What’s Up Tiger Lily?
Kim is not a fan of Woody Allen. That is mostly a position she has taken due to his personal life choices, like marrying his wife’s adopted daughter, Soon-Yi. One might think she would get over it as Woody and Soon-Yi have now been married for over 30 years, but I guess once a child molester to her, always a child molester. I, on the other hand, always think of Woody based on his body of work as a filmmaker. I have loved those movies. I will admit that some of his films are self-indulgent to the extreme, but mostly they are just plain funny in a very New York cosmopolitan sort of way.
He first caught my eye in the late 60’s when he made his epic dubbed Japanese thriller called What’s Up Tiger Lily? That was part of his early triptych along side of What’s New Pussycat and Casino Royale. If Woody were a painter, we would say that those were his early year works. The ones that really hit home runs for me were the next series of Take The Money and Run, Bananas, Play It Again, Sam, Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex* But Were Afraid To Ask and Sleeper. To me, those are the classic Woody Allen movies. There are fun movies and bits of movies that he made since then, notably Annie Hall, Manhattan, New York Stories, Manhattan Murder Mystery and Mighty Aphrodite, that were his most mainstream and notable achievements. In total, Woody made 49 movies that he starred in, another 8 that he directed (including some of those) and another 27 again that he just wrote. That’s an impressive body of work for any filmmaker and it now spans 60 years (Woody is turning 90 next year).
When I ask myself what I like about Woody, its that he can have the quintessential self-deprecating sense of humor and yet still at the same time always get the most beautiful girl in the room. His greatest strength has also been his undoing in the eyes of a large segment of the population. His humor is distinctly New York humor and yet much of the country enjoys it right up until they don’t and he crosses a line. His politics are equally polarizing as he leans so far left as to be a borderline communist. He has made many a joke in his films that reinforce these views of his ideology.
I actually had the opportunity to meet Woody once. I know I could have gone to the Carlyle Hotel on a Monday and caught him playing clarinet and probably buttonholed him for an autograph or something, but that would have been cheating. I had an actual encounter with him. In early 1992, upon returning to NYC from a two-year stint in Toronto, I rented a triplex penthouse in Tudor City. It was a strange and quite wonderful place on the northeast corner of the building, overlooking the UN and the East River. The living room had 24 foot leaded windows on two sides and that gave a spectacular view. The second floor was the master suite and if one continued up the winding staircase, you got to a small office space and a door to the large terrace on the top floor. That terrace had a summer kitchen fashioned out of an old wooden radio shack that was landmarked because it had been used during WWII by the French Resistance as their radio shack to communicate with DeGaulle and others during the war. It was set amidst the gargoyles on this old gothic building. The other thing that was unique about the apartment was that it had been owned in the 1950’s by Charlton Heston. In those days it had no kitchen, just a butler’s pantry and a dumb waiter that brought food up from the restaurant on the first floor. So the place had a very special New York historical air to it and the visual interest that all that entailed, especially in the living room with its grand windows.
There were perhaps eight similar penthouses on my floor in that building, each one with some unique aspect or configuration. The one directly next to me on the northwest corner of the building was vacant when I moved in and remained so all during my two year residency except for once when it was rented out for several weeks as a film location for the filming of Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway. It’s a typical Woody comedy about a play that gets produced with mob money and all the antics that ensue. It was set in the era of high Art Deco in Manhattan and the penthouse next to mine had a strong Art Deco flair to it, so it was the perfect backdrop for some of the scenes with John Cusack, Jack Warden, Dianne Wiest and Jennifer Tilly. I was such a fan of Woody’s at the time that I wanted him to sign a book he had written. So, one day, when I knew they were shooting, I quietly knocked on the door and had the book in my hand. When the assistant opened the door I could see Woody standing in the room, looking over at me with the recognizable book in hand. I asked if he would be so kind as to sign it for me. He just looked away and the assistant said he would see what he could do. Later that day the book was in front of my door, unsigned. I guess it was too much of an Un-New-Yorkerly thing to do to ask the great man for his autograph
Woody is well past his prime now. He did write four new scripts over the past five years, but on IMDb he is no longer the Number 1 Woody. That honor now goes to Woody Harrelson, who may be the antithesis of Woody Allen. Woody Allen was born Allan Stewart Konigsberg, where Woody Harrelson was born Woodrow Tracy Harrelson, so one might suggest that one is a true Woody and the other a pseudo-Woody.
I have no idea why I started to write about Woody Allen this morning, other than that the What’s Up Tiger Lily title just popped into my head while brushing my teeth. Rather random, I would say. I will end with the shortest story I have written in a long time. I like Woody’s sense of humor and therefore I will always like Woody Allen the writer/director/actor. As a person, he’s no prince. What he did to Mia Farrow was certainly not his finest moment, but he seems to have stood by that decision these past 30 years, so in my world, all is forgiven. Go Woody.