User Reviews

It's almost necessary to watch this with a friend or two. You'll need to make sure your friends are familiar with movie conventions of the mid-sixties. If they aren't, they might not laugh. If they are, you'll probably laugh at the same time and have fun. To be brief, WHAT'S UP, TIGER LILY is a Japanese detective movie made in 1964 and dubbed into English two years later for comic effect. The perpetrators are Woody Allen, Louise Lasser and a few others. In an unusual move, Woody Allen sets up the joke at the beginning, explaining on camera that's he's removed the soundtrack to the original, rewritten the dialogue and made it a comedy. What makes WHAT'S UP, TIGER LILY above-average, other than the fact that people don't just dub entire movies with gag-dialogue having nothing to do with the plot, is that it takes the humor which clearly already exists in the original and twists it. Although the original is foreign, it is very similar to any number of American or British detective movies of the time, such as OUR MAN FLINT or THE LADY IN CEMENT. Anybody who went to a double-feature in 1966 had sat through such a movie. The dubbed dialogue is not entirely removed from what is clearly the intent of the original dialogue. There are funny visuals in this movie. Woody Allen's dialogue spins on the visuals and makes fun of them up to a point, but it is, actually, a pretty good movie in the first place. It's not as if Allen took a bad movie and ridiculed it. The visuals are entertaining in themselves. Allen's plot involves a search for the world's greatest recipe for chicken soup. Every time the characters think they've found the recipe, we see them inspecting strips of microfilm. Obviously, the original involves a search for microfilm. So, the plot is obvious. Our maverick detective will track down the bad guys and win. Why not eliminate the original dialogue and treat us to a feature-film's worth of one-liners? If you like GET SMART, you'll probably like this movie. If you don't like GET SMART, you probably won't like it. But if you can't see why Allen bothered with this, you'll need to ask yourself why so many movies in the late sixties spoofed the spy genre. Woody Allen didn't operate in a vacuum here. A note on the recent altering of Woody Allen's dialogue: I have WHAT'S UP TIGER LILY on a DVD released by IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT. It contains both the soundtrack Woody Allen did for the 1966 release and what the packaging calls the "television audio" track. Very condsiderately, IMAGE provides an option for comparing the dialogue where Woody Allen's dialogue has been replaced by the dialogue of whomever has RE-RE-dubbed it for TV. I've compared some of them and am saddened to think that Allen's humor has been forcibly blunted for current broadcast. But IMAGE does let us hear the difference, and that's more than TV audiences may be getting. If you see this on TV and think the dialogue is strangely tepid, try the DVD. You'll be able to hear what Woody Allen intended. (I have to qualify this, though, because he seems to have had to put up with a certain amount of studio interference in 1966.) Finally, I'll say that you'll probably recognize a few of the actors in this movie. Two of the women appeared in a James Bond movie, and the main actor, Tatsuya Mihashi, who died only last year (in 2004) appeared in several prestigious films. Therefore, Woody Allen isn't trouncing on helpless fools here.

What's Up, Tiger Lily? was Woody Allen's directorial debut. Kind of.

Bear with me on this one, the film is basically the Toho movie Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kayaku no taru (Key of Keys) from 1964 with a comedy dub over it. And by comedy dub I mean totally over the top silly stuff, yet somehow someway it works.

I don't like Woody Allen, I find his movies boring and pretentious but this was an unexpected surprise and nothing like I've seen from him before (Probably because it's not technically one of his movies).

It takes a lot to get me laughing out loud especially in hysterics but What's Up, Tiger Lily? managed it several times. Sure a lot of it is really silly and makes you wonder quite what in the blue hell you're watching but when it's funny it's very very funny.

I found myself unleashing with a hearty belly laugh multiple times throughout the film and I honestly can't remember the last time a film managed that. Sure the really funny moments aren't exactly frequent but when they arrive you know about it.

If you like low brow humor, like really really low brow humor you might get a kick out of this.

The Good:

Some real belly laughs

A very novel idea

The Bad:

Stupid musical interludes

Some stuff just too silly to be funny

The "Hand" scene

Woody Allen gives a Japanese-directed James Bond-styled actioner a new soundtrack, including different dialogue telling a new story. Allen's changes turn the film into a spy versus spy quest for the recipe of the world's best egg salad.

I'm a huge Woody Allen fan. The idea behind this film is promising and the basic premise of Allen's story, grafted on to a pre-existing film, International Secret Police: Key of Keys (Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi), from 1965, by Senkichi Taniguchi, is funny, if silly. However, this is one of the very few Allen films that just doesn't work for me. The Taniguchi film seems chopped up to a point of incoherence (maybe it's presented here in its entirety and in the same order, but that would mean that its running time is around 60 minutes or less), although that could be a factor of the changed dialogue. I found myself wishing there was an alternate soundtrack that was a legitimate dubbing of the original film.

Although there are a few very funny scenes, one-liners and ideas in Allen's new story, most of it isn't very funny. Too many scenes seem like they may be serious translations of the Japanese dialogue. There are too many occurrences of silly vocal noises, but not enough to make that a motif so that it's funny. There are too many long sections where the film is mostly boring. The untranslated beginning goes on far too long. The mini-interview with Allen that explains the film's premise would only be funny if it weren't true. The Lovin' Spoonful scenes aren't funny, and perhaps weren't intended to be--they seem like a studio attempt to try to put more butts in theater seats upon the film's release by featuring a popular rock group. It doesn't seem like Allen spent much time on this—the dialogue seems largely improvised and mostly disjointed. In short, the film is basically a mess, and only worth viewing for Woody Allen completist, and men with a serious Asian woman fetish (it's also worth noting that Taniguchi seems to share a foot fetish).

What would have worked better, and probably would have made the film much funnier, is if Allen would have written and directed both the film that we're seeing visually and a completely different story for the soundtrack. Much more time would have to be spent crafting each component to make them seem unrelated but coherent and funny. That's an experiment that remains to be done, to my knowledge.

There are enough positive aspects that the film doesn't deserve a 1--as I noted, there are times that What's Up, Tiger Lily is funny--but the best I can do is a 5 out of 10.

It's rather too late for YOU, the reader, but "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" is best seen cold, when you know NOTHING about it AT ALL. So the only thing I will say is that years and years ago a friend of mine saw it the theater and laughed constantly ALL the way through it. When the movie was over he had to be taken to the hospital because he kept on laughing and nothing could make him stop. True story.

i hadn't seen this in years and just discovered that it came out on DVD...this movie is rip roaring funny! Everything from the script, the names,the jokes are dead on. If you like the kind of humor represented in the Pink Panther movies or MST3K then this is probably up your alley.

Phil Moscowitz, lovable rogue is on a mission to save the secret egg salad recipe from the nefarious Shepherd Wong...hilarity ensues.

Sure the movie is immature and ridiculous, the original is terrible but Woody Allen manages to polish this turd and turn it into something that will definitely get you laughing, unless you have no sense of humor, in which case nothing can help you.

What attracted me to "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" was seeing Woody Allen working in re-dubbing a foreign film making into a new one. This technique is familiar to me thankful to a 30 minute show who lasted for a short period on MTV and it was really something seeing a unknown film being dubbed for comical purposes and ridiculous scenarios.

Allen makes of the "serious" Japanese film called "International Secret Police: Key of Keys" a funny but somewhat tedious and a times uninteresting film where the hero has to go to a lot of trouble to get an special egg salad recipe. Just like many spy flicks this one is very difficult to follow (there's a moment when Woody is asked by a host to explain the film to the viewers to which he replies "No" and the film goes on). This Bond adventure type has some hilarious funny sequences, some good dialogs ,a little bit of action and many histrionic moments where the characters keep making impersonations of Peter Lorre and other classic actors.

Quotes like the one in this review title or things like "I'm dying, call my rabbi!" and many others are really funny but the movie doesn't know how to be more hysterical, more interesting. There some slow parts and some jokes that doesn't work nowadays. But Allen had a lot of comical touch to make it a nice film, pretty decent and that can make you laugh at least in one scene. Yeah, the plot is ridiculous but it works well, it's well handled.

One of the greatest things "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" features is musical numbers by The Lovin' Spoonful which was included behind Allen's back when the studio felt a need to bump up the running time. Their appearance and the score was really cool, highly funny even though it doesn't have much connection with the plot or anything.

Inventive, a little bit original for its time and even more effective than many cheap comedies of the past ten years, this is a good example of Woody Allen many talents as a writer and director and deserves to be seen at least once. Just don't expect the high flies of intellectualism of his future works and you'll find some fun in here. 7/10

Back during the Colorization Wars of the 1980s, Woody Allen was uncharacteristically public about defending the history and artistry of his craft against those who were eager to take old black & white classics and turn them into digitized coloring books. Chief among the foes of the cinematic art were Ted Turner, who had used his power as a media mogul to buy up control of a huge backlog of films by MGM, RKO, Warner Bros. and other studios as fodder for his cable TV channels. Whether as philistine or shrewd capitalist, Turner hoped to prolong the money-making life of old movies by making them look vaguely newer through color. Of this, Woody said, "To change someone's work without any regard to his wishes shows a total contempt for film, for the director and for the public." To which Ted replied "WHAT'S UP, TIGER LILY?" It was not a question.

And unfortunately, Ted had a point.

Once upon a time, WHAT'S UP, TIGER LILY? was a 1965 Japanese spy movie called KOKUSAI HIMITSU KEISATSU: KAGI NO KAGI (a.k.a., INTERNATIONAL SECRET POLICE: KEY OF KEYS). The low rent U.S. studio, American International Pictures, bought the rights to the film and, apparently realizing they had a hibachi-cooked turkey on its hands, they decided to try to salvage the project by turning it into a comedy. Fresh from his experience as writer and actor in WHAT'S NEW, PUSSYCAT, Woody was offered the opportunity to try directing -- well, re-directing -- by re-writing, re-editing and re-dubbing KEY OF KEYS into TIGER LILY? And the film's James Bond-style story about missing microfilm became a wise-cracking farce about the search for the perfect egg salad recipe.

It may never be known if KEY OF KEYS was/is a good film, but it is apparent that for all of his efforts, Woody couldn't save it for American audiences. Rearranging the scenes and putting smart alec remarks and inane non sequiturs into the unsuspecting mouths of the actors must have been fun and maybe even an educational experience for the neophyte filmmaker. The result it like a 3-D MAD Magazine satire or a trial run for the type of comedy that would make its breakthrough with AIRPLANE! and THE NAKED GUN. But in the end, TIGER LILY isn't all that funny, or at least not consistently funny. For every good chuckle there are a dozen lead balloons and too much of the dialogue is used to explain the convoluted plot. If appearances are anything, the reconstruction of the film was a rush job and it all was done on the cheap.

So the interesting thing about TIGER LILY is not its value as art or entertainment, but the ethics behind it. You can't blame Woody for taking on the project; it must have been a challenge and it was certainly an opportunity to move his career into a new direction. But, as the Ted Turner situation would make apparent, TIGER LILY is not the film that the makers of KEY OF KEYS had envisioned. That is not to say that in its original Japanese form, the film was a CITIZEN KANE or a MALTESE FALCON or even a MANHATTAN, but whatever it was, Allen greatly altered the way it would be experienced by most of the world. Of course, Woody never claimed that his version of the film was meant to replace or even compete with the original, but just the same he negated another director's work.

If anything TIGER LILY is a lesson in both the plastic and the fragile nature of film as an art. Whether with mischief or malice, a little imagination can alter not just the tone of a film but its message and its vision. And as the BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN parodies that made their way to Youtube.com proved, you don't even have to be a professional to become a re-director.

A further irony: AIP found Woody's cut of the film too short for theatrical release and they again reedited it to add some more footage and a few faux music videos by The Loving Spoonful. You can even tell in the final cameo that he makes at the end of the film that Woody's own voice has been redubbed by someone else. This angered Allen, who felt his work had been violated, and it motivated his drive to become a director who protects his work from unwanted tampering. But one wonders if Senkichi Taniguchi, the director of KEY OF KEYS ever saw WHAT'S UP, TIGER LILY? --and whether or not he ever forgave Woody for what he did to it.

Provided you LOVE the single joke in this movie, you'll probably enjoy the film. That's because Woody Allen took an old Japanese spy film and re-dubbed it with hilarious(?) new dialog. And that's the fundamental problem of the movie--if you LIKE the joke, you're in luck and if not, you'll be bored half to death. I must admit, though, that although I tried to sit through all the movie TWICE, I kept turning it off after a while because I just didn't think it was funny. Please understand, I was NOT offended by the material--I just didn't think it was cute or funny--just tedious. It's pretty bad when the original plot has been completely changed--now spies are killing each other in search of a secret recipe for egg salad. Ha, ha,...this is killing me. Well, maybe not literally--but I sure WANTED to die rather than sit and listen to jokes that made Get Smart seem sophisticated and witty. If you want a funnier film, watch just about anything--even a test pattern on late night TV!

When I was in high school (early 70s), this was a cult favorite. But of course, when it would occasionally show up on late-night TV, it would be severely chopped. Nevertheless, there were some jokes that always made me laugh:

1) Detective grabs his head in pain and says, "Oh, my leg!" 2) Crazy Peter Lorre-voiced guy "marries" his chicken to a cobra. Passerby covers face with hankie and says, "I always cry at weddings." 3) Scene in tower where the director and his wife make their mandatory walk-on appearance.

When it showed up uncut on cable recently, I looked forward to renewing my acquaintance with a big laugh-fest, but was disappointed. The jokes I remembered were there...but not much else to bust a gut about. There are long stretches where nothing much funny happens, because Woody's hands were tied by the footage he was given. Another drawback of the process is that Woody can't program in any sight gags, which are such an important part of his later films. So we're left with some weak verbal humor and lots of dead spots (frequently involving John Sebastian and friends).

We have to remind ourselves that at the time this was released, Woody was primarily known as a stand-up comedian (3 successful LPs), and as a writer for TV and print. He was not a filmmaker yet. He merely tried to bring his brand of stand-up to the Japanese spy movie he was given. For the time, I suppose this would have been a little racy and the humor was different than what you'd find on TV. But it hasn't worn well over the 40 years since its release. I'd rather watch Jay Ward's FRACTURED FLICKERS show, which was a definitive masterpiece of old movie parody.

To me, the weirdest thing of all is to see Woody speak during the closing credits but hear someone else's voice. That says a lot about how well the producers thought America knew Woody.

Although I enjoyed Woody's early films in high school and college, if I had to choose an era of his career to focus on, I'd start with Zelig (1983) and go through Radio Days (1987). I don't think "What's Up Tiger Lily" would even make my top 20 list.

I have noticed several posts here about how people had seen this movie years ago and thought it was hysterical, but then have recently seen it on TV and wondered why they thought so back then. The answer is that you are probably watching a different version.

Although I am sure someone more in tune with the background of this movie can explain it in more precise and detailed terms, the version being shown on networks like TCM has been re-written, re-dubbed and is a lot less funny than the original. I have a copy from a 1982 video tape and that original version is great. I saw the TCM broadcast version and couldn't believe how badly the jokes were changed and how unfunny this film now is, most likely in the name of political correctness. I can certainly understand anyone being dissatisfied with the film as it is now. However, if you can, find an old video of this classic and watch it the way it was meant to be seen.

What’s up Tiger Lily: 7 out of 10: Long before Airplane or Mystery Science Theater 3000 or even my own mix-up of an uncut bootleg of Chōjin densetsu Urotsukidōji and Led Zeppelin II (Blows Pink Floyd and the Wizard of OZ out of the water.) there was What’s Up Tiger Lily.

A very young Woody Allen acquired the rights of a Japanese James Bond knockoff called Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi (Literal English title International Secret Police: Key of Keys) and dubbed in his own dialogue.

The film starts with some non-dubbed footage involving bondage, a shootout, and a circular saw. Then Woody appears with an interviewer what he has done with the film. The film then restarts Woody’s dubbing in place and with the exception of two short interruptions by Woody (both very funny) It is the Japanese import with a new script and story.

The dub itself is quite funny and well done. One can definitely see the roots of some of Woody Allen’s comic themes in this work. The overall story of the world’s greatest egg salad recipe is quite well done and the voice work is applicable and fits the on screen characters well.

What’s Up Tiger Lily benefits from good source material to work with. Longtime fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 know that even the best riffing can suffer from deadly boring source material. (Red Zone Cuba for example). What’s Up Tiger Lily’s source material is colorful, action packed, and has a very attractive cast. In fact I would love to see the original source material.

On the down side, since the film is dubbed, when the movie has no dialogue the experience can drag. Unlike an Airplane or a Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffing session, What’s Up Tiger Lily isn’t a 10 jokes a minute affair. Even more detrimental the Lovin Spoonful show up periodically to present an unrelated music video. This both dates the effort horribly and kills the flow of the humor.

What’s Up Tiger Lily is a must see for fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and of Woody Allen’s early comedy. (And fans of the Lovin Spoonful I guess).

One should pay respect to ones elders and it is a very fun time.

Allens first film as writer and director. He took a serious Japanese spy film, threw out all the dialogue, wrote his own and had the lines dubbed in.

I saw this on TV when I was a teenager, back in the late 1970s, and found it hysterical. Seeing it now I can't figure out WHY I found this funny. There are some good lines and some of the voices are actually pretty funny, but it wears quite thin after about 30 minutes. And some of the lines that don't work or are unfunny are just unbelievably bad. The humor is pretty childish and the non-stop sex jokes (all about women of course) got on my nerves. I do realize Allen likes Asian women but did we really need the strip tease at the end? (It's tame but really not needed). And the musical interludes with the Lovin' Spoonful were pointless--but, in all fairness, they were added without Woody Allen's knowledge and he was furious. It is of interest to note that one of the voices is from Louise Lasser who was briefly married to Allen.

Unfunny, boring, sexist---a real disappointment. I'm giving it a 5 for some of the jokes--and I'm being VERY generous!

If you like *Mystery Science Theater 3000,* chances are you'll get a kick out of this mildly amusing Woody Allen farce. Although the concept is ingenious (22 years before the misadventures of the Satellite of Love), the jokes are not as funny as they could or should be, and there is far too much emphasis on Allen's sexual hang-ups. There are a lot of scenes that could have been hysterical, but which turn out to be uncomfortably unamusing. Still, for its campiness and originality, you should try to catch this film sometime.

After watching this film it is easy to see the influence this type of film had on other filmmakers like Zucker brothers and their Kentucky Fried Movie and Airplane.

Unfortunately the best version of this film is the original which can't be found on video anymore. For some unknown reason some of these distributors like to monkey around with the films and change the dialogue. Check the "alternative version" link for this film to see what I mean. Not that the changes were monumental, but the small changes replaced a chuckle with a "duh".

I don't really care for Woody Allen or most of his films, but this film is very funny. If you enjoy comedy like Airplane, Kentucky Fried Movie, Naked Gun, etc, then you'll enjoy this film.

This is the sort of thing you can do once, and then no more. Woody Allen took a cheap Japanese knock-off of the James Bond genre, and replaced the entire sound track with a series of Allen-esque gags. Allen holds nothing back. If he thinks one of the actresses is a great piece, he has her say, "I'm a great piece." Allen's trashing of this Japanese turkey is so contemptuously thorough that the very concept becomes hilarious after a while. It won't be to everyone's taste, but it's definitely worth a rent.

MASTER PLAN: must get recipe for egg salad. The premise is simple enough: take a standard movie thriller from Japan and remove the original sound track. Then, dub in your own wacky dialog. This ends up as the most unusual parody of the James Bond-type spy action of the sixties, with Japanese actors of the time voicing silly, inane sentences, usually in an overly silly style. One sinister henchman, for example, speaks in the style of a bad Peter Lorre imitation, way over-the-top. The whole thing is hit-or-miss: if you're really into awful Lorre imitations, you'll probably be giggling; if not, you'll just find that aspect, well, kind of stupid & tiring. A lot of the intended humor stems from just listening to some weird, juvenile guttural sounds or snickering seeming to emanate from the actors on screen; of course, that's the illusion: the actors you see had nothing to do with all the strange noises you hear. So, the main question is how clever was Woody Allen and his 'staff' of voice actors in adding on their interpretations of what passes for funny? It was hit-or-miss, about 50/50. There's also the problem of all those insertions of The Lovin' Spoonful singing for no reason except to fill up time. That doesn't do much for the pace of the film.

The film begins with a standard action scene from the original Japanese film and it's not that bad, involving a flame thrower and then a 'lady-in-peril' scene, with some exciting fights. It actually looks like the conclusion of the film. We suddenly switch to Woody Allen, seated in a nice office with an interviewer, as he explains his vision of re-authoring a film. Allen's one big scene is pretty amusing and he pops up briefly later, as well as at the conclusion. The movie itself doesn't make much sense and is hard to follow. The hero, some kind of agent, encounters femme fatales and various villains, all in the pursuit of a code describing the ultimate egg salad recipe. The hero gets into some fights, always yelling stuff like "Saracen Pig!' and 'Spartan Dog!' It may sound funnier than it actually is. He's also good at pulling carpets out from under the feet of bad guys, which may have been funny in the original film, as well. Many of the more clever bits involve the dialog of the villains, who put a very strange spin on some of the threats they make, such as a special camera that takes pictures which removes the clothes from the subjects. The ending has some genuine thrills. The main connection to the Bond films, however, is that two of the actresses here also appeared in "You Only Live Twice" a couple of years later. Hero:6 Villains:7 Femme Fatales:6 Henchmen:5 Fights:7 Stunts/Chases:5 Gadgets:3 Auto:4 Locations:7 Pace:6 overall:6

What drivel! Lame jokes, and I do mean lame. Pitiful choreographing job with the "karate" sequences. Not to mention that incredibly stupid knife fight on the balcony. What was the purpose of this film anyway, to show the talents of the Lovin'Spoonful? That was the only good part I saw, and they didn't even do "Do You Believe in Magic?" Probably because it hadn't been written yet, but that is a different story. This picture was a lame duck turkey that went above and beyond the call of boredom. Avoid it at all costs; even if it means divorcing your wife or selling your kids into slavery. Gadzooks!!

It's not "Manhattan", it's not "Sleeper" and it's not "Small Time Crooks" but it's funny, it's wacky in that 60's way and it's not the bad stinker of a movie people here think it is. Watch it with a some friends or some beer (or both) and just enjoy it. Sour grapes because Woody did what a lot of film nerds want to do? And the whole "Saracen pigs! Saxon dogs! Roman cow!" when Phil Moskowitz karate chops villains is a precursor to Austin Powers' "judo chop". This movie is a one off, and a pretty good one off as well.

"Loooooooooooove has found meeeeeeeeeeeeee, and I have found the waaaaaaaaaaay!"

Though the technique of re-dubbing terrible Japanese movies with funny dialogue may have been improved upon (and, arguably, perfected) in KUNG POW, given the fact that the early 21st century editing technology enabled its director/actor/writer to place himself in certain scenes, WHAT'S UP, TIGER LILY is immensely funny, for what it is. It relies more on quirky, pointed comedy writing rather then spastic, physical comedy. This film began the long string of Woody Allen's "early, funny movies," which focused more on sight-gags, and absurd humor. Many believe Allen hit his stride with his critically acclaimed "relationship introspection" pieces -- but TIGER LILY will withstand the test of time, purely because it is an effortless slab of silly, simple-minded gags and lighthearted language comedy (think: Mel Brooks' slower moments.) It is questionable is this film may have influenced Airplane, Austin Powers, etc., but underneath its transparent skin are the makings of those classic, genre-parodies. C

What's Up, Tiger Lily was Woody Allen's directorial debut in 1966, although there is some debate about that. By Woody ALlen's own admission the film was taken out of his hands to the point that even the dubbing during the closing credits isn't even the director's voice as intended. American International Pictures bought the 1965 Japanese film "Key of Keys" for $66,000, and What's Up, Tiger Lily is that film re-dubbed with dialogue written by Woody Allen. The good news is, Woody Allen illustrates that even in his first (sort of) film his penchant for brilliant openings. Woody Allen plays himself in What's Up, Tiger Lily, not a version of himself or a character like him which ensured that I would at least like an aspect of the film. In its entirety, however, I can only recommend WHat's Up, Tiger Lily to extreme Woody Allen fans who are completionists, otherwise the film is largely insufferable.