An ostracized Episcopal clergyman leads a busload of middle-aged Baptist women on a tour of the Mexican coast and comes to terms with the failure haunting his life.
The Rev. T. Lawrence Shannon has been living in Mexico for two years, working as a tourist guide for a cut-rate travel agency. Shannon lost his church and was defrocked after taking liberties with one of his parishioners. He's now accompanying a group of middle-aged ladies from Texas whose leader, Judith Fellowes, is keeping a close eye on her teenage ward, Charlotte Goodall, who definitely has an interest in the former priest. After Charlotte and Shannon spend the night together, Fellowes is out to have him fired and to keep her from communicating with his employer, Shannon strands them at a remote hotel run by his good friend Maxine Faulk. It's the arrival of Hannah Jelkes and her elderly grandfather that has the greatest impact however. Her approach to life and love forces Shannon to deal with his demons and re-evaluate his life.—garykmcd
When American minister Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon is expelled from his Virginia church, he travels to Mexico in search of his destiny and sanity. There he becomes a tour guide for a bus load of spinsters and a teenage nymphet named Charlotte Goodall, who is being chaperoned by the group's leader, the inflexible Judith Fellowes. Miss Fellowes, who is quite jealous of Charlotte's attentions to Shannon, discovers the young woman in his room and vows to have him fired. To thwart her plot, Shannon takes control of the bus from Hank, the bus driver, and speeds the tour group on a wild ride through the Mexican jungle to the crumbling, secluded hotel of an old friend, the recently widowed Maxine Falk. Eventually Shannon becomes enamored with another guest at the hotel, the rather genteel Hanna Jelkes, an itinerant quick sketch artist and her poet grandfather Nonno. As the wise Hanna partially restores Shannon's fractured world, Shannon struggles to get back the rest of his sanity and his self-respect.—alfiehitchie
The defrocked Rev. Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon (Richard Burton) is to be the tour guide and historian for a church ladies' bus tour of Mexican religious historical sights. Even before boarding the old fashioned school bus, Shannon develops a contentious relationship with the lesbian leader of the women's group, Judith Fellowes (Grayson Hall) who is protective - read jealous - of the delinquent Charlottes (Lyon) interest in the reverend as her potential rescuer from being placed with the aged travelers. Driven to distraction by the attentions of the delinquent Lolita, Reverend Shannon has a alcoholic breakdown - as does the bus, right on cue - as they arrive nearby the Puerta Vallarta version of Bed & Breakfast establishment of the wildly over-the-top Maxine Faulk played by Gardner. Shortly after their arrival, the tour begins to heat up as the Reverend takes the bus's distributor thereby preventing the ladies' escape or the continuation of their tour. Shortly after the tour bus arrives, come an aging poet and his niece (Kerr). The heterosexual mirror to the appropriately named Fellowes, Hannah Jelkes proves to be less conservative than her spinster-like appearance indicates. Gardner's character has two native "beach boys" who chase down and chain up the titular Iguana so that it might be "fattened up" to be eaten up for dinner. All to the excitement and shock of the touring women. All the while Lyon is pursuing Shannon while as Jelkes and Faul pursue him as well and he pursues the bottle. Fellowes is either protecting Lyon's honor or hoping to convert her to lesbianism. An impromptu party develops and builds to a crescendo of death - Kerr's character's elderly poet uncle; jealous fighting - the beach boys and the bus driver, Lyon's character's other protector; and (verbally) Shannon and almost everyone else but the senile Miss Peebles - the author's tour ladies' personification. After sharing her secret sin with Shannon and the timely and sweet death of Miss Jelkes's poet just after finishing his last and lengthy poem, all the players find a weird peace. This acceptance that world must continue in its flawed manner and all must forgive, accept redemption and move on, arrives towards the end of the Night of the Iguana.
