My review was written in February 1988 after watching the film in a Columbus Circle screening room.
"The Blue Iguana" is a likable problem child: a hip, modern film noir thatg is too wacky and too specialized in its situations to attract general audiences. Add problematic casting of the central roles and you have an iffy theatrical entry destined for cult status in future.
Title, conjuring up noir goodies "The Blue Dahlia" and "The Blue Gardenia" (and also, alas, Paramount's laughable brat noir "Blue City"), refers to a cafe in the rough south-of-the-border town of El Diablo, operate by tough young Pamela Gidley. With Ethan James' right-on brassy musical score and cars and costumes out tf the 1950s, pic at the outset suggests a hip spoofing of Orson Welles' stylish 1958 "Touch of Evil".
Ultimately pic takes on elements of a Spaghetti Western, especially the revisionist model (replete with 1950s Buicks everywhere) of Alex Cox' "Straight to Hell". Dylan McDermott portrays a private dick coerced into a suicide mission to El Diablo by goofball IRS agens (Tovah Feldshuh and Dean Stockwell) to recover money laundered at the local bank. Jessica Harper, with slicked-back hair, runs the bank, assisted by her chief goon James Russo.
Well-staged action scenes punctuate the tongue-in-cheek proceedings, in which McDermott ultimately resorts to plot manipulations familiar from "A Fistful of Dollars" out of "Yojimbo".
Pic's rogue gallery of eccentric players is a delight: Feldshuh as butch as they come; Harper camping it up Eva Peron-style; Russo out of control hobbling around like Richard III; Stockwell in thick glasses and neck brace; Flea as a hambone geek in the Elisha Cook slot; and Michele Siepp as punk-styled bartender Zoe.
Unfortunately, the lead players are colorless; McDermott too young and bland to carry a picture designed for a young Robert Mitchum, and Pamela Gidley way too young and low-key to be the tough-as-nails cafe owner.
Tech credits are impressive.
