Tikis in films

The Idol Dancer, 1920 silent movie.
"White Almond Flower (Clarine Seymour) is a flapper-ish island girl who just can’t choose between a sickly missionary (Creighton Hale) and an atheist beach bum (Richard Barthelmess). Will WAF be “civilized” or will she be free to continue her moonlight idolatry? D.W. Griffith directs this tale of religion, the nature of civilization and shimmy-shimmy shakes."

It is a movie by D.W. Griffith.

No tikis, but there is some hula dancing by Lucille Ball and Maureen O'Hara in 1940's 'Dance Girl, Dance'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIoHK9JRRBY

Not sure if this has already been posted or not.

Next week on Archer...

On 2016-04-18 14:23, Rob Roy wrote:
Next week on Archer...

I love it when some of my favorite non-tiki shows make it into Tiki Central! Oh, by the way, get the "Archer" app for your phone - it's a very entertaining soundboard which comes in handy.

Ditto Ace. My favorite adult toon, now containing my favorite subject. Great find Rob Roy and great screen shots, they are making me salivate in anticipation. This is great follow up to this season's Archer Magnum P.I.ish promos, a must see.
YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhaEowME4T0

Sorry I got so excited, I just realized that this "Archer" discussion should be on the "Tiki on TV" or the "Tiki on Television" thread, the notorious two headed snake on TC. Actually we need a Tiki in "Toons or Anime" thread, ah maybe one day I'll start one, one day.

[ Edited by: creativenative 2016-04-19 14:09 ]

Just watched The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps and there is a brief Tiki hot tub scene with Eddie Murphy surrounded by Tiki torches, tropical landscaping, and masks on some sort of bamboo fencing. Well done but I did not capture an image and can't find any online

On 2016-07-09 21:30, Otto wrote:
Just watched The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps and there is a brief Tiki hot tub scene with Eddie Murphy surrounded by Tiki torches, tropical landscaping, and masks on some sort of bamboo fencing. Well done but I did not capture an image and can't find any online

Here's a clip on YouTube, queued to begin at that scene:
Granny and Buddy in the tiki hot tub

I picked up this nice lobby card showing the Tiki in Charlie Chan's Feathered Serpent.

In doing a bit of research on the Charlie Chan movie series, I discovered that Don the Beachcomber (Donn Beach) was hired as a set design consultant for the Charlie Chan film Dangerous Money. (Hollywood notes: Restaurateur "Don the Beachcomber" gave technical advice on the South Sea Islands.)

That explains the look of the Mango Inn Polynesian bar from the movie! Looks a lot like Don's early Waikiki restaurant.

DC

Good find Otto. Here are a couple of screen shots from the link provided by Limbo Lizard (another good find)

And yes DC, I glad you brought up "Dangerous Money" with some great images from the film. Along with "Dangerous" and "Charlie Chan at Treasure Island" these are my favorite Charlie Chan films because of these similar images. Surprisingly South Seas/Tiki images are rare from a character from Hawai'i. Even "Treasure Island takes place in San Francisco (see below).

On 2010-06-24 17:48, Sweet Daddy Tiki wrote:
The very first post in this thread:

Just watched the Criterion Collection Robinson Crusoe on Mars and made this screencap:

I'm assuming the Kailua Klub is fictional.

Saw this flick last night and was tickled that the lost astronaut apparently spent his last night on earth in a tiki bar. I mean, wouldn't we all?

Came here to see if it was a real place; apparently not.
Thanks for the screen grab, Sweet Daddy.

• James T.
  My new book is "Destination: Cocktails": http://www.destinationcocktails.com.
  Get "Big Stone Head: Easter Island and Pop Culture" at: http://www.bigstonehead.com.
  See http://www.tydirium.net for Tiki Road Trip, global travelogues, and more!

[ Edited by: tikibars 2016-08-08 17:15 ]

Quick shot of a couple tiki mugs in the movie What If with Daniel Radcliffe:

Good eye Tiki Drifter. Hey the other actor with Radcliff is the bad son of Hans Solo in the newest Star Wars-The Force Awakens.

Adding this Dorothy Lamour Aloma of the South Seas photo from ebay

On 2011-03-27 08:06, MrBaliHai wrote:
Aloma of the South Seas (1941), starring Dorothy Lamour and Jon Hall.

Supposedly set in the Cook Islands, which unbeknowst to me, is apparently chock-a-block with papier-mache Moais! Pretty tepid pagan love saga filmed on obvious sets with your standard Gods-are-angry-and-require-a-virgin-sacrifice-before-fake-volcano-erupts plot. Lamour and Hall apparently starred in another South Pacific romance called "The Hurricane", which I haven't seen yet, but is supposedly much better.

Here are a few caps. Sorry for the poor quality, but my copy is from a VHS rip.

On 2010-08-09 22:22, Dustycajun wrote:
Rainbow Island, 1944, Staring Dorthy Lamour, the Sarong Siren!

So, the Rainbow Island has some Tiki?

Who's this guy hanging out?

Some movie cards ...

Here is the movie write up I found on the net.

RAINBOW ISLAND (1944) PARAMOUNT Good cast of Mexican-American actresses playing natives with stranded merchant marines. Dorothy Lamour in sarong and her tongue in cheek. Also starring Eddie Bracken, Olga San Juan, Elena Verdugo and Yvonne De Carlo. Sounds like a South Seas must See. Navy men plane wrecked on an island of thinly clad women. Lagoon scene. Dorothy plays a haole believe it or not who had shipwrecked there earlier and has been taken in by the natives who of course give her sarongs. Costumes by Edith Head. Bad Art Direction, women have classic look but the men? Tikis. Maori and Aztec designs. Luau
feast. Hawaiian & Samoan words. Couples running off.

Anybody seen this one??

DC

Ebay photo - note it looks like "Southern Skies" was an original/alternate title for "White Shadows in the South Seas".

Photo text:
Please credit Ruth Harriet Louise
Metro-Goldyn-Mayer Photographer

6575 Raquel Torres, the native girl who has the feminine lead in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's "Southern Skies". W.S. Van Dyke directs the production which features Monte Blue.

On 2015-02-10 11:28, tikilongbeach wrote:
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.

---

-Lori

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

On 2004-11-04 23:32, KevInBoots wrote:
Here's one I know hasn't been mentioned before, because it won't be released until next May: 'Madagascar.' It's DreamWorks next animated feature, which I'm working on now, and it has a very funny Tiki sequence. That sequence hasn't even been animated yet, but I was looking at the layouts, and it's funny as hell.

I need help in identifying the vibraphone music in Marty the zebra's tiki bar scene. I've been trying to figure it out for months. Can anyone help on this?

In the new animated movie "Sing" there is a brief tiki bar scene.

Last Monday was Doris Day's 95th birthday, so I think stills from 1964's "Send Me No Flowers" deserve a post. Here are Clive Clerk and Doris wearing tiki necklaces and dancing groovily in a dream sequence.

And even though there are no tikis, here's Doris in a sarong dancing in Sheldon Leonard's bamboo club in "My Dream is Yours" from 1949 (and a shot of Leonard with floats behind him, just for fun).

Wanted to make a plug for a movie I saw recently called "Navy Blues" from 1941.

Jack Haley (still fresh from his career-making turn as the Tin Man in 1939's "The Wizard of Oz") is Powerhouse Bolton, a Navy sailor who is behind on the alimony he owes his ex-wife Lilibelle (played by Martha Raye, in characteristic over-the-top fashion). Lilibelle and her friend Margie Jordan (Ann Sheridan, as stunning as I have ever seen her look on film) are in Honolulu at the same time Powerhouse's ship is in port. Shenanigans and interlocking love triangles ensue, and along the way we are treated to Jack Oakie in a show-stealing supporting role (himself fresh off a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his turn as Benzino Napaloni in Chaplin's "The Great Dictator"), and none other than Jackie Gleason in his first film.

It's a light-hearted and largely forgettable film, though perhaps slightly less so for fans of pre-Tiki and Tiki Culture. There are plenty of stock 1940s-era Poly-pop influences, including tropical drinks and a big hula scene with a hilarious cross-dressing twist.

Of most interest to me, however, is an early scene in what can only be described as a pre-Tiki (if not, indeed, Tiki) bar. The bar has extensive lauhala matting, faux palm trees, bamboo and other tropical décor, but interestingly there is also a big tiki (or moai? it's some sort of humanoid stone figure) painted into a mural on one of the walls. I've tried unsuccessfully to find a picture of the mural - will have to take one the next time it airs. For now, here are some other pictures showing very limited views of the bar set:

I know there has been substantial debate here over what was the first "tiki bar", but given the early connections between Tiki culture and the Hollywood film industry (in perhaps an unbroken line from Ernest Gantt's loaning South Seas props to film studios to bigbro's own career in the industry), I'm also curious when we see the first tiki bar/tiki in a bar in a Hollywood film? Anybody got anything pre-dating 1941?

IMDB Entry: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033942/

Wikipedia Entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_Blues_(1941_film)

TCM Entry: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/14962/Navy-Blues/ and Article: http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/253212%7C0/Navy-Blues.html

Another Old Movie Blog Review: http://anotheroldmovieblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/navy-blues-1941.html

[ Edited by: HotelCharlieEcho 2018-04-03 15:20 ]

Mildred Pierce has a fantastic bamboo bar in it.

Tiki mug in the new Incredibles movie.

And some nice PNG art on the walls in Oceans 11.

DC

Good stuff DC (as usual). I wanted to whip out my smart phone to take a screen shot of that tiki mug but it was too late the scene changed. Haha, knowing me I would have gotten busted. It was a great mid-century film. Here's a couple images from the last "Incredibles" in the "evil volcanic lair".

And also from the mid-century original hit "Ocean's 11" here is Dean Martin's character arriving from his ultimate cool-cat home - Hawaii.

On 2018-06-23 16:01, creativenative wrote:
And also from the mid-century original hit "Ocean's 11"....

Maybe it’s been mentioned already, but there’s an early scene where Mrs. Bergdolf asks Corneal (paraphrased, because I was drinking a Navy Grog and not taking notes), “Remember the rum drinks at the Trader’s?” The scene is set in San Francisco, so I assume she’s referring to Vic’s.

Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. (1966)

And in comic book form!

[ Edited by: King Bushwich the 33rd 2018-07-11 12:22 ]

That is one of my favorite images with the small wahine (Nancy Kwan) in a red sarong visiting her giant native idol. Fun movie. Interestingly Walt wrote this story himself with one of his staff writers putting it on paper. As some may know Walt's anonymous writer's name, which is used for this movie's credits, is Retlaw Yensid, Walter Disney spelt backwards. Walt was a huge fan of Hawaii and the South Seas.

At 0:25, you can see the giant native idol

Lt. Robin Crusoe USN Trailer

Anybody notice the big Witco horse in the corner of the Dean’s office in the new Ghostbusters?

Maori carving above the fireplace in Aquaman.

Get Shorty

I recently watched a black and white schlock horror film called "Terror Is a Man" (Valiant Films, 1959) that turned out to be a densely-packed tikified romp weaving together a number of my favorite threads of early/mid-century pop-culture nerdiness.

To wit:

[SPOILER ALERT]

Universal Monsters: Check. This clearly isn't a genre defining film like the core Universal classics, but director Gerardo de Leon had obviously boned up on those films before making this one. The "mmmmaaaannnn...MMMMAAAANNNN" scene gave me goosebumps in the same way as "It's alive! It's alive!" We also get 1941 Wolf Man-esque scenes of the monster wandering through the jungle, and most of that wandering consists of limping around in bandages looking for all the world like the Mummy with funny ears. It even starts with one of those "It might even horrify you!" disclaimers, with the most objectionable scene preceded by the ringing of a bell (sidenote: does anyone else hear echoes of the "The Beachcomber will not serve more than two Zombies to each person" from early Don the Beachcomber menus?). The ending scene is straight off the pages of Mary Shelley's original Frankenstein novel. It's almost like they just mashed up all the classic monster movies they could think of (Cat People anyone?).

H.G. Wells Sci Fi: Check. The movie quite obviously belongs among the Island of Dr. Moreau adaptations, even if Wells is uncredited. In fact, I think it's one of the better adaptations, possibly even the best outside of Paramount's 1932 version. Terror Is a Man itself apparently spawned several sequels, which I can't wait to check out.

Pinup: Check. Greta Thyssen (former Miss Denmark 1952, who started her Hollywood career playing a Marilyn Monroe double) wasn't in danger of winning an academy award for this performance, but she definitely hit all the robotic-pinup-model-as-damsel-in-distress notes. Smoking.

James Bond: Quarter-check. For some reason, while watching Francis Lederer's performance I couldn't help thinking about Desmond Llewelyn's Q tinkering away down in the lab. Even had to google it to make sure it wasn't actually Llewelyn himself.

Hitchcock: Hitchcock? Hear me out. I'm going one-eighth check on Hitchcock, solely because of the shadowy bird specimens in the mad doctor's office. Watch the scene and try not to think of Anthony Perkins in the hotel office in Psycho.

Tiki? Oh yeah, tiki. I'm going three-quarter-check here. It's set on an imaginary Pacific island and filmed in the Philippines, so the setting is right. And most of the interior sets include Paul Frankl style rattan furniture, some obviously Pacific-island influenced (PNG? Philippines? not sure) shields and weapons scattered about as décor, and nicely done bamboo/lauhala construction. But the kicker is this little guy:

Does he remind anyone else of the Suffering Bastard? Kinda hard to tell from this angle, but he's in that distinctive sitting/squatting, elbows-on-knees pose.

To be clear: This is not an objectively good movie, and one you will only enjoy if you like mid-century sci-fi schlock mashed up with tropical/Poly-pop setting and décor. Lederer's performance is head and shoulders above the rest, but otherwise the acting is average to poor. The cinematography was at times excellent, and at other times had me scratching my head. The sound editing is very bad (the "crashes" of lightning made me laugh out loud). It succeeds, if at all, only in achieving that same sort of vague gothic dread the best old horror movies induce. You will only "like" it if you enjoy similar campy old horror films right on the edge of taking themselves too seriously (think "Island of Lost Women" with a monster, or "From Hell It Came" with a slightly less ridiculous monster).

[ Edited by: HotelCharlieEcho 2019-05-08 13:52 ]

On 2019-05-08 11:22, HotelCharlieEcho wrote:
I recently watched a black and white schlock horror film called "Terror Is a Man" (Valiant Films, 1959) that turned out to be a densely-packed tikified romp weaving together a number of my favorite threads of early/mid-century pop-culture nerdiness.

To wit:

[SPOILER ALERT]

Universal Monsters: Check. This clearly isn't a genre defining film like the core Universal classics, but director Gerardo de Leon had obviously boned up on those films before making this one. The "mmmmaaaannnn...MMMMAAAANNNN" scene gave me goosebumps in the same way as "It's alive! It's alive!" We also get 1941 Wolf Man-esque scenes of the monster wandering through the jungle, and most of that wandering consists of limping around in bandages looking for all the world like the Mummy with funny ears. It even starts with one of those "It might even horrify you!" disclaimers, with the most objectionable scene preceded by the ringing of a bell (sidenote: does anyone else hear echoes of the "The Beachcomber will not serve more than two Zombies to each person" from early Don the Beachcomber menus?). The ending scene is straight off the pages of Mary Shelley's original Frankenstein novel. It's almost like they just mashed up all the classic monster movies they could think of (Cat People anyone?).

H.G. Wells Sci Fi: Check. The movie quite obviously belongs among the Island of Dr. Moreau adaptations, even if Wells is uncredited. In fact, I think it's one of the better adaptations, possibly even the best outside of Paramount's 1932 version. Terror Is a Man itself apparently spawned several sequels, which I can't wait to check out.

Pinup: Check. Greta Thyssen (former Miss Denmark 1952, who started her Hollywood career playing a Marilyn Monroe double) wasn't in danger of winning an academy award for this performance, but she definitely hit all the robotic-pinup-model-as-damsel-in-distress notes. Smoking.

James Bond: Quarter-check. For some reason, while watching Francis Lederer's performance I couldn't help thinking about Desmond Llewelyn's Q tinkering away down in the lab. Even had to google it to make sure it wasn't actually Llewelyn himself.

Hitchcock: Hitchcock? Hear me out. I'm going one-eighth check on Hitchcock, solely because of the shadowy bird specimens in the mad doctor's office. Watch the scene and try not to think of Anthony Perkins in the hotel office in Psycho.

Tiki? Oh yeah, tiki. I'm going three-quarter-check here. It's set on an imaginary Pacific island and filmed in the Philippines, so the setting is right. And most of the interior sets include Paul Frankl style rattan furniture, some obviously Pacific-island influenced (PNG? Philippines? not sure) shields and weapons scattered about as décor, and nicely done bamboo/lauhala construction. But the kicker is this little guy:

Does he remind anyone else of the Suffering Bastard? Kinda hard to tell from this angle, but he's in that distinctive sitting/squatting, elbows-on-knees pose.

To be clear: This is not an objectively good movie, and one you will only enjoy if you like mid-century sci-fi schlock mashed up with tropical/Poly-pop setting and décor. Lederer's performance is head and shoulders above the rest, but otherwise the acting is average to poor. The cinematography was at times excellent, and at other times had me scratching my head. The sound editing is very bad (the "crashes" of lightning made me laugh out loud). It succeeds, if at all, only in achieving that same sort of vague gothic dread the best old horror movies induce. You will only "like" it if you enjoy similar campy old horror films right on the edge of taking themselves too seriously (think "Island of Lost Women" with a monster, or "From Hell It Came" with a slightly less ridiculous monster).

[ Edited by: HotelCharlieEcho 2019-05-08 13:52 ]

He's probably a Bulul. Guardian of the rice crops of the Ifugao tribes of Luzon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulul

howlinowl

Thanks howlinowl for a learning opportunity and an excellent suggestion. Google images shows a bunch of examples that look like the one from the film.

Here's a similar one for comparison purposes:

[ Edited by: HotelCharlieEcho 2019-05-20 17:20 ]

On 2016-08-08 17:13, tikibars wrote:

On 2010-06-24 17:48, Sweet Daddy Tiki wrote:
The very first post in this thread:

Just watched the Criterion Collection Robinson Crusoe on Mars and made this screencap:

I'm assuming the Kailua Klub is fictional.

Saw this flick last night and was tickled that the lost astronaut apparently spent his last night on earth in a tiki bar. I mean, wouldn't we all?

Came here to see if it was a real place; apparently not.
Thanks for the screen grab, Sweet Daddy.

---

• James T.
  My new book is "Destination: Cocktails": http://www.destinationcocktails.com.
  Get "Big Stone Head: Easter Island and Pop Culture" at: http://www.bigstonehead.com.
  See http://www.tydirium.net for Tiki Road Trip, global travelogues, and more!

[ Edited by: tikibars 2016-08-08 17:15 ]

This older post by Sweet Daddy and tikibars reminds me of the hugely significant matchbook in Chris Evans' "Snowpiercer" (2013).

I'm sure a fictional place.

From the new trailer from a highly anticipated film FORD v FERRARI. Captured a very quick shot of a tiki bar from this mid-century set film. Let see if anybody can tell if it's a real bar or fake Hollywood set.

For just a second you can see that the pinball machine theme in Toy Story 4 is "Tiki Party". I don't have screen shot, but found the Pixar concept art here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tiki-party-pinball-in-toy-story-4

Haven't seen Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood yet but it looks like a tiki bar next to the Vogue Theater in this still.

nice, naugatiki, i have seen it and figured i would get the Blu-Ray when it's out and pause all the frames. there had to be some tiki in there somewhere!!!

tangential, we watched "Gidget In Rome" (1963) recently, and at the beginning in Cali, this befuddled gentleman is wearing an awesome aloha shirt - it has tikis in it, so it's tiki!!!

On 2019-06-27 13:29, Tiki Doug wrote:
For just a second you can see that the pinball machine theme in Toy Story 4 is "Tiki Party". I don't have screen shot, but found the Pixar concept art here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tiki-party-pinball-in-toy-story-4

I like how they recycled the tiki from "Finding Nemo".

Went to see "Zombieland: Double Tap" the other day. It was not only a good movie like the first one but it had lots of Tiki. Without giving too much away, the now A list actors return 10 years later and they are living in the White House. They then head out to Graceland only to find it destroyed. Luckily, they find nearby another good size house, hosted by another tough survivor Rosario Dawson. Dawson managed to salvage much of Elvis' interior including the Jungle Room. Tiki was all over "her" Jungle Room and it spilled out over to nearby rooms. As one will see it is not close to the real Jungle Room, there is no Witco and the Tiki is varied. The scene is fun nevertheless. Check out the press photos below to see for yourselves.

[ Edited by: creativenative 2019-11-06 21:19 ]

Now that Disney+ is out, I was watching some tiki stuff from "Phineas and Ferb" and "Timon and Pumbaa". In Phineas there seems to be Tiki in every shot.

Here are some of many screen shots:
Phineas

Timon

*Sorry should have posted this in the “Tiki in Television” thread.

[ Edited by: Creativenative 2019-12-11 00:36 ]

Not to get all "cross-posty," but over in The Islander thread in Locating, I posted some screencaps from the 1969 movie Model Shop, where they drive by The Islander on La Cienega in LA. There was one other tiny but odd tiki cameo in the same movie, on this sparsely decorated incongruous set for Lola's home bar. She's got one tiki mug sitting out, plus three items from Disney imagineer Rolly Crump - two of his satirical "dope" posters ("Acid Pills" and "Betty's Bathtub Gin") and one little bottle on the shelf of "Horny Harriet's Aphrodisiac"!!

Someone specifically moved the tiki to keep it in the shot and facing the camera

-Randy

Aloha! I love this stuff. I just watched the latest episode of Curb your Enthusiasm (Season 10, Insufficient Praise, Episode 5) It had Clive Owen in the episode portraying Thor Heyerdahl in a Kon Tiki play. It was great. I just couldn't find a pic of Clive in his Tiki regalia.

:sheckymug: :tiki:

[ Edited by: Mele_Ipo 2020-02-21 10:36 ]

Kids in the Hall Brain Candy (1996)

I hadn't seen this since its original theatrical release and had completely forgotten the Tiki bar scene. Not sure if this was a set or an actual bar in Toronto where this was filmed. Apologies for the slightly blurry screencaps:

Expresso Bongo (1959) features a scene set in a London Soho Tiki-themed coffeeshop where Hank Marvin and the Shadows are performing along with a very young Cliff Richards playing the bongos. Laurence Harvey also stars as Cliff's manager and affects a very dodgy Cockney accent:

Saw 2 films with Tiki recently on TCM. Ist up is from "The Solid Gold Cadillac" with Judy Holiday

[ Edited by rixzantis on 2022-05-07 11:26:47 ]

"The Harder They Fall" 1956 I believe this was Bogie's last movie.

Caught a few minutes of Mahogany, 1975 on TCM last night. Granted it’s been decades since I saw it, but I didn’t remember this Marquesan (and his little friend, not shown) in the party scene where see spins out of control.

[ Edited by Pittsburgh pauly on 2022-06-26 13:20:33 ]

"Look Who's Laughing" (1941)

Rusty the Soda Jerk (Sterling Holloway) to Charlie McCarthy: "We usually limit two to a customer of our Fudge Zombies and you're way over the limit!"

Okay, I'll admit that there are no actual Tikis in this movie, but I still got a big laugh out of that tropical-cocktail-adjacent wisecrack delivered by Rusty to creepy little wooden girl-drink drunk, Charlie. The burning question on my mind is: was he referring to the Don the Beachcomber Fudge Zombie or the Monty Proser version?

[ Edited by MrBaliHai on 2022-09-16 14:30:59 ]

[ Edited by MrBaliHai on 2022-09-17 05:15:32 ]