Night Tide

Though it is a small production, it is interesting in the way it deals with the myth and mystery of the sea and its lore. We are purposely given sketchy information about the carnival mermaid who may in fact be a siren luring the lonely sailor nearly to his doom.

A very young Hopper plays the sailor, and Lawson is sufficiently enchanting to make us believe that she is more than just a girl wearing a fake fishtail. The film has a TWILIGHT ZONE quality to it, leaving the viewer wondering at the end.

Fascinating study with great location and innocent performance by Dennis Hopper who looks about sixteen years old, but is actually in his late 20's. Linda Lawson is lovely and mysterious and it's always great to see Luanna Anders. I hope this film has some kind of cult following because it's so strange.

A 7 out of 10. Best performance = Dennis Hopper. This is on DVD now and fairly easy to find. If you're a Hopper fan, this is a must-see. Great black and white cinematography and eery feel the entire film that is unexplainable. This should definitely have a higher rating by IMDb voters (in my opinion).

Don't get me wrong... I don't think this is a great achievement in film making.

I stumbled across this movie on late night TV, back in the early days of UHF, when, at 13 or 14, it was very exciting to me to have new channels that were so low budget that they showed things that, in the light of mainstream, 3 channel, VHF programming, seemed very much like they were being beamed in from another galaxy.

Through the lens of adolescent angst that I saw it through, this is a movie about unbearable loneliness, brilliantly captured by Dennis Hopper, whose only way out of his loneliness is through a beautiful woman from another world that he can't fully understand.

Like Kabuki theater on Darvon, he moves through the shadows of this overfiltered dreamworld of seaside 1960. The real monster is loneliness, and unlike most horror movies, the monster wins this one.

The setting, the off season seaside resort (and it could have been any, not just Venice Beach) was perfect, being there by oneself is possibly the loneliest experience one could have, hinting at a livelier, fun=filled world that, because of time, is unattainable.

It represents to me, maybe the first "indie" film I saw and recognized as one, "indie" in the original sense of a movie that was not made to be a box office hit, but because someone HAD to make a movie about something they felt strongly about, or had an artistic vision that had to be shared. Many of the earlier examples of these movies found their way onto UHF, because they were cheap to rent. But they got me hooked, and as soon as I could drive, sought out the art theaters in nearby towns that showed what was then called "underground" cinema, Kenneth Anger, John Waters (pre-flamingoes) I am Curious (Yellow and Blue.) These films are not as enchanting to me now, but then, none of them ever lived up to Night Tide for me.

For sentimental reasons, this has always been, and will always be, one of my very favorite movies.

Released one year prior to the atmospheric, surreal horror classic "Carnival of Souls," "Night Tide" is a similarly bizarre film that radiates an odd effect. Johnny (a young Dennis Hopper) falls in love with Mora (Linda Lawson), a sideshow performer who might also be a mermaid with a penchant for murdering her lovers. The performances are adequate and realistic, with Hopper conveying a proper balance of lovestruck awe and confusion; Lawson is fittingly remote and enigmatic. Writer-director Curtis Harrington builds a fair amount of suspense and limits the action to several effective dream sequences, thereby retaining a surreal mood. Not as wild as Jack Hill's "Spider Baby," nor as subtly brilliant as "Carnival of Souls," "Night Tide" is a diverting in-between that's worth a look.

Oddball cheapie is a lot of atmospheric fun for about an hour or so, then kind of just peters out with a weak ending. Still, there is a nice tone to the off hand, low key acting, and it is wonderful for an L.A. Lover to see Santa Monica and Venice as they looked in this period. This film, along with Welles "Touch Of Evil" and John Parker's "Dementia" aka "Daughter of Horror", form a sort of dark trilogy of Venice Beach Noir. The unmistakable Bruno Ve Sota (the poor man's Orson Welles?) is in two of them. Anyway, it's a must for any fan of the "Pyschotronic" film underground, you'll be glad you checked it out. Love the scene with the Seagull.