Ressac de passion

Shot in glorious black & white 'Scope (a format I adore but which is rarely used), "Flood Tide" from Universal is an anomaly: instead of a Douglas Sirk feature starring Rock Hudson, we have George Nader starring for the studio and director Abner Biberman (whose previous Universal dramas starred the likes of Merle Oberon and Mamie Van Doren!) in material more suited to an exploitation film by some indie of the pre-porn era.

I greatly enjoyed the numerous perverse twist and turns of the script, which centers around a young boy played by Michel Ray who is crippled. He has an unhealthy codependency relationship with his mom Cornell Borchers, and by chance both of them become inextricably linked with Good Samaritan bachelor neighbor Nader, who happens to be a handsome, wealthy playboy completely disinterested in any lasting relationship.

The movie begins in a format familiar from that great, influential stage-to-film "The Bad Seed", in which Patty McCormack was the cinema's ultimate evil child. Having a crippled, seemingly helpless kid (Ray) do terrible things repeatedly and get away with it is a novel story starting point, which gradually is overcome by the foreground off and on love affair between his mom Borchers and handsome, sympathetic Nader. The way the conflicting plot threads are resolved is quite satisfying and uplifting, the opposite of the vicarious thrills of rooting for the bad guy one gets in an exploitation movie.

Watchinig it seven decades after release, I had odd reactions. First of all, the "crippled kid" centerpiece reminded me immediately of Girlfriends FIlms' greatest hit from a decade ago (and its sequel) "Poor Little Shyla", in which crippled Shyla Jennings is tormented sexually not only by her peers but especially adults in an all-female lesbian dark XXX melodrama. The gimmick of women being the perpetrators rather than men gives this type of child molesting/abuse story a vicarious thrill that tickled a large porn audience, presumably predominantly male (whatever the marketing declares, lesbian porn is, like all porn, aimed at and consumed by males).

Making the saga even stranger is the casting of Nader, who in later years was revealed to the public to have been Rock Hudson's homosexual lover. Throughout "Flood Tide" he convincingly plays a knight in shining armor out to save not just his romantic interest Borchers but her son Michel. The homoerotic attraction between the two men is present but never made explicit, and one could imagine a 21st Century remake of this material in which it was brought out more to the surface (tastefully) -and providing a challenging role as the playboy turned savior for any number of stars to fight for, say Gosling, Chalamet or Austin Butler opposite some talented child star plus glamorous leading lady. Add in the inherently incestuous subplot between mother and son and you have the makings of a unique mainstream project.

Bottom-half-of-the-double-bill movies such as this began to die out in the late 1950s as TV anthology shows became the prime source for modest black-and-white dramas. Now, alas, those shows are also a thing of the past and even made-for-TV movies seem to be venturing into this territory with decreasing frequency. All of which gives "Flood Tide" a lost-artifact quality which viewers back in 1958 would not have anticipated or appreciated.

Like many such films, "Flood Tide" begins with a "grabber" -- a man's body is found on a beach -- and then spins out its story in a terse, concentrated manner that avoids detours and subplots. The results may be a bit shallow and simplistic but the movie is never dull and it has the good sense to clock in at a brisk 82 minutes.

Of course, "Flood Tide" is not without its faults. George Nader's patience in dealing with the "Bad Seed" aspects of Michel Ray's character is almost too saint-like to be believed, and his all-too-quick falling in love with Cornell Borchers lacks passion and conviction. And why would he take a crippled boy out in a sailboat without putting a life-vest on him?

Cornell Borchers, who sounds uncannily like Ingrid Bergman, doesn't seem vulnerable enough for this part and George Nader can't quite overcome the unrealistic nature of his part. (However, the movie's only 9-minutes old before he takes his shirt off, revealing a chest which, unlike some of his other appearances, has been shaved and polished.) Michel Ray does well in the rather contrived role of the troubled boy. (Ray's biography on the "imdb" is fascinating!)

Watch for Troy Donahue. He plays the young man who knocks on Cornell Borchers' door to tell her there's a sick boy on the beach.

Some of the film's music was provided by Henry Mancini.

This is an engrossing drama, well-shot in Cinemascope black and white, and never got the recognition it deserved. It was never on VHS or DVD, perhaps because of the basically unknown stars and unusual subject matter. A 10-year-old disabled boy (Michel Ray) blames an innocent man for the death of another on the beach. Soon the boy's widowed mother (Cornell Borchers) falls for a neighbor (George Nader), who is a friend of the accused. Ray, of mixed parentage, is striking as the embittered kid, Nader is a bit wooden as ususal, but like another reviewer noted, Borchers is outstanding as a character with no love life (her husband had died 5 years before in the car accident that injured the boy). A key scene is when she breaks down completely after Ray spurns her attention for Nader's, a heartbreaking, true-to-life portrayal. She more than faintly resembles Ingrid Bergman in appearance and voice, a Lithuanian actress who made a handful of 1950s films; this was her last American picture just before retiring.

Russ Conway has been convicted of manslaughter on the testimony of Michel Ray. Young Ray has been unable to walk since he was in a car accident that killed his father, so a sympathetic jury believed him unreservedly. George Nader, however, newly returned from South America believes the boy lied. He had begun an affair with the boy's widowed mother, Cornell Borchers, and had wanted to marry her. The mother and son, however, had become so co-dependent, with Ray so sullenly manipulative, that Nader had eventually thrown up his hands. Now he's going to go back and try to get the truth out of the boy, by working on a relationship with him.

The actors are up to their roles, it's an interesting concept, and there's a long flashback sequence to illustrate Nader, Borchers and Ray on the first go-around that stops the movie dead in its tracks for the first third. I find the editing of the matter puzzling; surely, explaining the situation and then showing it makes all dramatic tension go out of the movie. Surely this could have been fixed, by having Nader state his conviction that Ray lied, being asked how he knew, then going into the flashback.

Contemporary audiences stayed away, making this movie a flop and putting an end to Miss Borchers' film career. I'm going to lay the blame on Ted J.Kent's editing. It turns what might have been a slightly brisker, better paced movie into just one of the glossy soaps that Universal cranked out in the late fifties that seemed a lot longer than its nominal 82 minutes.

It begins like a thriller (a dead body found on a beach ,and it might be murder),but it is not; the real hero of the story is a child , extremely well portrayed by young Michel Ray ; it's not a story aimed at the children's market either ,but psychological melodrama.

The detective story is kept to the minimum : a child is not always to be believed ,as Lilian Hellman showed in her play "the children's hour" (twice transferred to the screen by William Wyler as "these three" and with the original title).That's why the neighbor (George Nader) has his doubts: a long flashback provides the viewer with an inside view of the situation.

The brat ,a crippled child in the wake of an accident, seems to suffer from an Oedipus complex ;he does not want to share his mom with a man ,even though the generous benefactor goes out of his way to please him (the radio set) ; but there's more to the picture than meets the eye: the mother (Cornell Borchers) is actually an over possessive woman ,who poisons her child with protection under the veil of a devoted mom.

Although subject to gaffes (the baseball game on the radio) , the man (who changes too ,from some kind of playboy in the first scenes ,turns into a providential friend for two miserable human beings)knows better and tells her so in this hard line :"you put braces on his mind"

Although the movie goes over the top in its final scenes (the confrontation on the boat) , the moral is still relevant :if you want to be helped ,stop being sorry for yourself ...and don't use your fellow man as a scapegoat whose life you ruin.