What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)

Directors:

Woody Allen
Senkichi Taniguchi

Writers:

Woody Allen
Julie Bennett
(more)

Release Date:

2 November 1966 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

WOODY ALLEN STRIKES BACK!

Plot:

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.

Plot Keywords:

Egg Salad | Recipe | Prologue | Dancing | Reverse Footage

Cast

Tatsuya Mihashi	...	Phil Moscowitz (archive footage)
Akiko Wakabayashi	...	Suki Yaki (archive footage)
Mie Hama	...	Teri Yaki (archive footage)
John Sebastian	...	Himself (as The Lovin' Spoonful)
Tadao Nakamaru	...	Shepherd Wong (archive footage)
Susumu Kurobe	...	Wing Fat (archive footage)
Sachio Sakai	...	Hoodlum (archive footage) (as A No Star Cast)
Hideyo Amamoto	...	Cobra Man (archive footage)
Tetsu Nakamura	...	Foreign Minister (archive footage) (as A No Star Cast)
Osman Yusuf	...	Gambler (archive footage) (as A No Star Cast)
Woody Allen	...	Himself / Dub Voice / Projectionist
Zal Yanovsky	...	Himself (as The Lovin' Spoonful)
Joe Butler	...	Himself (as The Lovin' Spoonful)
Steve Boone	...	Himself (as The Lovin' Spoonful)
Frank Buxton	...	Dub Voice (voice)
Louise Lasser	...	Dubbed voice (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Len Maxwell	...	Dubbed Voice
Kumi Mizuno	...	Phil's Date (archive footage)
Mickey Rose	...	Voice
China Lee	...	Dancer in Credits (uncredited)

Directed by
Woody Allen
Senkichi Taniguchi

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Woody Allen
Julie Bennett
Frank Buxton
Louise Lasser
Len Maxwell
Mickey Rose
Bryan Wilson

Produced by
Woody Allen	....	associate producer

Original Music by
The Lovin' Spoonful

Cinematography by
Kazuo Yamada

Film Editing by
Richard Krown

Music Department
Jack Lewis	....	music editor
The Lovin' Spoonful	....	music performers
Fred Weinberg	....	music score engineer

Other crew
Phill Norman	....	titles

Production Companies

• Benedict Pictures Corp.
• National Recording Studios
• Toho Company

Distributors

• American International Pictures (AIP) (1966) (USA) (theatrical)
• Focus F. Dists Ltd. (1975) (USA) (theatrical)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2002) (Australia) (DVD)
• Image Entertainment (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Ascot Filmverleih (1981) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Astral Films (1966) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Anchor Bay Entertainment (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Manga Films (2006) (Spain) (DVD)
• Vestron Video (????) (USA) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Murakami-Wolf Productions  titles

Also Known As:

Runtime:

80 min | Spain:76 min (DVD edition)

Country:

USA | Japan

Language:

English | Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | France:U | USA:PG | UK:PG | Iceland:12 | Spain:13 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan

Company:

Benedict Pictures Corp.

Trivia:

This movie is Key of Keys (1965) (aka "Key of Keys") with new dialogue by Woody Allen dubbed in.

Goofs:

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

Quotes:

Shepherd Wong:That's too bad. I was going to marry her. I already put a deposit on twin cemetery plots.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Iron Fist Pillage (2001) (V)

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