Tiara Tahiti

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.

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.

Lt.Col. Southey (John Mills) is an officer promoted a rank,or,perhaps,two above his abilities - not an uncommon occurrence in wartime - Capt.Aimsley(James Mason) a natural leader and charming rogue a class above Southey in every respect but one.He treats his nominal military superior as he might the ageing family labrador.Popular and charismatic,Capt.Aimsley is everything Col. Southey is not but aspires to be.The scene where,alone in his office,he practises copying Aimsley's accent is brilliantly observed. Unfortunately money is Aimsley's Achilles Heel and his profligacy sees him removed from Southey's command. Some time after the war Aimsley's comfortable exile in Tahiti is rudely interrupted by the arrival of his old adversary now director of a hotel chain looking to expand into the burgeoning South Seas market. What was virtually a two-hander featuring two of Britain's best film actors then,regretfully,broadens out into a not particularly funny or engaging comedy with stereotyped minor characters and a largely superfluous love interest.Some of the exchanges between Mills and Mason shine through the fog of ordinary,but the film loses most of its impetus. James Mason has exactly the right air of supreme self-confidence that the public school man exudes,the sense of being comfortable in his own skin whether in an Officers' Mess or on a South Sea Island. John Mills,probably a Grammar school boy,certainly not quite a gentleman.He may have money and business acumen but he will never be one of "them" no matter how rich and successful he becomes and that rankles. Whenever they are on the screen together "Tiara Tahiti" comes alive. Without them it would be very thin gruel indeed. If you want to see another film with James Mason exiled on an island try to catch the little-known British comedy "A Touch Of Larceny",it's clever,funny and altogether enchanting.John Mills out - acts Alec Guiness's bravura performance in "Tunes of Glory" as Col Barrow,on the face of it rather a cold fish,but with unsuspected sensitivities,not unlike Col Southey

A personal favourite of mine, but sadly not available on either video or DVD. Two great British actors of the golden age, James Mason (he of the wonderful voice) and John Mills (who virtually won the Second World War single handed) work wonderfully together. Mills is the working boy made good, Mason his former employer's son. Mills finds himself temporarily in command of Mason towards the end of the war and sets in train a course of events which leads to them meeting again after the war in Tahiti. Admire their actors craft, their comic timing, the under-stated nuances of class warfare. A wonderful little gem of a film.

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.