tiki bar scene in old (or not so old) movie

On 2007-01-13 11:21, atomictonytiki wrote:
I saw a part of the trailer for Bob Hope film "Bachelor in Paradise" and i spotted that one scene was set in a tiki bar, anybody seen this film?

I saw it a while ago but I don't remember a tiki bar scene. It was the one where Bob plays a bachelor living in suburbia right?

Yes thats the one, It was a quick flash in a documentary so i could be wrong, but the clip showed bob & a lady drinking cocktails in perhaps a suburban tiki surroundings.
Its on again tonight so I'll check again, good documentary though "From Ranch to Raunch"A look at a high point in modern hedonism as the sex-and-drugs lifestyle reached its zenith in 1970s California, where ranch houses were turned into swinging party houses.

On 2007-01-13 11:21, atomictonytiki wrote:
I saw a part of the trailer for Bob Hope film "Bachelor in Paradise" and i spotted that one scene was set in a tiki bar, anybody seen this film?

It's a great movie. Tivo it...I've caught it a couple of times.
There is an awesome Tiki Bar scene and a great burlesque scene (if I remember correctly)- it's on my Tiki Bar Mix DVD that we play at the bars.
If my memory serves me right, the bartender hands a Missionary's Downfall to Lana Turner and Bob Hope quips "I ordered a drink, not a salad"

Welcome to TC Mauri, thanks so much for posting those great pictures. EDIT...just bought the video (there is no dvd). :)

FATIMA BLUSH: Oh, how reckless of me. I made you all wet.

JAMES BOND: Yes, but my martini is still dry.

[ Edited by: VampiressRN 2007-01-14 14:03 ]

"The Right Approach" (see my previous post on this page) is on again today at 12:00PST on the Fox Movie Channel.

"Meet me at the Bamboo Room"

A line in Kid Glove Killer, 1942, which I just saw Friday night at the San Francisco Film Noir Festival. The scene was pre-tiki-bar with plenty of bamboo, hawaiian music playing in the background, tropical drinks in glasses which could have been Singapore slings or planter's punches, Chinese food, and a lamp on the table that was made in an African figurehead style.

Last night at the San Franciso Film Noir Festival they showed ** Hell's Half Acre ** (1954), which is set on Oahu and features a plethora of Hawaiian scenes including tiki bar scenes, polynesian dance routines, scads of vintage aloha wear (in black and white), and even a polynesian/crime soundtrack. The fast paced music for the chase scenes was particularly memorable, as were the scenes with Marie Windsor. The technical advisor was Don the Beachcomber. It was a rare treat to see this movie from a 35mm print on the big screen at the Castro theater. The huge theater (1700 seats) was pretty well packed during the 6:00 showing.

They have this rare (never on VHS or DVD) film at Forbidden Island if you missed it last night.

And here are some previous posts on this movie:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=17797&forum=1&hilite=Hell's%20Half%20Acre
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=17714&forum=1&hilite=Hell's%20Half%20Acre

A photographer from "Paris' biggest weekly entertainment magazine" was covering the Festival and took pictures of yours truly but I didn't catch the name of the magazine. Virani would you know the name?

On 2006-02-24 16:42, DawnTiki wrote:
Not a real old movie...
Envy....starring Ben Stiller and Jack Black and Christopher Walken....2004

Ben Stiller in a generic nothing interesting neighborhood bar. He asks the bartender to bring him something that people drink to get drunk. The bartender brings him a drink in a pineapple with lots of doohickeys and baubles in it and hanging on it.
Christopher Walken decides to start up a conversation with Ben Stiller, when Walken sits next to Stiller at the bar, sitting on the bar right in from of Walken is a ...volcano bowl...
Not terribly exciting, but it was there none the less.

You missed the two tikis that hang on the wall behind Christopher Walken in the bar scene:

I also found the drink with the cheesy hulagirl quite funny:

http://www.dorktones.com

[ Edited by: snackbar 2007-03-18 06:34 ]

I was watching an old VHS tape of Hawaii 5-0 and in the second episode of the first season (Strangers in Our Own Land) there is a scene in a tiki bar / restaurant complete with a floor show and tikis here and there. Does anyone have the DVD of the show, and can post some stills of this scene? The episode dealt with native Hawaiians' loss of their land to development on Oahu.

A search for "A Star is Born" with Janet Gaynor turned up nothing, so sorry if someone mentioned this before, but the 1937 version of this movie had a (pre)tiki bar scene near the beginning. The scene starts with a closeup of a bottle of Rum being poured into a shaker of milk and Andy Devine says something like "more rum, George, it dilutes the taste of milk". A little bamboo can be seen in the background and the obvious view of tapa cloth can be seen on the front of the bar that they are sitting at. 1937-wow!

Not exactly a "scene".
This place can be spotted in "Doll Squad"/"Escuadron de muñecas" (1973)by no budget maestro Ted V. Mikels.

Can anybody identify the place?

Just reviewed this wretchedly inept little indie film called The Commune for my weekly contribution to Film Threat (people are always surprised that film reviewers don't get to pick the movies we suffer through).

In the film, some cultish freaks have a religion that mixes Paganism, Egyptian mythology, A Mi-summer Night's Dream, Buddhism, and anything else the film-makers though might be scary to the religious right.... including a few passing references to menehunes.

In the film's final scene, one of the scary cult members waves this dangerous pagan ritual artifact in front of a baby, as the couple in the pic discuss the kid's (dubious) future.

On 2004-11-02 17:39, vintagegirl wrote:

On 2004-09-01 06:30, Johnny Dollar wrote:
we checked out the 1937 bing crosby film "waikiki wedding" last nite.

it was a really fun flick, lots of grass skirted natives pretty much 24-7 singing and luau-ing

there was also a musical number about hawaiian moonshine, i forget what the stuff itself was called. a pretty "drunky" number, it wouldn't pass hollywood muster today.

Atomic Cocktail and I saw this over the summer and loved it as well. There's a big "native" dance number that's like Busby Berkeley goes Tiki.

As for the song that Martha Raye sings, it's a swing number called "Okolehao". Wish I could find the sheet music, but here's the lyrics at least. (And I think you can find it on CD):

OKOLEHAO
© 1937
Lyrics & Music: Leo Robin, Ralph Rainger, Don Hartman

Okolehao, okolehao
There's a man-made moonshine in Hawaii now
Okolehao hip-hip horray
After two sips your hips want to swing and sway.

When the gals begin to beg for just one more keg
The boys know what it means and they send for the marines.
Okolehao, I'm telling you
After one drink you'll think you're Hawaiian too.

We just watched Waikiki Wedding and Martha Raye's Okolehao is really swingy and fun! Here's the clip on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1v9BZT1CPM

In the noir "The Brothers Rico" (1957) there's a tiki on a dresser in the bedroom of main character Eddie Rico's house (he is played by Richard Conte). Much of the movie is set in Florida, with some good outdoor location shots and some gorgeous tropical modern interior spaces, especially the crime syndicate boss Sid Kubick's apartment. Not on video or DVD, but it showed on TCM recently.

Here's a clip that shows the tiki (at 2:00):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aiTjA5wgok

verified.
i watched this movie the other day for the first time in years. that bar scene WAS indeed kelbo's & filmed in '88, not long before it closed. i listened to the commentary & mike nesmith confirmed it was kelbo's, "one of the last of the thememe bars, like don the beachcomber."
they also mentioned kelbo's was the home to the worlds largest coconut shell. they were drinking out of coconut mugs & the flaming bowl was not a hula bowl, it was some kinda unrecognizable shell bowl. there were people in the background drinking out of tiki mugs but it was too blurry to make out what kind.

On 2003-05-11 10:39, annalulu wrote:

This is one of my favorite movies (I actually saw it in the theater when it came out!!) Finally got the dvd and noticed that the tiki bar is MOST LIKELY Kelbo's!! Now I've never been to Kelbo's but I could see signs in the background for the "Coco(a?) Bowl and folks are dancing, just as I heard people did at Kelbo's. So...there you go. Anyone able to verify??

On 2002-09-17 10:01, bigbadtikidaddy wrote:
I've had a video for so long called "Tapeheads" with john cusak & tim robbins. It's totally 80's & really bad & I love it.
There is a tiki bar scene where cusaks' sleeve catches fire while reaching over a flaming scorpion bowl, which is a very real hazzard!
It's around the same genre as "the experts" that stingray wrote about. Another movie that is soo bad it's good.

On 2002-04-02 15:38, thejab wrote:
I just watched "Where Danger Lives" on the Encore Mystery Channel yesterday. It's a film-noir from 1950 starring Robert Mitchum and it has a scene where he hitches a ride on an ambulance (he's a doctor) to Oakland (the film takes place in the Bay Area). There is a night scene of the ambulance driving down what appears to be San Pablo Avenue but I can't tell for sure. The next scene shows the outside view of a bar called Coco Pete's with an amazing flashing neon sign of palm trees and coconuts and another neon sign down the street for Shanghai Lil's.

The next scene is apparently inside Coco Pete's because it's filled with bamboo, tropical plants, rattan chairs, hanging glass floats and puffer fish! You see much of the restaurant area as the camera visits different nooks and crannies of the interior. Then Robert Mitchum and Faith Domergue are shown drinking from hollowed-out coconuts that are held in these pedastal holders. After she leaves, Robert Mitchum orders two more for himself saying "This tastes like water. Bring me 2 more." The waiter replies "Sir, you've already had four and the limit on this drink is two per customer." The waiter ends up bringing them anyway. No tikis were spotted.

I don't know if this movie is on video or DVD but I recommend it highly. I taped it for the "keeper" pile.

The tagline for the movie was:
"She's tempting in a penthouse and dangerous in a bordertown dive!"

Thanks for the heads up, I will be on the lookout for this film, being a Tiki bar and Film Noir fan.
Cheers
KT

Okay so it's not that old (1998) but no one has posted the Samoan Pub scene from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Here it is.

"You want a pint, go to the pub!" :lol:

Classic scene, for a newer movie.
good call Boris.

Jeff(btd)

I just changed the topic title, so newer movies apply too!

Hilarious film! (Lock, Stock, & Two Smoking Barrels)

[ Edited by: thejab 2010-07-27 13:34 ]

In The Strip (1951), the nightclub scenes take place in a room with lots of bamboo framing and a nice bamboo bar with tapa cloth backing and a bamboo "roof". There are some masks and figurines on the walls and behind the bar but I couldn't make it out any tikis. I loved the design of the back of the stage, with large bamboo framed windows showing off three large plants illuminated by indirect lighting.

The very end of this fabulous music clip with Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, & Earl 'Fatha' Hines briefly shows the bar:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzlb64Ee3pw

And there's another glimpse in this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFzWk0J0fwE&feature=related

The movie is well worth watching for the scenes of the Sunset Strip (lots of neon sign footage) and the great 50s modern interiors. It's not the best film noir I've seen but I enjoyed it. Besides the musicians mentioned above, Mickey Rooney shows off his drumming skills in the film.

On 2003-01-07 11:08, midnite wrote:
Not a bar scene per se, but I am thinking this appearance has something to do with the increased popularity of the mug in question. Why else would those things be attracting such bids on Ebay? :lol:

Ferris Bueller is enjoying a pool-side cocktail as he calls his pal Cameron. His vessel of choice? A Stockton Islander hula girl on palm tree mug.

Funny thing, that wasn't in the original shooting script.

Danke Schoen,
midnite

I fixed the image.

On 2009-08-24 12:12, Mister Naufrago wrote:
Not exactly a "scene".
This place can be spotted in "Doll Squad"/"Escuadron de muñecas" (1973)by no budget maestro Ted V. Mikels.

Can anybody identify the place?

I would recommend emailing Ted @ [email protected] . His website is ; http://www.tedvmikels.com/

There's a tiki in the psychiatrist’s office in Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. Not sure if it's African or Polynesian but I like the idea of tikis and psychoanalysis.

I just watched "Bachelor in Paradise" with Bob Hope and Lana Turner on TCM. I really enjoyed it. It had ALOT of Mid Century aethetics, and the Polynesian/Asian Bar Scene as was mentioned earlier was funny. I decided to see if it was released on DVD, and found out it has not been released on disk. There are however, a few VHS releases out there. I'm including the Bar scene on this thread via Youtube, as it is classic 'tiki style' based on the drinks and ordering method.
Enjoy the clip!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn5H1tLhin0

Brand new film called "Girl Walks Into A Bar" has a fairly long scene filmed at the Tonga Hut in North Hollywood.

Good Luck Bar and Bigfoot Lodge are in it too - every scene in the movie takes place in a bar.

[ Edited by: tikibars 2011-03-20 20:56 ]

On 2011-03-20 19:26, tikibars wrote:
Brand new film called "Girl Walks Into A Bar" has a fairly long scene filmed at the Tonga Hut in North Hollywood.

Yes it does!
Direct link to specific scene found here:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=4848&forum=2&vpost=580355

Nice shot of some contemporary mugs too.

I'm looking for images from it, but a Frank Morgan (best known as the Wizard of Oz in The Wizard of Oz) movie from the mid-'40s called The Great Morgan had some beautiful in situ shots of New Zealand Tikis, plus some previously lost footage of dancer Elenore Powell from the movie Honolulu.

I just re-watched Goodfellas and the long tiki bar scene was actually filmed inside the Hawaii Kai! (According to online sources) The front of the bar named Bamboo Lounge was made up for the movie.