This week sees the release of The Worst We Can Find, dealing with Mystery Science Theater 3000, RiffTrax, and the history of riffing at the movies. With the history element in mind, I spend some time in the book discussing earlier films and television shows that had new soundtracks redubbed for older films in order to turn them into comedies. Of course, you can't go down that rabbit hole without bringing up one of the best-remembered of these redubbed films, What's Up, Tiger Lilly?
This 1966 release was a case of a Hollywood producer named Henry Saperstein having negotiated a deal with Japanese studio Toho to release a number of their giant monster (aka kaiju) movies and help produce some others, including Godzilla vs. Mothra and Frankenstein Conquers the World. In setting up the distribution package, Saperstein also found himself the recipient of a series of spy movies done with Tatsuya Mihashi as secret agent Jiru Kitami. This posed a problem as the spy genre by 1966 was already over-saturated and the series had quickly become very comedic in nature, which didn't translate to American test audiences when Saperstein screened the fourth movies in the series, Key of Keys in a redubbed edition. Instead of excitement, the audience was bored by what was essentially a heist movie, laughing at the serious part, and confused by the comedy that didn't translate very well.
Instead of simply throwing it over to television distribution, Saperstein latched on to the idea of revisiting what worked for Fractured Flickers. That one-season television series from Jay Ward's production company had taken scenes from old movies and redubbed them with new narrative and dialogue to create funny shorts. Saperstein decided that it could be a good fit for Key of Keys and contacted comedian Lenny Bruce to write new dialogue. Bruce was interested until Saperstein made clear that the new dialogue had to be written for a family audience. When Bruce nixed the idea, Saperstein asked him, "Who's a clean you?" Bruce replied, "Woody Allen."
Woody Allen had started as a writer for television and advanced into working in stand-up to the point that he was appearing on various talk-shows and getting work in movies, with writing and co-starring work completed or soon-to-be-completed on What's New, Pussycat? and Casino Royale, while pressing the studios to give him a chance to direct (which he achieved in 1969 with the release of Take the Money and Run). Getting him on board would be a catch for Saperstein that would be easy to promote. Allen was reportedly offered $66,000 to redo the dialogue and he soon gathered a group of friends together in an New York hotel room to repeatedly watch the film and write a new script for what was being promoted in the newspapers as POW! (thus explaining the theme song, which was written before the movie got the title everyone remembers it by).
There have been an established story for many years that Allen completed work on the project with the understanding that it was to be a hour-long television special and nearly sued Saperstein when the producer took the material, added excerpts from a previous movie in the spy series, and songs from the popular band, The Loving Spoonful to make it feature length. However, a more recent interview with editor Richard Krown in 2021 (https://vantagepointinterviews.com/2021/09/14/godzillas-crowning-moment-upas-post-production-supervisor-richard-krown-on-americanizing-toho-classics/) clarifies that Allen was always part of the discussion in extending the material so that it could be released as a theatrical movie. This included the opening material from the previous film, as well as an interview segment segment with Allen explaining the concept of the movie, the Loving Spoonful segments, and a final bit where China Lee does a strip while Allen eats an apple as the credits roll (a bit that hardly would have been a good move for syndicated television in 1966). While there were talks of Allen possibly suing, it appears more to do with how Saperstein advertised the movie, not only tying it into Allen's earlier appearance by calling it What's Up, Tiger Lily?, but advertising it in posters and newspaper ads as Woody Allen's What's Up, Tiger Lily? Coming into the project as a voice-actor and writer, and at the same time still striving to get a deal to make his first "real" movie, the promotion left a bad taste in Allen's mouth. As it turned out, the movie did well enough that Allen was convinced pursing a lawsuit over how the film was promoted would not be a good image for his emerging film career. Still, the rumors lingered for years and Allen has rarely talked about the project since.
The movie would go on to become one that saw regular rotation on television, especially the independent television stations of the 1970s and 1980s, who needed cheap programming and found it in a movie connected to a very popular director of movies in those years. Because of this, many kids grew up watching What's Up, Tiger Lily? and it became the benchmark for how people would describe other attempts (such as J-Men Forever and The Return of Hercules) in the years to come. As would be the case of Mystery Science Theater 3000 when it finally moved to national television at The Comedy Channel.
But that's a story for the book, as is more details on What's Up, Tiger Lily? and other shows and movies mentioned above. If you want more info, don't forget to order a copy of The Worst We Can Find at a bookstore near you, and there are various eBook versions available if you want to check those out at your favorite online stores as well!
