What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)

In comic Woody Allen's film debut, he took the Japanese action film "International Secret Police: Key of Keys" and re-dubbed it, changing the plot to make it revolve around a secret egg salad recipe.

Directors:

Woody Allen, Senkichi Taniguchi

Writers:

Woody Allen, Julie Bennett,

Stars:

Woody Allen, The Lovin' Spoonful, Frank Buxton

Cast

Cast overview:
The Lovin' Spoonful	...	Themselves
Frank Buxton	...	Vocal Assist (voice)
Len Maxwell	...	Vocal Assist (voice)
Louise Lasser	...	Vocal Assist (voice)
Mickey Rose	...	Vocal Assist (voice)
Julie Bennett	...	Vocal Assist (voice)
Bryna Wilson	...	Vocal Assist (voice)
Tatsuya Mihashi	...	Phil Moscowitz (archive footage)
Mie Hama	...	Teri Yaki (archive footage)
Woody Allen	...	Himself / Dub Voice / Projectionist
Akiko Wakabayashi	...	Suki Yaki (archive footage) (as Kiko Wakabayashi)

Storyline

So you want Plot? Woody Allen bought a Japanese spy movie, removed the voice track, and replaced it with one of his own. He doesn't seem to have bothered with the original script at all. Typical Joke: "Back off! My secret spy camera has taken pictures of you all through your clothes. Unless you release me, your naked photos will be sold in every school yard in Tokyo within the hour. Unless you are totally comfortable with your body, you must release me." Very funny, but also very unusual.

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Plot Keywords:

egg salad | spy | recipe | japanese girl | question in title | 

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Taglines:

He's not the world's greatest lover... but 8th place is not bad!

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Crime | Thriller

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA Japan

Language:

English Japanese

Release Date:

2 November 1966 (USA)

Also Known As:

Lily la tigresse

Filming Locations:

Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Benedict Pictures Corp., National Recording Studios, Toho Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min 76 min (DVD edition)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

After the movie was taken out of Woody Allen's hands, Allen noted that his own voice had been dubbed over in the closing credits.

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Goofs

When the Port of Yokohama is shown, the captions call it "Yokahama".

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Quotes

Shepherd Wong: [reviewing a lineup of girls in his harem, each elevated on pedestals and visible on camera from the waist down] Loin, flank, sirloin. Why, this is the best shipment of meat we've had this year!

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Crazy Credits

Woody Allen is laying on a couch eating an apple while a woman stripper is taking her black dress and undergarments off in front of him. Meanwhile the end credits scroll up on the right side of the screen. The credits say: The characters and events depicted in this photoplay are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental. And if you have been reading this instead of looking at the girl, then see your psychiatrist, or go to a good eye doctor (the credits now scroll faster and give and eye test): E 1 FP 2 TOZ 3 LPED 4 PECFD 5 EDFCZP 6 FELOPZD 7 DEFPOTEC 8 LEFODPCT 9 FSFPTFED 10 ????????? 11 By this time, the stripper is about to remove her underwear. Woody stops her and says, "I promised I'd put her in the film somewhere." (only his voice is dubbed) THE END (appears in the lower left)

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Connections

Referenced in Iron Fist Pillage (2001)

User Reviews

Tiger Lily Serves Up A Loving Spoonful of Some REALLY Good Egg Salad

A woman steps into the room wearing a towel. She and her lover gaze longingly at each other. "Name three presidents!" she says.

In the wake of his early successes as a writer, Allen obtained the rights to an extra-cheesy Japanese spy thriller, threw out the entire soundtrack, then wrote and dubbed in a new script. Mix in a "what has this got to do with anything?" soundtrack by the folk-rock 60s group The Lovin' Spoonful and a few new scenes, and the result is the infamous WHAT'S UP, TIGER LILY? And it is one of the most bizarre movies you're likely to see this lifetime, a film which has attained cult-movie status of the highest order.

The movie is uneven--but that is actually part of its charm. Where else can you see big-haired 60s mamas get down like psycho killers to the innocuous music of The Lovin' Spoonful? Or tacky special effects, inept hop-and-chop fighting, and ridiculously bad cinematography reworked into the story of a bunch of spies on the track of a recipe for the world's best egg salad? And some of the lines are a hoot and a half. My own favorite: "Bring plenty of dynamite. It's a big mother!" Hardcore Allen fans, who often approach him as if he were God, will probably be embarrassed by this movie. Allen himself is pretty embarrassed: he's been trying to live it down for years. But if you have a taste for the bizarre--not to mention some good, I mean REALLY good egg salad--TIGER LILY is the movie for you. Recommended to egg salad junkies, bad hop-and-chop movie watchers, and cult-film enthusiasts everywhere.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer