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.