La belle des îles

Tiara Tahiti is a strange film and not one I think that should be something that James Mason and John Mills should be noted for. Their one film collaboration should have been something better.

Of course pictorially the film is fine. The South Seas in color cinematography is impossible to do badly.

Mason comes off far better. He's from the upper classes and at one time Mills clerked for his father. But when they got in the army the positions were reversed. Mills has risen to be a colonel and he's quite the little martinet. But when Mason comes into his command those old feelings of inferiority take over. When he gets a chance he rats Mason out during the post war occupation years as someone doing a bit of smuggling. Which gets Mason cashiered from the army and a disgrace to his family.

So here he is on Tahiti living the good life and here comes John Mills now a big hotel tycoon, but still with the same feelings about Mason. What happens next is quite frankly not to be believed on any level.

In many ways the character that John Mills is playing is a variant from one of his greatest films Tunes Of Glory. He's the same kind of uptight character in Tiara Tahiti. But works in a tragedy really does not go well in this comedy.

In fact there's jealousy all around as Herbert Lom all made up as an Oriental is also quite jealous of Mason's upper class breeding even though he's two steps above a beachcomber. Tables get turned on him as well.

Tiara Tahiti is a beautiful, but quirky film that never quite gels.

A splendid example of the British old boys system being tested to the limit. Wonderful performances by Mason and Mills ,showing how real acting is done. Films like this are so rare now and the incessant mumbling of so many of our modern "stars" leave so much to be desired.

Should be shown along with Tunes of Glory to all students of film to give them a yard stick of how it should be done.

No car chases ,violence,swearing etc,just high class masterfull acting.

London Light prefaced this glossy little trifle largely shot in the South Seas with a stern admonition that this film contains "cultural depictions of its era". Presumably they had in mind Herbert Lom in oriental makeup that makes him looks like Dr No expressing his disdain for White Trash, talk of leper colonies and James Mason's sarcastic reference to his Tahitian girlfriend's forty-six relatives; yet even before the credits roll we're already treated to a bevy of dusky maidens gyrating grass skirts.

John Mills with his hair combed into an outrageous quiff plays a stiff-necked old colonel for whom nemesis comes in the form of Mason who, bless him, once again shows that for all his talent he just couldn't play comedy (witness his attempt at pidgen English).

The essence of this delightful comedy is the English class system that was of the time. The film's added ingredient, that makes it so watchable, is aspiration. The twin themes of class and aspiration also run throughout the sub-plots.

Driven by his desire for success, John Mills' Clifford Southey models himself on James Mason's suave Brett Aimsley, imitating his smart dress, polished speech, and his sophisticated upper-class manner. But Southey frequently reverts to type whenever pressured: as a colonel reprimanding a junior fellow-officer Southey, having worked his way through the ranks, loses his charming manner and barks "get your 'air cut"; later in Tahiti Southey forgets himself when dealing with Marcel, the French policeman, and his flashes of uncontrolled temper and charmless outbursts land him even deeper in it. On each occasion Southey recovers and, as he has trained himself to do, quickly re-adopts the persona of Aimsley to dig himself out.

Southey will never quite achieve the confident, effortless, upper-class charisma that Aimsley exudes in spades - after all it's down to breeding. Captain Aimsley easily disarms Southey's best-rehearsed dressing-downs: "That's Philpott - I take it the firm has lost her too?" exclaims Brett as he notices a picture of the Colonel's wife upon his desk; "But I interrupted you, do forgive me". Brett's innocent interruption blunt his Colonel's attacks and render him lost. Throughout the film, Aimsley stems Southey's flow with such polished interjections.

Ironically, Southey's real persona isn't all that bad: a mixture of gritty determination and acquired manners, he has the right blend for success - no wonder he's the MD! During the scene in which he wins over his fellow directors he mixes the rounded vowels and confident line borrowed from Brett: "Gentlemen, don't do anything I wouldn't do, which of course leaves you free to do absolutely anything"; with the steely flash of quick-fire rhetoric "We've always seen stumbling blocks as stepping stones...". Just like any successful Yorkshire businessman!

So much for the main plot - Mills' character envies Mason's class, and strives to adopt what he can never quite have. But throughout the sub-plots there run similar themes: Belle Annie badly wants to be someone else; alternating between an English lady and an American model, either of which would be a step up the social-class ladder. Because Brett shows little sign of returning to England, her attentions switch to Joey, an American sailor halfway through his Charles Atlas course, who might just help her achieve her secondary ambition of treading the New York catwalk. What aspirations!

Of course, Joey himself has his own agenda, albeit a rather simple one: he wants to be a lover-boy; his womanising desires do not extend to carnal lust - what he really wants is to be an object of desire to like the body-building hunks in his muscle-magazines. A Cassanova image would elevate his status among his fellow crew-members, so he adopts the posturing style of his magazines to win the girl. Too busy showing off his muscles, and expounding his adopted morals, to notice Belle Annie offering herself to him on the beach, Joey finishes up satisfied with his newly-acquired status with his Captain ("What a Cassanova you turned out to be").

Still on sub-plots, what about Herbert Lom's (nowadays)politically incorrect Chinaman, Chong? Clearly he desires the girl, Belle Annie, and does his devious best to win her from Aimsley. But Chong's duplicity when dealing with everyone from American Tourists ("White trash!") to his Anglo-French card school ("All white Christian visitors are welcome on the island") reveals a toadying character to his masters and social betters. He imitates their good manners and behaviour in their company, whilst secretly despising them ("Their white skin! Urgh! And the Smell! Pooh!). Of course Chong can never be anything other than what he is - he is as restricted by his own background as is Southey, "that little clerk".

Look closely and you see other characters whose aspirations cause them to mimic others' behaviour. Roy Kinnear's Captain Enderby, of working class background but elevated army status, has adopted the clipped tones and lofty manner of his Colonel; and the French policeman Marcel's comical literary aspirations cause him, when dealing with Aimsley, to behave as he believes an English gentleman should behave (and relax the law). But Marcel reverts to type and becomes as difficult as any French official when dealing with Southey, who, makes the mistake of rudely declaring Marcel's novel childish.

So the sub-plots mirror the main theme of the film: class, and aspiration. There's a certain vanity throughout, which causes everyone to adopt out of character behaviour.

And Aimsley himself? Mason's character seems at first to lack any social agenda, money aside; perfectly assured and satisfied with his effortless Tahitian life. Yet he too has a secret aspiration - observe how he gazes wistfully at a plane flying overhead; and the fond way in which he reads trivia from his English newspaper. Like Ronald Biggs, Brett Ainsley longs to return to England. What sets him aside is that he will not pursue his particular aspiration - unlike others in the cast - because he has been "cashiered, disgraced" his class and breeding render any such return out of the question.

This doesn't preclude Aimsley from having a little sport with Clifford Southey, by allowing him to shoulder the blame for the attack (and thus pay-back some humiliation and disgrace on his former colonel) even after the penny has dropped that his attacker must have been Chong. Southey, angry and uncouth, departs the island but then (in the final twist), copy-catting Brett Ainsley to the last, takes it on the chin with a civilised farewell wave.

It is clear that the cast were having a great time effectively enjoying a paid trip to a tropical paradise.It is a shame that they didn't take the writers along to beef up the script.The problem is that the director seems to enamoured of the background that he is forgetting what is happening in the foreground.Mills gives his "Tunes of Glory" performance.Mason gives a performance which is sort of a refined Rokesby.The type of performance he would give throughout much of the next 20 years eg Age of Consent,Touch Of larceny.Lom plays an oriental,please get real.The attempted murder idea is simply a very poor device to bring the film to the desired ending.Most of the rest of the cast are allowed to overact to allow them to be noticed in front of the scenery.