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.
