Night of the Iguana

(John Huston, US 1964, 118 min., 35mm)

Senior Matinee. Richard Burton is at his frantic best as the Reverend Larry Shannon, on a long sabbatical following a scathing tirade aimed at the repressive orthodoxy of his congregation. The self-titled “Minister of the Gospels,” now a tour guide scandalized by his flock of Baptist schoolteachers, seeks sanctuary at the Costa Verde Hotel. Amidst the simple beauty of the Mexican countryside, virtue and vice grapple as Shannon contemplates a new faith or “the long swim.” The mature script, adapted by director John Huston from the Tennessee Williams play, is an accurate reflection of the growing social politics that dominated the 1960s.