Tiki Movies

How about a list of Tiki movies, preferably with links to watch for free or cheap! I did a search for an existing topic and didn't really find anything. Either good movies to watch or something to play in the background. Now in chronologic order

-Terror Island 1920 - Silent movie starring Harry Houdini, famous magician and escape artist.

White Shadows in the South Seas 1928 - Action/Romance - MGM’s first film with a fully prerecorded soundtrack, composed of music and sound effects, (but no dialog) including the first time the company’s mascot Leo the Lion roared at the film’s start. A black and white film but has color tone to some scenes. An alcoholic doctor on a Polynesian island, disgusted by white exploitation of the natives, finds himself marooned on a pristinely beautiful island.

Sadie Thompson 1928 - Romance Adventure - Another "silent" film with music and sound effects but no dialog. Starring Gloria Swanson and Lionel Barrymore. Set in Pago Pago and filmed on Catalina Island.

Tabù 1931
Romance - Drama. On the South Pacific island of Bora Bora, a young couple's love is threatened when the tribal chief declares the girl a sacred virgin.

Rain 1932 - Romance Adventure. A "talkie" version of "Sadie Thompson" above. Also filmed of Catalina Island and starring Joan Crawford.

Bird of Paradise 1932
Action - Adventure - Romance - Drama. A native girl falls for a visitor to her island, but she's chosen to be sacrificed to the volcano god.

King Kong 1933
Adventure - Horror - SciFi. A film crew goes to a tropical island for a location shoot, where they capture a colossal ape who takes a shine to their blonde starlet, and bring him back to New York City.

Son of Kong 1933 - Action/Adventure. A sequel to the 1933 King Kong

Mutiny on the Bounty 1935
Adventure · Drama. Aboard the H.M.S. Bounty on a mission to Tahiti, the captain’s sadistic treatment of the crew pushes the ship’s lieutenant to participate in a mutiny.

The Hurricane 1937 - Action Adventure. A Polynesian sailor -- unjustly imprisoned after defending himself against a colonial bully -- is relentlessly persecuted by his island's martinet French governor. Directed by John Ford and starring Dorothy Lamour.

Waikiki Wedding 1937 with Spanish subtitles
Comedy - Romance - Musical. A beauty contest winner of the "Miss Pineapple Princess" pageant takes part in a publicity scheme in Hawaii, and is pursued by an advertising executive for the agency doing the promotion.

Paradise Isle 1937
Drama. A native girl takes care of a blind artist when he is shipwrecked on a south sea island.

Honolulu 1939
Comedy - Romance. Movie heartthrob Brooks is tired of being besieged by adoring fans. When he meets his exact double, a shy Hawaiian plantation owner named George, they decide to switch for a month.

Hawaii Calls 1938
Drama - Musical. After being nabbed while trying to stow away on board an ocean liner en route to Hawaii, young Bobby Breen sings for his travel fare and, along with sidekick Pua, turns detective to recover stolen naval documents from crooks.

Pardon My Sarong 1942
Comedy - A pair of bus drivers accidentally steal their own bus. With the company issuing a warrant for their arrest, they tag along with a playboy on a boat trip that finds them on a tropical island, where a jewel thief has sinister plans for them.

I Walked With a Zombie 1943 Horror/Suspense A nurse in the Caribbean resorts to voodoo to cure her patient even though she's in love with the woman's husband. Along the way she discovers few family secrets.

White Pongo 1945
Adventure - Hunters and scientists venture into the jungle to track down a savage albino gorilla, which could be the missing link between man and ape.

Omoo Omoo 1949
SciFi - Action - Drama. The curse of a shark god follows a group of people who have violated a sacred jungle idol.

-Treasure Island 1950
Drama - Adventure. Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver search for buried treasure.

Pagan Love Song 1950
Romance - Musical. A man from Ohio inherits a coconut plantation and falls in love with a half-American, half-Tahitian beauty. Song-and-swim musical ensues in the tropical paradise.

-Kon Tiki 1951
Kon Tiki also here
Documentary · Embarking on a 4,300-mile journey across the Pacific, six Scandinavian scientists recreate the voyage of Peruvian explorers to the Polynesian Islands.

Bird of Paradise 1951
Action - Drama - Romance. An island Princess falls for a visiting Frenchman, but her people are against it.

Blackbeard the Pirate 1952
Blackbeard the Pirate also here
Adventure · Action A reformed pirate-turned-government official in 1674 Jamaica must contend with a man posing as a ship’s surgeon who’s determined to out his past.

Miss Sadie Thompson 1953 - Romance Adventure. Another version of W. Somerset Maughman's short story, this one starring Rita Hayworth.

The Blue Gardenia 1953
The Blue Gardenia also here
Drama · Mystery. After a drunken and disturbing evening, a woman awakens with a wretched hangover in a man’s apartment, afraid that she may have murdered him.

-Return to Paradise 1953
Drama - Adventure. A drifter and soldier-of-fortune Mr. Morgan (Gary Cooper) washes up on a Pacific Island that is a small dictatorial state under the puritanic rule of Pastor Corbett (Barry Jones), a missionary. They conflict big time, but Morgan stays on and carves out a cozy life after a lot of confrontations, fighting and more.

-His Majesty O'Keefe 1954 Based on the true story of the Irish-American David Dean O'Keefe was shipwrecked near Yap in 1871 and was helped by the natives. Starring Burt Lancaster.

-20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 1954
Adventure - Drama. Climb aboard the Nautilus and into an undersea world of adventure!

Creature from the Black Lagoon 1954
Horror - SciFi. A strange prehistoric beast lurks in the depths of the Amazonian jungle. A group of scientists try to capture the animal and bring it back to civilization for study.

The Beachcomber 1954
Comedy · Drama Shipped to a tropical island by his family, a hard-drinking English playboy finds redemption when he helps a missionary fight a cholera outbreak.

-Robinson Crusoe 1954
Robinson Crusoe also here
Action - Adventure - Drama. The sole survivor of a 17th-century shipwreck washes ashore on a deserted island where he’s forced to carve out a new life with his bare hands.

-Pearl of the South Pacific 1955
Pearl of the South Pacific here also
Adventure · Action. When outsiders plan to steal a fortune in black pearls from island natives, they get more than they bargained for.

From Hell it Came 1957
From Hell it Came also here
Horror · Sci-Fi. A South Seas prince is wrongly convicted and executed by a tribal voodoo council. He rises from the dead, this time as a raging tree creature.

Voodoo Woman 1957
Voodoo Woman also here
Horror. When a woman brings a team of gold miners to a jungle village, a mad scientist using natives’ voodoo for experiments chooses her as his next subject.

Hell Ship Mutiny 1957
Action - Adventure. Jim Knight is the captain of a ship trading in the South Seas. He runs into trouble when he makes port at an island where crooks Malone and Ross hold the natives under their cruel domination while they seek a fortune in pearls. Knight and his crew are taken prisoners and he falls for native princess Mareva, and her non-plump charms are more than enough motivation for Knight to put an end to Malone and his henchmen, and also the the greedy police commissioner Lamoret.

The Wild Women of Wango 1958
The Wild Women of Wongo also here
Adventure · Comedy. Men, women, and apes live as separate tribes on the tropical island of Wongo. When the apes discover the women, they plan a raid to capture mates.

South Sea Adventures - A Colorful Dramatized Travelogue Featuring the Pacific Islands 1958
Romance - Drama - Adventure. A multifaceted 1958 dramatization that has us traveling across the various lands that make up the Pacific Islands, starting in Hawaii, & ending in Australia. For those who haven't had the privilege of exploring the South Sea islands & their people for themselves, this is certainly the next best thing. The film not only take us on a journey, but also acts as a time capsule, & trip to the past.

-South Pacific 1958
South Pacific also here
Drama · Musicals · Romance. On a South Pacific island during World War II, love blooms between a young nurse and a secretive Frenchman courted for a dangerous military mission.

She Gods of Shark Reef 1958
She Gods also here
And here
Adventure · Thriller. An honorable man and his criminal brother set sail across the Pacific and get shipwrecked on a South Seas island ruled by a tyrannical queen.

Forbidden Island 1959
Action - Crime - Drama. A skin diver tries to recover sunken treasure before a group of thieves learn of its existence.

Terror is a Man 1959 Filipino/American horror film from the Blood Island series, a mad scientist transforms a panther into a man-like creature that escapes and goes on a murderous rampage.

-Swiss Family Robinson 1960
Action/Adventure - The heroic tale of the courageous exploits of the Robinson family after they are shipwrecked on a deserted island. Using teamwork and ingenuity, they overcome the obstacles of nature and transform their new home into a "civilized" community.

Blue Hawaii 1961
Comedy. His mother (Angela Lansbury) expects him to climb the corporate ladder. But Elvis would rather wear an aloha shirt than a white collar, so he goes to work as a tour guide. Lucky Elvis: his first customers are a car full of cuties.

Gidget Goes Hawaiian 1961
Gidget Goes Hawaiian also here
Comedy · Romance. Gidget, on vacation in Hawaii, finds a gang of lads vying for her attention, starting a chain of romantic complications when her boyfriend arrives.

Pagan Island 1961 Action/Adventure An American sailor is shipwrecked on a South Seas island populated only by women. Trouble follows when he falls in love with a native girl who has been chosen as a sacrifice to the tribe's pagan god.

Girls, Girls, Girls 1962
Comedy - Romance. Elvis plays a charter-boat skipper who helps tourists land the big ones. Of course, plenty of beautiful girls want to land Elvis. But there's something Elvis likes almost as much as romance-a boat!

-Mutiny on the Bounty 1962
Adventure · Drama. Aboard the H.M.S. Bounty on a mission to Tahiti, the captain’s sadistic treatment of the crew pushes the ship’s lieutenant to participate in a mutiny.

-Donovan's Reef 1963
Adventure - Comedy. The Duke, Lee Marvin and Jack Warden play navy buddies that made the French Polynesian island of Haleakaloha their post-war paradise. Local headquarters is Donovan’s Reef, Wayne’s watering hole.

Bikini Beach 1964
Bikini Beach also here
Comedy · Musicals · Romance. Surf-crazy, hip-shaking teens face off against a strait-laced tycoon who plans to turn their beloved beach into a retirement community.

Muscle Beach Party 1964
Comedy. Everyone's favorite surfing couple, Frankie and Annette, return for this second BEACH PARTY movie in which the gang finds the beach invaded by the owner of a new gym and his stable of bodybuilders.

Father Goose 1964
Comedy. During World War II, an unkempt, uncouth and unshaven beach bum who tries to avoid action by taking a cushy job reporting on Japanese air activity is forced to step up to duty when a French schoolmistress and her seven charges crash land nearby.

Gilligan's Island all episodes 1964-1967
Comedy · Adventure · Kids & Family. Shipwrecked on an uncharted South Pacific island, seven castaways struggle to survive the outdoors—and each other—in this wacky classic comedy series.

Beach Blanket Bingo 1965
Comedy. When a publicity stunt to promote the singing career of Sugar Kane (Linda Evans) engineered by her publicist (Paul Lynde) balloons out of control, Frankie (Frankie Avalon), Dee Dee (Annette Funicello) & the gang are pulled into the ensuing comic adventures. Throw in a lovesick biker, Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) and a mermaid (Marta Kristen) and "Beach Blanket Bingo" is pure comic confection.

Paradise, Hawaiian Style 1966
Comedy - Romance. Elvis takes to the skies over the island paradise of Kauai. He’s a partner in a helicopter charter service. Romance, naturally, is in the air for the King…but his business may be grounded.

-Lt. Robin Crusoe U.S.N. 1966
Comedy - Adventure. A navy pilot becomes a modern-day Robinson Crusoe when he is forced to ditch his plane in the Pacific.

Hawaii 1966
Hawaii also here
Drama. This restored film version of James Michener's best-seller stars Julie Andrews, Richard Harris, and Max Von Sydow in a celebrated epic adventure that traces the arrival of missionaries in 1820s Hawaii and the eventual devastation of a paradise lost.

Brides of Blood 1966 Filipino/American horror film from the Blood Island series, Americans investigating the results of nuclear radiation discover a man-eating monster on a remote island. Virgin sacrifices become the norm. A small group of interlopers become caught up in the mayhem

Hell in the Pacific 1968
Adventure - War. During World War II, an American pilot and a marooned Japanese navy captain are deserted on a small uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean. There, they must cease their hostility and cooperate if they want to survive, but will they?

-Krakatoa East of Java 1969
Adventure - Drama - Romance - Historical. In 1883, Captain Hanson of the "Betavia Queen" is preparing to embark on a salvage expedition in The Dutch East Indies. His mistress, Laura, knows the location of a ship belonging to her late husband, a shipwreck concealing a cargo of rare pearls. An unexpected erupting volcano on the island of Krakatoa and a state-ordered transport of convicts upset his plans.

The Hawaiians 1970
Drama - Romance. A sea captain's discovery of water on a plantation leads to planting of pineapples on the island.

-Blue Lagoon 1980
Disclaimer - I haven't seen this since 1980, I don't remember how bad it is LOL
Drama - Romance. Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins star as shipwrecked teenagers learning the mysteries of love in a South Pacific paradise.

-Tales of the Golden Monkey Pilot (English with Turkish subtitles) 1982
Action - Comedy - Drama. The adventures of a 1930's Pacific Islands bush pilot and his companions.

-The Bounty 1984
[The Bounty also here](https://tubitv.com/movies/304799/the-bounty0
Adventure · Drama · Action. An idyllic voyage to Tahiti in 1789 turns a crew aboard the H.M.S. Bounty against its captain when they find tropical paradise and unlimited sex.

The Mermaids of Tiburon 1987
Fantasy - Adventure. Beautifully photographed fantasy about bare-breasted mermaids who assist...and distract...a young scientist in his quest for sunken treasure Definitely not safe for work! LOL

-Joe vs The Volcano 1990
Romance - Comedy. Tom Hanks is an average Joe who agrees to a bizarre deal to jump into an island volcano in exchange for six weeks of a king's lifestyle.

Molokai: The Story of Father Damien 1999
Molokai also here Drama The heartwarming story of Father Damien, who traveled to the island of Molokai to minister to lepers, despite the risks involved.

Psycho Beach Party 2001
Psycho Beach Party also here
Comedy · Horror. Chicklet, a sixteen-year-old tomboy with Dissociative Identity Disorder, attempts to be part of the in-crowd of Malibu beach surfers.

-Lilo and Stitch 2002
Comedy. Lilo's an independent little girl; Stitch is a mischievous creature from outer space, and when their worlds collide, it's love – and chaos! – at first sight.

Tiki 2006
Horror. When Amy moves from her beloved Hawaiian Islands to study drama on the mainland, a gang of vicious coeds plot to make her life a living hell. The girls set Amy up as the target of a horrendous prank that results in the young girl falling victim to a brain seizure from which she may never recover. Seeking answers, her aunt Maelea arrives with a special Tiki doll -- specially designed to kill!

-Just Go With It 2011
A little different than the vintage movies but still fun
Romance - Comedy. After telling his girlfriend that he's married as a means of avoiding real commitment, a plastic surgeon must recruit a fake family to prove his honesty.

A Midsummer's Hawaiian Dream 2016
Romance - Comedy. Two married anthropologists and their students search for a legendary Tiki in the Hawaiian jungle in this reimagining of Shakespeare's magical comedy.

-Moana 2016
Kids - Adventure. Moana sets sail on a daring mission to save her people. Along the way, she meets the once mighty demigod Maui–together they cross the ocean on a fun-filled, action-packed voyage.

-Kong Skull Island 2017
Action - Adventure. When a scientific expedition to an unknown island awakens titanic forces of nature, a mission of discovery turns into an explosive war between the giant King Kong and humanity.

Hawaiian Ghost Stories 2020 Horror. Drawn from a history of royalty, warriors, and Hawaiian and immigrant cultures, hear the supernatural and unexplained lore surrounding these islands.

-Jungle Cruise 2021
Comedy - Adventure. Seeking an ancient tree with healing abilities, Dr. Lily Houghton and wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff team up for the adventure-of-a lifetime on Disney’s Jungle Cruise, a rollicking ride down the Amazon. Amidst danger and supernatural forces lurking in the jungle, secrets of the lost tree unfold as their fate—and mankind’s—hangs in the balance.

[ Edited by MadDogMike on 2024-11-14 10:44:21 ]

Lawerence of Arabia.

Just kidding.

I'd say that's a pretty complete list. I've seen a little over half of them.

Awesome list...thanks!

Rob

pablus!!! Good to hear from you! I hope life is treating you well?
TikiRobD thank you sir

I added a few more movies to the list

I added a few more movies to the list

Ha! Looks like just a few....

I know that Molokai and Blackbeard are currently free on Tubi. It also has The Beachcomber and Robinson Crusoe (both 1954), plus Gilligan's Island.

Thanks for this post!

I love how you found and linked to some placed to watch them. I ended up watching the entire Cinerama film, South Seas Adventure.

I recalled some discussion in the past about films.

Then I found the link to this web site which has a list of "South Seas Cinema" films.

Just FYI: the Tiki in films thread has been around forever, although it doesn't have links to the films itself, just screencaps of any Tiki-related content.

There are quite a few older pre-Code Polynesian-themed films from the 1930s that can be streamed or downloaded at archive.org and they are in the public domain.

I looked at that thread and thought it was mostly movies that just had random Tikis in the background, not movies related to Polynesia? Thanks for the archive.org tip

SB, that's quite a list on that website!

SB, that's quite a list on that website!

Thank you Hamo.

I added some more movies and some descriptions

Great List MadDogMike !!! It's great to have the links.

I found my folder where I took screen shots of the movies that were highlighted from Tiki Oasis 2018 - South Seas Cinema. They had them separated by decade (I will put these in for now, and upload more as I have time...and if anyone wants to see the rest??)

1930:

• Never the Twain Shall Meet (1931)

• TABU (1931)

• Bird of Paradise (1932)

• Island of Lost Souls (1933)

• Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

• Waikiki Wedding (1937)

• Honolulu (1939)

Awesome! Thanks PineappleWhip. I'll look for links and add them to the list

MadDogMike Would you (or anyone else??) like me to upload the other movie posters that I have screen shots of?

Sure! Some of the previous ones I already had, others I couldn't find a link to the whole movie. But I also picked up a few that weren't on the list

Just seeing this amazing list - thanks so much, @MadDogMike ! I often play tiki movies or old movie serials during my Tiki Tuesday streams so this is a treasure trove. Much obliged!

Thanks Ray. If you have favorites that are not on the list I would be glad to add them

Krakatoa East of Java 1969

And just so everyone's clear, Krakatoa is WEST of Java. :)

I just watched that last week, amazing special effects! Turns out they filmed the special effects then wrote the script around them. Any yes, they got ridiculed for the title being geographically incorrect LOL

I suppose if you travel far enough east of Java, you will reach Krakatoa.

Yeah, about 24,880 miles LOL

https://youtu.be/97UcHvQ73-o?si=Q5gKqaDMt4E0JyoE

I have completely forgotten how to create proper links, but Forbidden Island is a good one. It features Martin Denny and the bar scene was filmed at Trader Vic's Honolulu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfiI9PNf_2o

Edit: ah, it worked!

[ Edited by Speakeasy Ray on 2024-03-07 16:32:40 ]

joefla70 good one! LOL
Speakeasy Ray got it, thanks

Bump, I've added quite a few movies and links to the list