Tiara Tahiti *** (1962, James Mason, John Mills, Claude Dauphin, Herbert Lom) – Classic Movie Review 12,775

Ted Kotcheff’s 1962 British comedy-drama film Tiara Tahiti is based on the novel by Geoffrey Cotterell, and stars James Mason and John Mills as wartime adversaries who meet again in Tahiti after the war.

Director Ted Kotcheff’s 1962 Rank Organisation British comedy-drama film Tiara Tahiti is based on the novel by Geoffrey Cotterell, and stars James Mason and John Mills as wartime adversaries who later meet and clash again. Working-man Mills commands his ex-boss’s son Mason at the end of World War Two and they encounter each other again in Tahiti in the South Seas after the war.

Mills plays brokerage firm clerk Clifford Southey, promoted to lieutenant colonel during the war, and Mason plays his popular subordinate officer, Captain Brett Aimsley, a partner at Southey’s firm.

After the war, Aimsley’s pleasant exile in Tahiti is interrupted by the arrival of his old adversary, now director of a hotel chain planning expansion in the South Seas.

The Mason-Mills sparring double act is excellent in this well-acted, stylishly crafted, involving little movie, based on the novel by Geoffrey Cotterell, who also adapts it for the screen with the film’s producer Ivan Foxwell. The sets by Alex Vetchinsky and camerawork by Otto Heller are especially handsome, making this a little pleasure to watch.

It is Ted Kotcheff’s promising first film (billed as ‘William T Kotcheff’) – he went on to make Rambo – First Blood.

Also in the pleasing cast are Claude Dauphin, Herbert Lom, Jacques Marin, Libby Morris, Madge Ryan, Gary Cockrell, Peter Barkworth, Roy Kinnear, Rosenda Monteros, Robert Hardy, and Harry Locke.

It was filmed in London and on location in Tahiti.

Tahiti is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesiam located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean.

The Mason-Mills sparring act has obvious parallels with that of Mills and Alec Guinness in Tunes of Glory (1960).

Tiara Tahiti is directed by Ted Kotcheff, runs 100 minutes, is made by Ivan Foxwell Productions and The Rank Organisation, released by The Rank Organisation, is written by Geoffrey Cotterell and Ivan Foxwell, is shot by Otto Heller, is produced by Ivan Foxwell, is scored by Philip Green, and is designed by Alex Vetchinsky.

The cast are James Mason as Aimsley, John Mills as Southey, Herbert Lom as Chong Sing, Rosenda Monteros as Belle Annie, Claude Dauphin as Henry, Roy Kinnear as Enderby, Jacques Marin, Libby Morris, Madge Ryan, Gary Cockrell, Peter Barkworth, Robert Hardy, and Harry Locke.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,775

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