (1930-2003), the same gentleman who oversaw the excellent Japanese bits of the Pearl Harbor classic, Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970). Black Lizard, an evil jewel thief with a propensity for turning people into human "dolls" (don't ask), is actually transvestite Akihiro Maruyama; her nemesis is Akechi (Isao Kimura), a Bond-like investigator out to crack her/his latest crime cycle. Much weirdness ensues. It's interesting and pretty cool, though I haven't seen it in years and it's another film that's hard to find for no valid reason.

Tora! Tora! Tora!, indeed. Sayonara! Jaa, mata ashita aimashou. . . . .