Possibly getting his cue from television's Fractured Flickers, where Hans Conreid mocked silent pictures with silly voices and added verbal jokes, Allen and a group of friends/conspirators turned a movie that was obviously already a comedy, into a very progressive farce with an anarchic streak of humor well-appreciated by fans of Mad Magazine and Rocky and Bullwinkle. The jokes fly fast and loose here, from the basic concept of giving the Japanese cast various New York accents, to the grab-bag, anything-goes willingness to try any gag that fits, whether silly, off-color, demeaning to minorities, you name it. The list of writers doubles for the voice artists, and one can imagine Allen's round-table improvisatory blitz to come up with off-the-wall ideas to fit the moment. It's really the kind of 'standup comedians versus movie' thing that later became standard fare with The Firesign Theater's J-Men Forever, Mystery Science Theater 3000, and those groups that go to midnight shows to perform live redubs of pictures like The Hideous Sun Demon.

The jokes, of course, range from awful to fall-down funny. Naturally, sitting by oneself in front of a DVD doesn't have the effect of a theater full of laughing people, which is how I experienced What's Up, Tiger Lily? on more than one occasion. When cornered by a seductress wearing only a bath towel (Kumi Mizumo), Phil is asked to "Name three Presidents." A cabdriver, snarling in Woody Allen's voice, radios his dispatcher: 'I've got a fare here who wants to be abducted!" And there's a brilliant bit where a diplomat explains that he's got the entire population of a nation-to-be packed in crates, waiting for a spot to open up on the map. Thugs talk in idiot voices, Peter Lorre imitations, and anything else that sounds incongruous; the two femme leads (the same pair of Toho beauties from You Only Live Twice) pause to ask each other idiotic sexist questions, like, "Are you wearing a girdle?"

Allen gets to indulge his two favorite subjects, sex and foreign movies. Little animatged censorship stars flit over the bared breasts of a cabaret dancer, and Phil's date, left behind when he abets a prison escape, shouts after his car, "Hey, you've got my vibrator!" Suki describes herself as "a great piece" at one point, and Phil invites a girl up to his room with an offer to show her his "collection of off-color Italian hand gestures."

For film references, Allen has his gas-masked safecrackers suddenly stop to do movie star impressions, and the director's egotistic walk-through is noted at one point. During a tense moment, Allen interrupts the movie with a false projector breakdown, and does the Tex Avery struggle-to-get-the-hair-out-of-the-gate gag.

The level of humor is so sophomoric, it's pointless to take offense at the blatant ethnic jokes. The whole concept makes fun of Japanese movies and their dubbing into English, but the noses that turns up at the idea of Charlie Chan aren't going to be pleased with jokes that make fun of Japanese pronunciation: the three Presidents turn out to be "Washington, Jefferson, and Winkon". The two baddies ask Jewish-comic questions about who's Japanese and who's Chinese. When a masked prison escapee turns out to be sexy Akiko Wakabayashi, the hero looks her straight in the face and exclaims in surprise, "An Oriental!"

The original film appears to have been a fairly silly, light spy spoof with lame gags and humor that wouldn't translate well to the U.S. It would complicate the P.C. lobby too much to realize that the Asian sensibilities they're protecting, considered this sexist, racist film just fine - and it has Japanese actors playing demeaning Chinese and Indo-Chinese stereotypes.

Allen's crack comedy writing/voiceover team includes Louise Lasser, frequently associated with Allen films as well as TV's Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, And Mickey Rose, Allen's co-writer on his early comedies. Julie Bennett, Frank Buxton and Len Maxwell have lengthy credit sheets as voice talent for 60s cartoons.

Allen reserves the final joke for himself, lying on a sofa watching stripper China Lee undress over some faux end credits. These suggest the existence of an 'uncut scene' extra which unfortunately is not included!

Image's DVD of What's Up, Tiger Lily? is almost perfect. Until a few years ago, this title only seemed to exist on bad, grainy pan'n scan 16mm, which is how we showed it in the dorms at UCLA. The picture and sound are very good, with the caveat that some of the compression here and there is slightly inadequate, producing some softness and occasional minor breakup. But overall, it looks fine - even dark scenes.

Video Watchdog noted a few years back that some tv versions of the film had different jokes and dubbing inserted here and there. An extra on the disc is the inclusion of the second alternate track that has these differences, plus a comparison feature that highlights three-score or so instances of dubbing replacement. There's no overall explanation for any of the changes that I could find, which leaves us grateful for the original track but wondering why things were changed in the first place. Any analysis of the pattern will be appreciated. One thing that stuck out for me is Woody Allen's last line, delivered as he interrupts China Lee's sexy strip to say, "I promised her a part in the picture." In both versions, it appears to be spoken by someone else, when I distinctly remember it being said by Woody. That's how it goes, I guess.

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, What's Up, Tiger Lily? rates:
Movie: Very Good
Video: Very Good
Sound: Good
Supplements: 2nd audio track, audio versions comparison
Packaging: Keep case
Reviewed: July 11, 2003