What's Up, Tiger Lily was Woody Allen's directorial debut in 1966, although there is some debate about that. By Woody ALlen's own admission the film was taken out of his hands to the point that even the dubbing during the closing credits isn't even the director's voice as intended. American International Pictures bought the 1965 Japanese film "Key of Keys" for $66,000, and What's Up, Tiger Lily is that film re-dubbed with dialogue written by Woody Allen. The good news is, Woody Allen illustrates that even in his first (sort of) film his penchant for brilliant openings. Woody Allen plays himself in What's Up, Tiger Lily, not a version of himself or a character like him which ensured that I would at least like an aspect of the film. In its entirety, however, I can only recommend WHat's Up, Tiger Lily to extreme Woody Allen fans who are completionists, otherwise the film is largely insufferable.

Woody Allen to me has always been an interesting director who is witty and insightful, showing themes that are relatable to anybody and having characters that are neurotic but very compelling in how real they are. He and his films are not for everybody, some people don't like the neurotic approach he takes to his characters and he has been criticised for being self-indulgent. Of all his films, What's Up, Tiger Lily has a number of good things but it for me is one of Allen's weakest films with a sense that he was yet to properly find his voice(it was in Annie Hall when he found it). And it is one of his most polarising. There are things to like about What's Up, Tiger Lily. It is made very well, not audacious but skillful. The acting is more than serviceable and the voices while purposefully cartoony are really entertaining to listen to, particularly the snake-obsessed henchman. The soundtrack is also very catchy in a groovy way but the best thing about What's Up, Tiger Lily is the dialogue and the use of mismatched words, much of it is just hilarious as well as very quotable and has Allen's witty, acerbic style all over it. Not all the humour works, the egg salad part is just silly and some of the ahead-of-the-time jokes may seem in bad taste now(some are not going to take lightly to a few of the sex jokes. The film had such a great idea but it came off in a way that felt over-cooked and under-cooked, basically a one-joke idea that did run out of steam too early. The film starts off brilliantly and the dialogue is all great, the story though is paper thin and much of the pacing is dull and in serious need of a tightening up. Not helped by The Lovin' Spoonful music interludes, the music is really good but the interludes are just bizarre(done in a way that feels completely out of kilter with everything else), are not really all that interesting and just slow the film down considerably. They were put in without Allen's consent apparently and it shows. John Sebastian adds very little here and just seems out of place and somewhat annoying. In terms of direction in What's Up, Tiger Lily, Senkichi Taniguchi's is fine while Allen's is competent but with a sense that he was understandably(considering it's a debut) yet to find or refine his style. All in all, not a very easy film to rate or talk about, it does have a lot of laughs and shows some effort but it could have done much more with the concept it had and Allen has done far better. 5/10 Bethany Cox

What attracted me to "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" was seeing Woody Allen working in re-dubbing a foreign film making into a new one. This technique is familiar to me thankful to a 30 minute show who lasted for a short period on MTV and it was really something seeing a unknown film being dubbed for comical purposes and ridiculous scenarios. Allen makes of the "serious" Japanese film called "International Secret Police: Key of Keys" a funny but somewhat tedious and a times uninteresting film where the hero has to go to a lot of trouble to get an special egg salad recipe. Just like many spy flicks this one is very difficult to follow (there's a moment when Woody is asked by a host to explain the film to the viewers to which he replies "No" and the film goes on). This Bond adventure type has some hilarious funny sequences, some good dialogs ,a little bit of action and many histrionic moments where the characters keep making impersonations of Peter Lorre and other classic actors.Quotes like the one in this review title or things like "I'm dying, call my rabbi!" and many others are really funny but the movie doesn't know how to be more hysterical, more interesting. There some slow parts and some jokes that doesn't work nowadays. But Allen had a lot of comical touch to make it a nice film, pretty decent and that can make you laugh at least in one scene. Yeah, the plot is ridiculous but it works well, it's well handled. One of the greatest things "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" features is musical numbers by The Lovin' Spoonful which was included behind Allen's back when the studio felt a need to bump up the running time. Their appearance and the score was really cool, highly funny even though it doesn't have much connection with the plot or anything.Inventive, a little bit original for its time and even more effective than many cheap comedies of the past ten years, this is a good example of Woody Allen many talents as a writer and director and deserves to be seen at least once. Just don't expect the high flies of intellectualism of his future works and you'll find some fun in here. 7/10

In The Year of Our Lord 1963, the TV Animation Production Team of Jay Ward and Bill Scott entered the area of "live action" production, in a manner of speaking. The men, who had gotten well known in the animation field with associations names like UPA, or United Productions of America (Bill Scott) and "CRUSADER RABBIT" (Jay Ward 1950-57).What they did as a sort of departure from the Animated Cartoon was to bring us the most unusual type of film. As a television series that hit the airwaves via the route of Syndication, they gave us the most unusual FRACTURED FLICKERS (Jay Ward Productions, 1963). It was not an animated series, but as far as the humor and delivery of the dialogue, it may well still have been classified as a "cartoon" of sorts.What Messers Ward & Scott did was to take any number of Olde Time Silent Films, now conveniently existing in the limbo of Public Domain. Being in that classification, the films were out there and available to any and every one whom deemed it desirable to use them. Jay, Bill & Company did so, to the tune of a whole season's worth of ½ hour shows.And, just what was it that had done? If it is unfamiliar to you, let us elucidate.The gimmick was to take an existing Silent and to add a sound track to it. But this sound track would give a totally variant story. Using the same voice actors who had been used in the casts of such Ward & Scott collaborations such as ROCKY & FRIENDS (Syndicated,1959), THE BULLWINKLE SHOW (NBC, 1961-64) , HOPPITY HOOPER (ABC, 1964-67) and GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE (ABC, 1967-70). These were people like: Host & voice-Hans Conreid, Chris Allen, Bill Scott (the Co-creator/Producer), William Conrad (TV's Frank Cannon, Radio's Matt Dillon), Paul Frees (the Dean of Voices), June Foray, Walter Tetley (TV's Sherman, Radio's Leroy on Gildersleve Show), Daws Butler (Huckleberry Hound) and Beverly Scott.Quite simply, a silent film would not only give a sound track, but completely change the story. For example, the Douglas Fairbanks' starring vehicle, THE MARK OF ZORRO (United Artists, 1920) was transformed into THE BARBER OF STANWYCK, with the hero, 'Zeke Zackley' facing the hardships of being the only Barber in town. Lon Chaney in THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (Universal, 1924) became DINKY DUNSTON, BOY CHEERLEADER. (Got he picture? I knew you would!) So, American International Pictures Head Honcho, Henry Saperstein was the guy with the idea of doing a spoofing sound track on the Japanese Bond-type Spy film, KEY OF KEYS, to which he had purchased the rights. He gave the job of "Director" to film newcomer, Woody Allen, who also co-wrote.What we saw in the film that had been about international espionage and stolen micro-film; turned into the search and struggle for a recipe for Egg Salad! The spoofing extended to the characters' names as well. The hero's name was 'Phil Moskowitz, the two (Woo, woo, woo, woo!) Asian girls were named Terri Yaki and Suki Yaki. The 'Brains Heavy' was Sheppard Wong, with his lieutenant being Wing Fat.The names and especially the situations are hard to recollect; as all seemed to be so "off the wall" and non sequitor in their origins. That of course, is the key to this. Get as far-out of a storyline as a departure, making it absurd; and string the "story" along with plenty of verbal gags, often turning the visuals on the screen into un-intentioned sight gags! It seems that like so many other movies and acts in the films, no one has any middle ground to take. Much like The 3 Stooges, Jerry Lewis, Don Rickles and satirist Tom Lehrer; either you love their work or you can't stand the same. This seems to be the case for this early Woody Allen work; with some folks finding it to be below the dignity of the Director of the now considered 'High Brow' works as ANNIE HALL and MANHATTAN. The other end of that spectrum (including this writer) see it for what it is a whole lot of unpretentious fun and laughs.As a little concession to the American audiences, AIP sort of twisted Woody's arm to get some original scenes added. (And some said to be added later). These included the musical set with The Lovin' Spoonful playing at the dance scene. (That Band also was party to an almost amazing dub-job in that one featuring the bunch of guys riding on the launch, seemingly singing the Spoonful's song!) And sly old Woody sure knew how to keep a guy's attention in the closing credits, having Miss China Lee (Woo, woo, woo, woo!) doing a sort of striptease with the films waning final moments! If you like this WHAT'S UP, TIGER LILLY? or not, you really must give a kudo or two for Woody's effort to do something so different for a theatrically released Motion Picture. And beyond just its making, Mr. Allen really managed to keep fresh and interesting what a lesser comic and film maker would have allowed to "spoil on the vine" He kept going with what could be called the "one joke" story for 80 minutes. Even without the added musical, comedy and (Oowoogh!) China Lee* closing, Woody had a whole hour to sustain the laughs and maintain our interest.NOTE: * It is no secret that males everywhere really seem to find Oriental or Asian females to be among the most attractive of the species, Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Woody would most certainly agree on this point, and in this we heartily concur.