Sightlines · reception
How The Night of the Iguana was received
1964 · John Huston · The Night of the Iguana on Sightlines
The arc
A prestige hit in 1964 — four Oscar nominations, with the set gossip drawing as much press as the film — it's since settled into 'underrated' status, often overshadowed by starrier Tennessee Williams adaptations like Streetcar and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof but regularly rediscovered as late-period Huston at his loosest and warmest.
What’s debated
The perennial cinephile gripe: Ava Gardner gives one of the great unrewarded performances of the '60s — how did she not even get an Oscar nomination?
Its footprint
The film's biggest cultural legacy is geographic: the shoot — with Elizabeth Taylor tagging along mid-affair with Richard Burton and paparazzi swarming the set — famously put sleepy Puerto Vallarta on the map and turned it into a tourist destination that still trades on the connection.
Where it stands
A beloved-but-under-seen entry in both the Huston and Tennessee Williams canons — the one film fans hand you when you say you've already seen Streetcar.
Did you know? Anticipating fireworks from his combustible cast, John Huston gave gold-plated derringers — each with bullets engraved with the names of the other principals — to Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, Sue Lyon and producer Ray Stark before shooting began.