04-03-2022, 12:07 PM
As a kid, I'd interpret movie titles quite literally. I'd stay up late at night to watch Night of the Iguana, and fifteen minutes into it I'd exclaim (quietly, so as not to wake my dad), "Where's the iguana!" shutting off the TV and going to bed in disgust. I liked nature movies, anything with animals, so of course when the movie Quicksand appeared, I stayed up for some thrilling jungle action (after all, Tarzan was always rescuing people from quicksand). What I got was Mickey Rooney committing some petty theft, and that leads him to a bigger one, and pretty soon he's in a whole lot of trouble. It was a morality tale, which I wasn't ready for. So it went with The Asphalt Jungle, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Mouse That Roared, To Kill a Mockingbird....
Which brings us to Black Lizard. These days I know better, so it didn't surprise me to learn that Black Lizard is actually a woman, a brilliant jewel thief. Pitted against her is the world's greatest detective.
This is a very comic-bookish tale, in which Black Lizard and the detective spend as much time admiring each other's brilliance as they do outwitting each other. It's the whole "mutual admiration" thing taken to an "enfatuation" level -- a perverse love where they're heavily dependent on each other's existence.
Who penned this tale? Well, it's based on a novel by Rampo Edogawa, which was then adapted to stage by Yukio Mishima, and finally scripted by Kaneto Shindo. Mishima is what interests me here, and I wonder what influence he might have had on the proceedings.
It's an odd movie. People break into song and dance at odd times. Black Lizard is so taken by her own cleverness that sometimes, in public, she struts about and strikes dramatic poses, to which bystanders eye her in bewilderment. Her goons will march lockstep into her office and spin about and speak or sing in unison.
High camp is this movie's friend. The more, the better. Unfortunately, it tails off in the late goings and starts taking itself a bit too seriously. Still, it makes a fine curio piece.
Black Lizard was remade in 1968. I doubt it's as weird. Still, I'm trying to track it down, because Mishima himself is in it. It's not a very big part. He plays a statue. But that's enough to pique my interest.
Here's the poster for that elusive film:
![[Image: bl001.png?w=1290&h=739&crop=1]](https://cinebeats.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/bl001.png?w=1290&h=739&crop=1)
Which brings us to Black Lizard. These days I know better, so it didn't surprise me to learn that Black Lizard is actually a woman, a brilliant jewel thief. Pitted against her is the world's greatest detective.
This is a very comic-bookish tale, in which Black Lizard and the detective spend as much time admiring each other's brilliance as they do outwitting each other. It's the whole "mutual admiration" thing taken to an "enfatuation" level -- a perverse love where they're heavily dependent on each other's existence.
Who penned this tale? Well, it's based on a novel by Rampo Edogawa, which was then adapted to stage by Yukio Mishima, and finally scripted by Kaneto Shindo. Mishima is what interests me here, and I wonder what influence he might have had on the proceedings.
It's an odd movie. People break into song and dance at odd times. Black Lizard is so taken by her own cleverness that sometimes, in public, she struts about and strikes dramatic poses, to which bystanders eye her in bewilderment. Her goons will march lockstep into her office and spin about and speak or sing in unison.
High camp is this movie's friend. The more, the better. Unfortunately, it tails off in the late goings and starts taking itself a bit too seriously. Still, it makes a fine curio piece.
Black Lizard was remade in 1968. I doubt it's as weird. Still, I'm trying to track it down, because Mishima himself is in it. It's not a very big part. He plays a statue. But that's enough to pique my interest.
Here's the poster for that elusive film:
