What's Up, Tiger Lily?

Rating:
Summary: A very novel Idea
Review: Woody Allen came up with, I believe, an original concept when he put together "What's up Tiger Lily?" back in 1966. He took a Japanese "B" movie and eliminated the soundtrack. This enabled him to dub in a completely new script which played on a lot of the scenes while creating an inane plot. I saw it at the movie theater when it came out and I thought it was hillarious. (As a young teenager, I also retained a somewhat vivid memory of the ending). I was watching some more recent works of Woody Allen recently and the movie came back to mind. I looked it up and ordered it through Amazon.com and thoroughly enjoyed it. I wasn't tempted to rate it a "5" because there were some stretches between laughs. However, in all fairness, Allen did have to put together some sort of a plot and follow the film he was spoofing. If it was all gags, it wouldn't have worked as well as it did. There were times I really cracked up laughing and I know I'll laugh again the next time I watch it. Maybe this concept has been copied since "What's up Tiger Lily?" but I guess once was enough for Woody Allen. This movie is one of the better ones from his early years as a writer/director. I certainly am glad I picked up again after all these years. I don't ever recall seeing it available on TV.

Rating:
Summary: A very novel Idea
Review: Woody Allen came up with, I believe, an original concept when he put together "What's up Tiger Lily?" back in 1966. He took a Japanese "B" movie and eliminated the soundtrack. This enabled him to dub in a completely new script which played on a lot of the scenes while creating an inane plot. I saw it at the movie theater when it came out and I thought it was hillarious. (As a young teenager, I also retained a somewhat vivid memory of the ending). I was watching some more recent works of Woody Allen recently and the movie came back to mind. I looked it up and ordered it through Amazon.com and thoroughly enjoyed it. I wasn't tempted to rate it a "5" because there were some stretches between laughs. However, in all fairness, Allen did have to put together some sort of a plot and follow the film he was spoofing. If it was all gags, it wouldn't have worked as well as it did. There were times I really cracked up laughing and I know I'll laugh again the next time I watch it. Maybe this concept has been copied since "What's up Tiger Lily?" but I guess once was enough for Woody Allen. This movie is one of the better ones from his early years as a writer/director. I certainly am glad I picked up again after all these years. I don't ever recall seeing it available on TV.

Rating:
Summary: Just Plain Funny
Review: Woody Allen's "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" is silly, sophomoric, and at times very funny. The overdubbed dialogue at times is silly (two guys in a fight shouting insults like "Spanish fly!" "Turkish taffy!") and at times quite clever (one pun involving equinne necrophilia takes a while to get). Great cinema, this is not: I once saw the film in a theater where the projectionist showed the reels out of order, and it didn't affect our enjoyment of the film in the slightest.
One side effect of seeing this movie, however, is that it's impossible to view any performance by Japanese actor Tatsuo Mihashi without cracking up: When I saw him play the courageous Japanese pilot in "Tora! Tora! Tora!", I continually expected him to start wisecracking about egg salad recipes.