Tikis in films

Would you be willing to post some teaser screen captures from your documentary? I'm sure it's a good production, but I haven't been enticed enough yet to plunk down the cash to stream or download the film from your site. I am very curious to learn more about the tiki scene in Canada - I'm sure there are some very good tiki things to see up there. Thanks!

"The Hawaiians" (1970)

Little-known film based on the later chapters of James Michener's "Hawaii". Starring Chuck Heston as Whipple "Whip" Hoxworth. My review is here on Letterboxd:

http://letterboxd.com/mrbalihai/film/the-hawaiians/

There's only one scene that features tikis...a big letdown from "Hawaii" (1966), which was chockablock with them: Whip discusses his part-Hawaiian wife's frigidity and deteriorating mental state with his family doctor, in a study decorated with the handsome fellow seen in the screencap above.

If anyone's interested, I also maintain a list of Tiki films on Letterboxd:

http://letterboxd.com/mrbalihai/list/tiki-tiki-tiki-tiki-tiki-films/

[ Edited by: MrBaliHai 2014-08-16 05:54 ]

Les soleils de l'Ile de Pâques (The Suns of Easter Island) 1972

Film about an international group of travelers who trek around the world, from France to Brazil and Chile and, finally, to Easter Island, where some of their number are chosen to meet aliens who resemble small suns. One man who was not chosen tags along uninvited. For punishment, he is given the task of guarding the site until the next visit, some 500 years hence.

Subtitled version viewable on YouTube.

[ Edited by: MrBaliHai 2014-08-19 04:14 ]

Harper with Paul Newman. 21 minute mark. Two Bumatay (?) Tiki flank a hotel entrance. It's LA with palm
Trees. Can see "The Mi.." on the sign... Happy sleuthing...

---

Waikiki Tiki; Art, History, and Photographs.
Available now from Bess Press Hawaii.

[ Edited by: Phillip Roberts 2014-09-12 23:33 ]

On 2014-09-12 23:32, Phillip Roberts wrote:
Harper with Paul Newman. 21 minute mark. Two Bumatay (?) Tiki flank a hotel entrance. It's LA with palm
Trees. Can see "The Mi.." on the sign... Happy sleuthing...

---

Waikiki Tiki; Art, History, and Photographs.
Available now from Bess Press Hawaii.

The Miramar Hotel, home of the Tiki Jo restaurant.

And this guy!

DC

Also covered in this thread already.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=302&forum=1&start=390

DC

Couple shots from Warren Beatty's tiki apartment/hotel in THE PARALLAX VIEW

In the lobby with sleazy manager:

In hotel room with lovely Paula Prentiss:

Way back in 2000 or so I was working on a zine and one of the columns was about Cinema and was written by then screenwriter-now famous mixologist Beachbum Berry. Here is his last column from 2003
CINEMAXOTICA II
Our Second TV Tiki Hunt

By Beachbum Berry

The first time we chronicled our search for tikis on TV (TIKI NEWS #17), we thought we'd found most of what's out there. But a second channel-surfin' safari into late-night cable television yielded finds beyond our wildest grog-induced dreams. Here's what the remote dragged in (plus several sightings submitted by "Tiki News" readers):

THE ANIMAL (2001): A remarkably unfunny Rob Schneider vehicle, but it does have a scene set in a cop bar that also happens to be a tiki bar.

BACHELOR IN PARADISE (1961): Bob Hope moves to suburban Paradise Cove, where Lana Turner does the hula and all roads point to a tricked out Polynesian restaurant/bar.

THE BIG MOUTH (1967): Jerry Lewis tiptoes through the tikis of a San Diego hotel's pool area. About as many laughs as...

BIO-DOME (1996): Pauly Shore and his buuud-dy Stephen Baldwin throw a luau in the bio-dome, which they deck out with several tiki posts.

BLUE HAWAII (1961): Elvis clashes with his family when he forsakes them for a grass shack on the beach. It's a good shack and a nice beach, but we would have stayed with his family -- who mix their own mai tais in a swingin' Oriental-themed moderne house.

THE BREAKING POINT (1950): A re-make of To Have And Have Not, and this is the one to have since it has a scene in the legendary Christian's Hut of Newport Beach. John Garfield reprises the Bogart role.

BREWSTER MCCLOUD (1970): Robert Altman followed "MASH" with this quasi-surrealistic curiosity in which Bud Cort dreams of flying across the Houston Astrodome on a pair of home-made mechanical wings. Notable for the theme-park riverboat cruise Bud takes with Shelly Duvall; the boat passes "Lububa," a large stone face with rolling eyes embedded in the river bank. If that's not enough for you, there's also Sally Kellerman splashing around nude in a freeway fountain, then leading a chase through the Astrodome parking lot in a red AMC Pacer.

THE CAINE MUTINY (1954): Before the mutineer ships out, he fights with his girlfriend in a Hawaiian bar with stylized tiki faces on the wall.

THE DAY THE SKY FELL IN (1966): In this episode of the TV series "The Time Tunnel," James Darren journeys back in time to the bombing of Pearl Harbor -- and is unfazed by the fact that in 1941 Honolulu, everyone's wearing 1960s fashions. A couple of tikis appear as residential set dressing. (Otto Von Stroheim hipped us to this one.)

DEAD HEAT ON A MERRY-GO-ROUND (1966): An off-beat heist film starring James Coburn as an existential bank robber. The bank he robs just happens to be inside the Theme Building, Los Angeles Airport's famous space-age landmark. Many interesting shots of the building in its mid-'60s prime, but that's not what concerns us here. Midway through the caper, Coburn sends girlfriend Camilla Sparv to find them some digs in L.A. She settles on a Polynesian-themed San Fernando Valley apartment complex -- complete with tikis out front and torches around the pool, plus monkey pod furniture, beaded curtains, and Witco-style wall hangings inside. "It's kinda Waikiki Pop, isn't it?" observes a befuddled Coburn upon entering their little slice o' heaven.

DIAMOND HEAD (1963): In addition to Yvette Mimieux doing the hula, this soaper features a big fat Ku tiki in the front yard of Charlton Heston's plantation estate. No doubt Ku was displeased by the fact that Heston drinks straight Bourbon in his presence instead of okolehao. A native Hawaiian played by James Darren (!) has a goofy tiki in his bedroom.

DONOVAN'S REEF (1963): Aside from the not inconsiderable pleasures of watching Lee Marvin punch out John Wayne in a tropical island bar, there's the bar itself -- which features two tikis guarding the entrance, and another hiding behind the piano (a wise decision, as just about everything in the bar is destroyed except him).

FAST CARS, TIKI BARS (2001): It had to happen -- Tiki-themed porn. In one scene, one of the girls even reads an issue of "Tiki News"! (Thanks to Logan Summers for this one.)

FINDING NEMO (2003): The dentist's office aquarium in which little clownfish Nemo is dumped sports not one, but three nicely rendered 1960s-style tiki heads. So why does he want to escape? Fish. Go figure.

THE FRIGHTENED CITY (1961): What could be frightening about a tiki supper club in sixties London? The "Taboo Club" features tiki-shaped cocktail menus on the tables, scorpion bowls with long straws, and a stuffy businessman customer actually dropping his monocle at the sight of the pudgy English dancing girls in grass skirts. Sean Connery plays a gangster who's hot for the one bit of crumpet on the dance floor who could use a few more pounds, not to mention acting lessons.

GAPPA (1965): Also known as "Monster From A Prehistoric Planet," this blissful example of anthropological confusion follows a scientific expedition, led by one Professor Kurosaki, to a South Seas isle populated by Japanese extras with painted-on "Polynesian" brown skin. Here the Professor finds giant stone idols several stories high. "Just like the statues on Easter Island," he observes, even though they're clearly modelled on Mexico's Toltec effigies. The village of the Japanesians features several tikis just as clearly modelled on Canada's Pacific Northwest Indian totem poles. The statues stand sentinel in front of the sealed cave of Gappa -- an egg that becomes a very large and very angry dino-bird. The fun starts when mom and dad fly down from outer space to save him from destruction.

GHOST IN THE INVISIBLE BIKINI (1966): Watch for a pool party featuring several interesting tiki-faced, terra-cotta planters.

A GIRL, A GUY AND A GOB (1941): George Brent as a swabby turned pro wrestler named Coffee Cup. What more could you ask? How about the "Bon Ton," a sailor bar with lots of palm fronds, wall masks, and rowdy goons fighting over brassy dames (one of whom is Lucille Ball).

HARPER (1966): About halfway through this Paul Newman private-eye yarn set in L.A., we're treated to an exterior shot of the "Santa Barbara" apartment building -- and the Milan Guanco tikis fronting it.

HOW TO STUFF A WILD BIKINI (1965): The title sequence boasts spectacular acid-trip animation by "Gumby" creator Art Clokey, in which a gourd briefly morphs into an Easter Island moai. It's all downhill from there, but stick around for the opening scene -- featuring Buster Keaton as Bwana, witch-doctor of Goona Goona Island, drinking "Torpedo Juice."

JAWS 3-D (1983): A tiki bar scene. Oh yeah, and some sharks.

MAN FRIDAY (1975): A revisionist version of "Robinson Crusoe," with Peter O'Toole as the castaway and Richard Roundtree (of "Shaft" fame) as Friday. Friday's tribe, while clearly meant to be from an island off the coast of Africa, worships the same Sooty Tern icon as the ancient Bird Cult of Easter Island. It really is a small world after all...

THE MINDBENDERS (1963): Before he gets his mind bent by sense-deprivation experiments, Dirk Bogarde lounges around his country cottage while his kids impersonate Thor Heyerdal and his crew in the front yard ... on a home-made replica of the Kon Tiki raft.

MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1960): See it for Marlon Brando's unintentionally ridiculous English accent, Trevor Howard's intentionally ridiculous Tahitian dancing, and King Hiti-Hiti's tiki-festooned ceremonial canoe.

NINA TAKES A LOVER (1994): And he has an eight-foot cement Easter Island head in his photo-studio loft. Who could blame Nina for loving a guy like that?

O.C. AND STIGGS (1987): In his suburban backyard, which he calls "Tahiti," Martin Mull serves "Brown Liquor" in Trader Vic skull mugs; decor includes Trader Vic table lamps, palm-carved tikis, and lots of vintage '70s rattan. Personally, we wish Robert Altman were still making movies this jaw-droppingly bizarre instead of Merchant-Ivory xeroxes like "Gosford Park."

OCEAN'S ELEVEN (1960): Sinatra and his Rat Pack put the bite on Las Vegas, while pondering such weighty issues as: "Remember those rum drinks we used to have at the Traders?" Also watch for a tiki mask displayed on a stand. (Trader Woody filed this dispatch from the UK.)

ONCE WERE WARRIORS (1994): Late in the film, a Maori tiki puts in an appearance during a funeral -- which is one of the more upbeat scenes in this neo-realist look at poor, disenfranchised Maoris in contemporary New Zealand.

PAGAN ISLAND (1960): A seaman, stranded on a tropical isle inhabited by women who have never seen a man, angers Queen Kealoha by teaching nubile young Nani Maka how to kiss. Turns out Nani's been promised to the Sea God, a jaw-droppingly strange stone statue with a head shaped like two 1950s Cadillac tailfins joined at the nose, and teeth the size of elephant tusks. Miami-based Sculptor Lewis Van Dercar created the Sea God; whatever he was smoking at the time, I want some.

PEARL OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC (1955): A melodrama set on a remote island apparently settled by Marquesans, Hawaiians, and New Guinea natives -- all at the same time. "Tangaloha" is a big stone Marquesan-style tiki fronting a "Hidden Temple" that happens to be in plain sight of everyone. Inside the temple stands the "Goddess Of Love," a big-busted transexual Ku figure, along with Hawaiian-style war god "Laka." Rounding things out are several New Guinea carvings in the village. Dig the giant octopus that guards the Black Pearl Lagoon.

PIRANHA (1978): Two tiki posts inside the Aquarena Springs Submarine Theatre of Texas. Oh yeah, and some piranhas.

PSYCHO BEACH PARTY (2000): Surfer boy Starcat (Nicholas Brendan of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer," who should slay his agent for this one) uses his tiki pendant to hypnotize Chiclet (Lauren Ambrose of "Six Feet Under" -- insert your own agent remark here). Alpha surfer boy The Great Kanaka carves a tiki called "The God Of Sex" for a luau, where his tiki is upstaged by some golden head-carvings with smoking topknots. Quite a few good Hawaiian shirts too.

PUMPKIN (2002): Christina Ricci, way too pallid to be wearing a grass skirt and jungle-print bikini top, rock-a-hula dances to the Surfaris' "Wipe Out" at a luau-themed sorority rush party.

RETURN TO THE BLUE LAGOON (1991): The drama comes to a heart-stopping climax when the ground in front of a large tiki god is swept clean by a native with a broom. (Otto spotted this one too.)

SAVAGE MESSIAH (1972): Ken Russell's portrait of sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, who at least got to cavort atop an Easter Island moai before dying in the trenches of WWI.

SCREAM 3 (2000): Murder in a basement full of movie-prop zombies, corpses, coffins, a guillotine ... and an Oceanic Arts Ku tiki.

THE SIMPSONS (1989- ): TV's long-running cartoon sitcom boasts a recurring character, Sideshow Bob, who is the spitting image of one of those upside-down palm-trunk tikis. Note his root-like hair and tell us he wasn't modelled on one. Just try. We dare you.

TAPEHEADS (1988): If you're into '80s nostalgia, you obviously didn't live through them -- and you might be interested in this LA music-biz satire, which features a scene in Kelbo's.

TERMINATOR (1984): The motel in which future machine-battlin' hero John Connor is conceived? It's a tiki motel. Take that, terminators.

THERE GOES MY BABY (1994): The American Graffiti template transplanted to the summer of 1965, centering around an island-themed burger joint called Pop's Paradise. Outside there's a WWII bomber on the roof. Inside there's surfer Ricky Shroeder bummed about losing his woody and going to Viet Nam (just about in that order).

TIARA TAHITI (1962): Herbert Lom plays a Chinese merchant who's hot for James Mason's mistress, which is odd since Lom plays the merchant gayer than Liberace. Also odd: Many flashes of the mistress's bare breasts, unheard of in a British movie in 1962. We can only surmise that said breasts were acceptable because they belonged, "National Geographic"-style, to a "native"; but this native is played by decidedly non-Tahitian Rosenda Monteros (sort of a Latin Sandra Bullock) in quite a bit of brown body make-up. Many tiki posts on the Royal Tahitienne Hotel set, and Lom sells Tahitian cannibal carvings in his shop (who get their closeup after two American tourists buy them).

A TIKI SCARE IS NO FAIR (1970): An episode of the "Scooby Doo, Where Are You?" cartoon series, featuring a witch doctor wearing a tiki mask. (N.B.: When he takes off the mask, he's a dead ringer for Ned Flanders of "The Simpsons.")

WEIRD WOMAN (1944): In this Lon Chaney, Jr., mystery, hula girls and tikis collide with voodoo ritual. Man, I hate when that happens. (Thanks to Will The Thrill for this one).

WHALE RIDER (2002): Like "Once Were Warriors," a socially conscious look at contemporary Maori angst -- but this one has a lot more tikis in it.

WHERE DANGER LIVES (1950): Mia Farrow's dad John directed Robert Mitchum in this noirish trifle, notable for the sight of manly Mitchum drinking cocktails out of coconut shells in a tropical bar.

THE WOMAN CHASER (1999): A film noir parody about a used-car salesman (Patrick Warburton of "Seinfeld" and "The Tick") turned film director. Watch for Warburton sulking over his botched epic with a tropical drink in Bahooka's restaurant.

WORLD'S BIGGEST GANG BANG II (2001): More tiki porn! Jasmine St. Claire does 300 guys to break the world gang-bang record, on what she refers to as a "Polynesian-themed tiki set." (As opposed to the Mexican-themed tiki set of "Gappa"?) St. Claire also informs us that after 90 guys, "to be honest with you, it wasn't all that pleasurable at all." Unlike spotting the Oceanic Arts Ku tiki posts and red plastic Hawaiian war gods skirting the action.
-- Beachbum Berry

images from Return to Blue Lagoon

On 2014-09-26 23:42, Otto wrote:
Way back in 2000 or so I was working on a zine and one of the columns was about Cinema and was written by then screenwriter-now famous mixologist Beachbum Berry. Here is his last column from 2003

Good stuff, Herr Von Stroheim. Couple of flicks there that I was hitherto unaware of.

Here's the scene in question from "Dead Heat on a Merry-go-Round". Gotta love the shirtless slob hanging out by the pool...

[ Edited by: MrBaliHai 2014-09-28 06:30 ]

Ah, yes, DEAD HEAT ON A MERRY GO ROUND where cool Colburn says a memorable line as he's describing the apartment his new wife picked out without him, "It's kind of a Wackiki Pop isn't it." Not sure if he was trying to say "Waikiki Pop" or was hinting to his wife that the décor is wacky, ether way, it has been one of my favorite terms. Sounds like a book title I know. :) Thanks BaliHai for the great screen shots. And thanks, Otto for reviving that movie list from B. Berry. There are some titles that I didn't know about.

Funny or coincidence in class this morning we covered Pacific in films and we shown a few Hollywood film clips, one of Bali Hai in SOUTH PACIFIC and the other weird tiki moai like image in the prequel to RETURN TO THE BLUE LAGOON with the young Brooke Shields. Here's that tiki which is fun to compare with the one Otto posted.

[ Edited by: creativenative 2014-10-01 01:27 ]

Here are a couple of screensnaps of the Tiki bar scene from "Bachelor in Paradise". It's obviously a standard restaurant set, dressed up with a little bamboo, some tropical flowers, and a couple of Balinese statues, but the drinks look pretty enticing, and there's a good floor show, so I think I'll hang out a while, have another "Scorpion's Kiss" (only two to a customer!), and watch Lana do the 3-sheets-to-the-wind Hula.

[ Edited by: MrBaliHai 2014-10-01 17:22 ]

I really liked In Search Of The Castaways when I was a kid, so I watched it again a couple years ago, it has no plot and bad acting by Chevalier but it did have tikis!

At the bridge entering the Maori village.

Around the door where they were captives.

And this building in the background.

These must have been a set made at the studio in England where it was filmed. Some cool background and foreground paintings for the movie though.

aloha, tikicoma

I caught an advance screening of Tim Burton's new film "big eyes" last night. The attention to period detail is great. Hawaii features prominently in the story and a souvenir Kane statue plays a role.

Most interestingly, there is a scene set in San Francisco's Tiki Bobs. The scene plays out in medium and close up shots and there are no tikis but if you are watching carefully you will catch the details.

There's also a ton of great mid century modern furniture and design elements throughout the film.

SoCal Savage is the movie closer in tone to Ed Wood?
or actually a straight forward drama?

ATP - it's more straightforward than Ed Wood but still has old school Burton touches. Definitely the best thing he's done in years.

GTK! Thanks.

[ Edited by: Atomic Tiki Punk 2014-11-15 19:23 ]

Mahalo SCS, great news and thanks for sharing. I remember rumors of this movie but I guess they slipped in and out of the islands without much notice. I also remember Margaret Keane and her work here in Hawai'i. She comes from a long line of great artist living or being inspired by Hawai'i. We in Hawai'i seemed shocked about the trial and her husbands claims. We on the rock knew all along Margaret was the painter. Here are some screen shots from the trailer. I can't wait for the movie to come out.

The classic Diamond Head shot (without the hotels below its tip):

Getting married at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel:

Here, in the background, one can see what we know of Margaret's work in Hawai'i with the big "Polynesian" eyes:

[ Edited by: creativenative 2014-11-17 18:48 ]

On 2014-11-17 18:46, creativenative wrote:
Mahalo SCS, great news and thanks for sharing. I remember rumors of this movie but I guess they slipped in and out of the islands without much notice.

Creative -- they definitely shot on location, I checked the credits! Though Canada served for most of San Francisco (minus the exteriors). Burton for sure has an appreciation of the era.

The Package 1989 movie with Gene Hackman and Tommy Lee Jones had a scene at Ciral's House of Tiki in Chicago.

Outside scene.

I could not find a clip of the indoor shots, but there is a bar scene with Hackman and Jones.

DC

"Murder, My Sweet" (1944)

Dick Powell searches for Moose's dame, Velma, at the Cocoanut Beach Club; a couple of years before the Tiki craze hit, but still a nice hybrid of oriental, bamboo, and nautical themes. Note the mask on the wall behind Powell and Mike Mazurki in the last screencap.

This is more an "Exotica in Films" post but I didn't want to start a new thread for it.

I Watched the new Paul Thomas Anderson film "Inherent Vice" last night and the great Les Baxter's Simba was in it several times.

Here's the Tiki Bob scene in "Big Eyes":

This shot from my laptop screen has no shadow detail, so I zoomed in on the many Tiki Bob's props in the shot:

There are THREE posters in the background showing the Tiki Bob cartoon and font

There's also a coaster on the bar:

• all these, while using the correct drawing and font, are not based on original ephemera. One wonders why they used Harvey's Fogcutter mugs and not Tiki Bobs. The whole place is not that impressive, it looks like someone's home bar.

Nice A-frame home:

I was kinda underwhelmed by the movie, it's like a very straight forward bio pic. And why did they pic this German dude as Keane? He seems to fake it from the start.

Here's a better lit still of the underdressed Tiki Bob's set:

Most likely shot in Vancouver, Canada

I'm underwhelmed. I've liked a bunch of Tim Burton films and dug the set designs but this looks like he didn't even try.

On 2014-12-26 14:10, bigbrotiki wrote:
Here's a better lit still of the underdressed Tiki Bob's set:

Most likely shot in Vancouver, Canada

On 2014-12-26 18:27, tikicoma wrote:
I'm underwhelmed. I've liked a bunch of Tim Burton films and dug the set designs but this looks like he didn't even try.

I agree, but one must admit that the interior of the original Tiki Bob's was a little underwhelming, too :)

That's why I never used it in any of my books - to keep the mystique alive.

I wonder if the reference to Tiki Bob's was Burton's, or the writers' idea - they were originally slated to direct, with Burton only producing. Instead of having Burton's signature "fairytale" style, the film is very much a straight forward bio pic. TIME called it "Tim Burton paints by Numbers". The production design is all about being faithful period style, not a fantasy world. I had hoped the film would add a surrealist dimension to the weird Keane paintings, but it doesn't. In my opinion, it falls kind of flat.

One of my favorites, The Fabulous Baker Boys in a fabulous tiki lounge, only problem, it's empty. Indicative of the era (the 80s) where cool lounges and lounge acts are dying. This film has been mentioned a couple times but not w images. So here are a few:

And for you, DustyC, interiors of Cirals' in "The Package"

Just bought and watched "Don't Make Waves". A 1967 film showing some cool tiki culture of the times. With Tony Curtis and 60s babes Claudia Cardinale and Sharon Tate. There are Hawaiian elements of a So Cal young beach & surf culture and Pacific elements in the more mature and sophisticated tiki culture. Although both American sub cultures have oceanic influences and of course tikis, they are two very distinct American popular sub-cultural movements:

Hawaiian throwing net on a So-Cal surf beach (not realistic but Hollywood artistic):

Token Hawaiians on beach in background (more as human props to help establish this beach culture):

Curtis buys a new pad complete with Micronesian tikis in background. Guy on right is laying a zebra rug, of course:

Later in film Tony's lux pad washes down toward the Pacific Hwy and shore. Here, house upside-down, one can see the ubiquitous tapa cloth hanging in background:

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Tiki Movies & Tiki TV @ southseascinema.org

[ Edited by: creativenative 2015-01-19 16:25 ]

[ Edited by: creativenative 2015-01-19 16:28 ]

1928 silent movie "White Shadows in the South Seas". The movie was filmed in Tahiti and Clyde De Vinna won the Oscar for cinematography.

Actress Raquel Torres.

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-Lori

[ Edited by: tikilongbeach 2015-02-10 11:29 ]

On break from The Rocky Horror Picture Show

"The Cracksman" (1963)

Starring diminutive British ginger comedian, Charlie Drake, as a naïfish locksmith who's tricked by gangsters into robbing a collection of jewels. The gangleader's HQ is the Beachcomber Club in London's Mayfair Hotel. Sorry for the poor quality, but this movie ain't exactly Criterion Blu-Ray material.

Mr. Bali Hai,

Could you tell if the scenes were actually shot at the Mayfair Beachcomber or was that a set?

I found this news clipping on the movie With Six You Get Egg-roll staring Doris Day with a scene that was shot at the Tahitian in Studio City.

I got the movie on Netfix and snapped a few photos of the scene. It only lasted for a minute or so and did not show much of the restaurant. You can see the Tiki table lamps, however.

You can see the pink Tiki table lamps, however.

You can see the Tiki table lamps, however.

DC

Sorry but not the beachcomber but a set in Elstree, as discussed in these threads,

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=31059&forum=1&vpost=429905&hilite=cracksman

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=14685&forum=1&vpost=629073

On 2015-05-16 20:00, Dustycajun wrote:
Mr. Bali Hai,

Could you tell if the scenes were actually shot at the Mayfair Beachcomber or was that a set?

Tony beat me to it, but as you can see from this old British Pathé clip that was actually shot inside the Mayfair Beachcomber, it's interior looks nothing like what's shown in the film. I started getting suspicious after recognizing some of those Tiki carvings from an old Avengers episode, and a couple of Hammer films:

https://youtu.be/YM39IoqrhvI

Still, a pretty good-looking set.

There is this movie from 2005 based on a book by the same name called " The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio" starring Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson. It's about a mother of 10 kids who supports her children during the 50s and 60s by entering contests to keep their family from the poorhouse.

The main character, Julianne/Evelyn wins a contest that sends her to Texas where she is taken out to dinner at Ports o' Call. In the book her husband really wanted a big Texas steak and was bummed they ended up in a Polynesian restaurant.

There is a quick scene in the movie where they are supposed to be eating there. Masks on the walls but no other tikis and there are no mugs to be seen.

Watching a movie on TCM called "Dive Bomber" (1941) starring Errol Flynn and Fred MacMurray. There is an extended bar scene that takes place in what looks like a "proto Tiki" establishment. No carvings, but the furnishings are rattan/bamboo, the cocktails have a somewhat exotic look to them, served in tall glasses wrapped in woven mat, and some of the women are wearing Island prints. Also, there is orchestral Hawaiian music with steel guitar featured playing in the background. I think this may be an interesting glimpse into the infancy of Tiki culture.

[ Edited by: ManFromT.I.K.I. 2015-05-23 13:59 ]

On 2013-10-09 23:48, bigbrotiki wrote:
As far as I understand, this film will not have this title anymore:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2446629/Rachel-McAdams-gets-beauty-treatment-set-new-film-Deep-Tiki.html

...so I doubt there will be any actual "Tiki" in it, but maybe someone knows more about it. Too bad, would be a nice precedent to have it in a major feature film title.

Film has been renamed but does not look like it's worth a trip to the local cinema

Cameron Crowe's 'Aloha' Criticized for Depicting "Whitewashed" Hawaii

Boom! (1968) John Water's favorite film, featuring Liz Taylor and Richard Burton running around on a Sardinian island yelling at each other, overacting a lot and looking fabulous. For some reason, there's a bunch (herd? flock? quarry?) of Moai on the seacliffs opposite Liz's exotic villa, overlooking the Mediterranean. Here's the best screenshot of them I could get. There's also a scene of Liz and Dick strolling amongst the Moai, but my DVD version omits it for some reason. Here's a shot of it in all of its non-widescreen non-glory:

[ Edited by: MrBaliHai 2015-06-21 12:54 ]

Nice find MrBaliHai. Maybe the Taylor character is so rich she commissioned Moai artwork for the back of her Villa? I guess I would too if I had the money.

On 2015-06-23 00:21, creativenative wrote:
Nice find MrBaliHai. Maybe the Taylor character is so rich she commissioned Moai artwork for the back of her Villa? I guess I would too if I had the money.

I'd definitely commission a flock of Moai if I owned a fabulous estate on the Capo Caccia peninsula in Sardinia. I tried searching around the area on Google maps to see if they were still there, but no luck. Liz probably scared them off with her drunken ranting.

Haha! Unfortunately they were probably burned after filming but who knows, Maybe a local has one rotting in his backyard. Too bad we don't have many TCers there to investigate "the mystery missing moai matter" for us. Sounds like a title for a "Hardy Boys" episode.

Anybody see "American Ultra"? I liked it, but besides that, the story is framed around Jesse Eisenberg obsession on things Hawaiian. Like Stephen Baldwin's character in "Under the Hula Moon" (1995), Jessie plays Hawaiian music, wears Aloha shirts and has a major goal to visit Hawai'i. But unlike Baldwin and like Al Pacino in "Scarface" (1983), Jessie’s Aloha shirt gets covered in blood.

Eisenberg in "American Ultra"

Pacino in "Scarface'

Baldwin IN "Under the Hula Moon" (that is supposed to be sunblock on his nose)

P.S. Anyone is there a Aloha shirt on screen thread? Might be a good subject.

[ Edited by: creativenative 2015-08-29 01:14 ]

[ Edited by: creativenative 2015-08-29 01:15 ]

Sorry, unfortunately "American Ultra" has no tikis that I noticed and to the best of my knowledge either does "Scarface" but "Under the Hula Moon" has some straight out of a Party City catalog.

Moai tiki lights hanging on Baldwin's trailer porch

Small tiki hanging on wall behind evil brother Chris Penn's head

Re-watched a really bad but good B-Grade horror movie the other night from the late 80's called Brain Damage that i would have seen when it first came out and was long before i was into Tiki. The opening scenes include a lot of primitive carvings, most of it is what i think is African but there are a few really great PNG pieces. I've included the screen grabs i took of everything just to show you all as reference.

And this probably should go in the Food and Drinks forum but i thought i'd show it here as it was part of the opening scene and caught my eye. It's not Coco Lopez but it's Coco something. Anyone know what it is?

On 2015-11-26 20:52, swizzle wrote:

And this probably should go in the Food and Drinks forum but i thought i'd show it here as it was part of the opening scene and caught my eye. It's not Coco Lopez but it's Coco something. Anyone know what it is?

It's Coco Goya, cream of coconut put out by Goya. I've used it on occasion. I remember that label design from the 80's.

http://www.amazon.com/Goya-Coco-Cream-Coconut-Onces/dp/B004IMOIJA

howlinowl

Scene from The FISHERMAN BAR in the Film Noir movie, DOA.

The location was at 111 Embarcadero at the corner of Merchant Street between Clay and Washington (click image to enlarge). The Fisherman name was fictitious but a bar had occupied this spot for decades - it was called Jack's Waterfront Hangout at the time the movie was filmed. Jack's was a leather bar from 1952 to 1963.

Hey mrsmiley, thanks for posting!

I took some screencaps from that too, but never got around to posting them (or anything much in a while - last movie images I posted were here). Anyway, now that you mention it, here's some more images. D.O.A. isn't my favorite noir in the world, but it's fun to watch Edmond O'Brien and his fierce acting. Plus the movie turns out to be almost a travelogue for some notable SF and LA locations. Here's more inside "The Fisherman"...

Here's the exterior, and even a sign, at the location on Embarcadero across from the Ferry Building. :down:

Later on, a scene inside the iconic Bradbury building in LA. :down:

And another with the Clifton's Brookdale facade in the background. BTW, when I took this screencap, I was wondering if O'Brien started to crack a smile here because he thought he was off-camera already. :down:

Just for handy reference, here's another old photo of the Clifton's facade. :down:

-Randy

You both missed capping the bartender (Pete Leeds) wearing a lei, standing in front of a PBR sign:

Nautical Beatnik Hipster Jive Tiki bars serving a cocktail called The Luminous Toxin...I see a great need.

[ Edited by: MrBaliHai 2016-02-19 17:46 ]

Thanks for the add'l image. The Luminous Toxin sounds like a good name, but they say it kind of sneaks up on you after you drink it.

-Randy