Blue Iguana

I don't know why Leonard Maltin's Move Guide gives this one a bomb. It's a quite amusing life-is-cheap movie that affords some of our favorite character actors (James Russo, Jessica Harper, Dean Stockwell, Tovah Feldshuh) the chance to chew some very fine jungle scenery. McDermott spends the whole movie with only one expression on his face (a smirk, I believe it's called) that could stand for the attitude the whole movie adopts towards what goes on therein. Maybe that's what p***ed Maltin off, but I liked it.

Harper, in particular, makes perhaps the best female crime boss since the '70s heyday of the "Mama" subgenre (Winters in Bloody Mama, Dickinson in Big Bad Mama I and II, Leachman in Crazy Mama). Stockwell's neckbrace-and-Coke-bottle-glasses-wearing, Q-tip swabbing secret agent is mighty funny too. Very enjoyable.

My review was written in February 1988 after watching the film in a Columbus Circle screening room.

"The Blue Iguana" is a likable problem child: a hip, modern film noir thatg is too wacky and too specialized in its situations to attract general audiences. Add problematic casting of the central roles and you have an iffy theatrical entry destined for cult status in future.

Title, conjuring up noir goodies "The Blue Dahlia" and "The Blue Gardenia" (and also, alas, Paramount's laughable brat noir "Blue City"), refers to a cafe in the rough south-of-the-border town of El Diablo, operate by tough young Pamela Gidley. With Ethan James' right-on brassy musical score and cars and costumes out tf the 1950s, pic at the outset suggests a hip spoofing of Orson Welles' stylish 1958 "Touch of Evil".

Ultimately pic takes on elements of a Spaghetti Western, especially the revisionist model (replete with 1950s Buicks everywhere) of Alex Cox' "Straight to Hell". Dylan McDermott portrays a private dick coerced into a suicide mission to El Diablo by goofball IRS agens (Tovah Feldshuh and Dean Stockwell) to recover money laundered at the local bank. Jessica Harper, with slicked-back hair, runs the bank, assisted by her chief goon James Russo.

Well-staged action scenes punctuate the tongue-in-cheek proceedings, in which McDermott ultimately resorts to plot manipulations familiar from "A Fistful of Dollars" out of "Yojimbo".

Pic's rogue gallery of eccentric players is a delight: Feldshuh as butch as they come; Harper camping it up Eva Peron-style; Russo out of control hobbling around like Richard III; Stockwell in thick glasses and neck brace; Flea as a hambone geek in the Elisha Cook slot; and Michele Siepp as punk-styled bartender Zoe.

Unfortunately, the lead players are colorless; McDermott too young and bland to carry a picture designed for a young Robert Mitchum, and Pamela Gidley way too young and low-key to be the tough-as-nails cafe owner.

Tech credits are impressive.

this movie is a great moment of fun if you're willing to accept anything happening on screen as believable (which is though, I must admit it). Stockwell is as great as always and Dylan McDermott really seems to enjoy his character. Plus the too often underrated Pamela Gidley and a bunch of actors who sometimes look undirected but having fun themselves, Blue Iguana will never make it to the "greatest movies of all time" list but is will make you have a good moment, which seems to be his goal.

When this movie came out in the theaters in 1988, I won a free ticket from the local radio station. I got to take 3 friends and we ended up walking out about 20 minutes into the movie... It was really bad! It all started with some guy showing up at a hotel, The Blue Iguana. Can't exactly say what was wrong with it, but it was just all-around terrible.

Many years later it was playing on HBO. I turned it on, watched 5 minutes, then turned the channel. It is still bad all these years later! Please don't waste your time watching this movie! I am glad that a few of the people in the movie went on to successful careers, I bet they hope this movie remains unknown...

This is one of those movies that you see, have no expectations for, and it makes you bust a gut. I had the same reaction to Strange Brew when I first saw it. I love the steamy south-of-the-border feel, the noir farce, and the over-the-top characters. This is the kind of movie, if it had had a wider audience, that could have a cult following.