OH BOY!!! FRIDAY NIGHT MOVIES with MR.E.: Woody Allen WHAT'S UP, TIGER LILY? (1966)

What's Up, Tiger Lily? is a 1966 comedy film directed by Woody Allen in his feature-length directorial debut. Allen took a Japanese spy film, International Secret Police: Key of Keys (Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi, 1965 Toho Co, Ltd.) starring Tatsuya Mihashi, Akiko Wakabayashi and Mie Hama, and overdubbed it with completely original dialogue that had nothing to do with the plot of the original film. By putting in new scenes and rearranging the order of existing scenes, he completely changed the tone of the film from a James Bond clone into a comedy about the search for the world's best egg salad recipe.

The plot provides the setup for a string of sight gags, puns, jokes based on Asian stereotypes, and general farce. The central plot involves the misadventures of secret agent Phil Moskowitz, hired by the Grand Exalted High Majah of Raspur ("a nonexistent but real-sounding country") to find a secret egg salad recipe that was stolen from him.

The movie has an ending unrelated to the plot, in which China Lee, a Playboy Playmate and then-wife of Allen's comic idol Mort Sahl, who does not appear elsewhere in the film, does a striptease while Allen explains that he promised he would put her in the film somewhere.

STARRING:
Tatsuya Mihashi as Phil Moscowitz, a secret agent and self-described "lovable rogue" (other people call him "amiable zany")

Akiko Wakabayashi as Suki Yaki, a beautiful woman who seduces Phil and later works alongside him as a spy

Mie Hama as Teri Yaki, Suki's sister who helps Phil as well

Tadao Nakamaru as Shepherd Wong, an evil gang leader who has stolen the recipe for the world's greatest egg salad

Susumu Kurobe as Wing Fat, an evil gangster who teams up with Phil to steal the recipe from Shepherd Wong, but intends to keep it for himself

ALSO APPEARING:

Sachio Sakai as Hoodlum
Hideyo Amamoto as Cobra Man
Tetsu Nakamura as Foreign Minister
Osman Yusuf as Gambler
Kumi Mizuno as Phil's date