The influence of the variation in the optical axis and the incidence angle a the P and the S polarizations on the transmittance properties of the tunable filter in a 1D photonic crystal (1DPC) with an anisotropic metamaterial defect layer is theoretically investigated. By using the 4 × 4 transfer matrix method, the pronounced contrast in the behavior of the P-and the S-polarized modes were demonstrated. The results indicate that, the intensity and the peak wavelength of the defect mode under the P –polarized wave can be tuned by a variation of the optical axis of the anisotropic layer, whereas the intensity and the peak wavelength of the defect mode under the S polarized wave remains unchanged. In addition, we show that the peak wavelength and the intensity of the tunable filter can be tailored by varying the incidence angle of light. The results, therefore, illustrate that the peak wavelength of the defect mode shifts towards blue as the angle of incidence increases for both polarizations. These results lead to certain new findings concerning the design of new types of tunable narrowband filters.