Picknick um Mitternacht

Nancy Kwan stars as the titular character in Tamahine, a tongue-in-cheek comedy about stuffy British culture. She plays a Polynesian with a lovely, friendly personality and no embarrassment about her beauty or her body. When she's sent to stay with a cousin, Dennis Price, in England, he makes every attempt to stifle her personality and cover up her body. He's the head of a boys' school, and when she stands at her window, clad in only her underwear, and tosses flowers to the students, he nearly has a meltdown.

John Fraser (no doubt trying to live down the stigma of The Trials of Oscar Wilde) plays Nancy's love interest, but because of the massive culture clash, everyone tries to keep them apart. It just isn't cricket to have a stuffy British pupil, with every opportunity at his fingertips, to throw his principles away for an island girl. But what an island girl! Nancy is just adorable in this movie, as she is in all her early '60s flicks at the height of her career. She floats around the campus, holding her shoes in her hand, letting her hair blow in the breeze, charming everyone who sees her. But with her broken English and jokes about her lack of comprehension, I'm afraid many will feel the film doesn't stand the test of time. I was able to take the comedy for what it was, and just appreciate Nancy getting a leading role and looking too cute for words.

Try it out if you're a fan of hers, or if you like to make fun of English highbrow morals. There's also a very cute twist in the end that will put a smile on your face.

Nancy Kwan is exquisite and I would watch her in anything, but unfortunately everything draped around her in this film is a bore. Without really delving in to her character as a person, the film quickly transports her from Polynesia to London via Paris early on, the set up being an excuse to show off a beautiful young woman and the culture clash with the boys at a boarding school. "She loved the whole student body ... and they sure loved hers!!" as the movie poster blares.

Kwan's character, Tamahine, is childlike in her innocence, but talks bluntly about sex and seems to have a one-track mind for pleasure. She uses the word "love" for "sex," e.g. "At what age is permitted love?" and "On my island, we have schools for loving." She talks about her father having many lovers, men needing women, and says "I am thinking, there is only one thing that will make a boy into a man. A woman." She wants to see the sex education film shown the young boys, and strips off her clothes without being asked for an artist ("It's only my body!"). She also tosses flowers down to boys from a balcony in her underwear, and later climbs a phallic tower after taking off her skirt. I loved that Kwan got a role in a sex farce in 1963 when representation was lacking, so while silly and exploitive, these were easily the best parts of the film.

Unfortunately, the stereotypes were hard to overlook and diminished my enjoyment. Tamahine is shown to come from a race of simple people, uninterested in anything other than pleasure. She also discusses her family's cannibalistic feasts back home, so we get the idea they're savages. Almost all her dialogue is delivered wide-eyed, in broken English. I was still captivated by her, but just wish the script was a little better, even considering the genre. When Kwan isn't on the screen, we get subplots like the headmaster's daughter carrying on with a teacher that aren't in the least interesting. If you're a Nancy Kwan fan as I am, watch it but be prepared to cringe; if you're not, skip it.

This fun British light romantic Comedy is enhanced by an endearing performance by Nancy Kwan in the Title role. Her bubbly portrayal as the pretty,fun-loving,free-spirited yet naïve Polynesian Girl sent to England to stay with her late Father's Headmaster Cousin is perfect! The story centres on the effect her presence has on the pompous,upper class Public School routine,and especially on the three men who are most smitten by her:Their lives and loves are all reshaped accordingly! Tamahine has several good comedic exchanges,especially with her staid Headmaster Guardian,Dennis Price. Good comic support also from Derek Nimmo and John Fraser. Justine Lord acquits herself well in the Romantic sub-plot too. An early role also for James Fox as another Student admirer. Although likened to a "Carry On" movie by a previous reviewer,that it is not!! One or two dramatic scenes are also featured along with the fun. Recommended!

The first reviewer has clearly confused John Fraser and Dennis Price,as the later plays the headmaster. The films premise is totally unoriginal. Even allowing for that the film is unfunny,and overlong at 92 minutes.

Nancy Kwan was at the height of her American fame when this film came out. However it was a distinct step down in most regards from her previous films. Very little acting ability and even less plot development was required. If you are a fan of the "veddy" British "Carry On" type films you will enjoy this cute romp with Nancy carrying the film on her lovely and perfectly shaped shoulders. You will see Nancy swimming underwater, posing nude for a campus painter (for his eyes only, not ours!), climbing campus towers in her knickers, drenched to the skin in a formal gown and sailing above a track and field obstacle course. Surely the camera crew for this film was a very happy lot. Nancy Kwan, Tamahine, is as perfect a physical specimen as God has ever created.

The plot of the film is simple enough: Polynesian girl Nancy is sent away from her simple, primitive island life to live with her deceased

father's brother who runs a "veddy" proper British men's academy in England. Being the free-spirited soul that she is, Nancy-Tamahine, finds the restrictions placed on her innocent actions confusing. Her naivete infatuates the entire student body and causes her 40-something guardian, John Fraser, to vacillate between righteous indignation and succumbing to the waif's warm and childish charms. Some wonderful closeups of Mr. Fraser's dilemma are the dramatic highlight of the film.

Overall if you enjoy comedy based upon the old-fashioned morality which caused young men to cover their eyes when in the presence of nude females -- standard reaction in the "Carry On" films -- you will enjoy this film. It combines that sort of humor with the very vigorous, physical activities of Tamahine which predominate almost every scene.

If however you are are of the current school which recognizes nothing save anatomy as the difference between the sexes, if you are not comfortable with the idea that men instinctively want to protect as well as possess women, then avoid this film. It is a throwback to an earlier era when the roles of men and women were better defined if somewhat less democratic. Whether it's Hamlet, Peter Pan or some other tale, this reviewer is able to empathize with the characters and enjoy their situations without fear of destroying social values.