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source: Night Tide

Night Tide is an effective low budget horror that works mainly thanks to the surreal and creepy atmosphere. The movie somewhat unique as it handles a subject rarely seen in horror movies; that being the legend of the mermaid (the only other one I've seen is 2001's She Creature). The film is directed by Curtis Harrington who directed a handful of low budget horror movies in the sixties and seventies and obviously has some talent; as the low budget of this one is excellently masked by his stylish direction and constantly fascinating plot line. The film focuses on a young navy man by the name of Johnny Drake. He spots the captivating Mora in a bar and gets chatting to her, eventually deciding he likes her and the feeling is mutual. Mora is a strange girl and this is highlighted by the fact that for a job, she wears a fake fish tail and sits in a tank that looks like it's filled with water to fool circus-goers into believing she is a mermaid. However, it's not long before Johnny comes to believe she could be a real mermaid... One of the most notable things about this film is the early role for the great Dennis Hopper. It's somewhat different to the roles he would come to be known for; and while the performance is somewhat understated and the young man was not a master of his craft in 1961; it's still a very good role and the actor convinces excellently as the naive young seaman. Director Curtis Harrington slowly builds the plot line as the film goes along and constantly draws us into the mystery. The fact that the film is based on a mythology not often used ensures that the film is more interesting than it might have been otherwise, and some attempt is made to build this mythology via a conversation between two of the leading characters; although I would have preferred a little more on the interesting back-story. The film is very intriguing for the first hour and after that it does go off the boil a little and the final third is not so good. Still, the ending (while slightly disappointing), is well done and intriguing enough. Overall, this is a very good little horror film and is well worth seeing!

In Venice-Long Beach, CA, a very young, sailor-suited Dennis Hopper gets involved with a mysterious young woman who may or may not be both a mermaid and a killer. The mystery ultimately is rather disappointingly rationalized, except insofar as the involvement of one occasionally-glimpsed person goes unexplained. Moody, quiet, eerie, and dreamlike; similar to "Carnival of Souls" in tone, though not quite a horror movie. Worth a look.

No need to repeat the plot or dwell on consensus points. A few remarks about the movie's significance might be helpful, however. Harrington's quirky little film was part of a larger independent effort in the early 1960's to break away from studio domination and commercial conformity. The movement came along in the wake of John Cassavetes' groundbreaking Shadows (1960), and also at a time when European films from Fellini, Bergman and the French New Wave, et al, were expanding audience perceptions. Shadows proved that audiences were ready for a more daring product than what Hollywood of the 50's was producing. Perhaps more importantly, Shadows showed that a quality feature-length film could be done on a small budget ($40,000), with a non-union crew, get commercially distributed, and be reviewed in major publications (Night Tide, I recall, managed a good review in mainstream Newsweek). One or more of these factors had long prevented emergence of an independent film movement outside studio bounds. But by the early 60's, times had changed. Night Tide remains an oddity, sort of a blending of Shadows and Roger Corman with the ghost of Val Lewton hovering in the background. The ending is unfortunate, something of a loss of nerve given Harrington's overall imaginative approach. What impressed me then, and still does, is the director's visual style. Most every frame amounts to a well-composed visual treat, even when taking in the flat side of Santa Monica's ocean front. It's a measured, near- lyrical style, well suited at capturing the poetical side of horror a la Lewton—a dimension sorely missing from today's bloodfests. Anyway, the movie shows considerable promise; I'm just sorry Harrington slipped into obscurity, never developing into the career I think his talent deserved. Meanwhile, the movie furnishes a look-see into what was then a fresh movement in film-making.

I fell asleep during the middle of this movie....well, that's sort of a review, isn't it? Dennis Hopper looks cute in his sailor suit. Luana Anders is adorable as the girl next door (if you live on a midway). But the Mermaid Maiden was just one big drip, as far as I was concerned. ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz.

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.

This 1961 low key thriller is more low key than thriller, and likely would have been relegated to the dustbin of forgotten films had not Dennis Hopper starred in it. Hopper plays a Navy midshipman named Johnny who just happens to have the bad luck to fall for a mermaid (maybe) named Mora (Linda Lawson). It unspools not unlike Splash, save that there's precious little intentional comedy in here -- if anything, it takes itself a tad too seriously given the weak script and scattershot performances. But it's an effectively moody piece, much of it shot at night in and around the Santa Monica pier, which makes it a nice time capsule of certain parts of Southern California circa the very early 60s. Hopper is his usual semi-wooden self, and Lawson, while a gorgeous creature, isn't that much better. A relatively weak ending helps sink the picture, unfortunately. Really this is a curio piece more than anything else; in the right hands it could have been a neat little movie, but as is, eh, not really worth your while unless you just love the period (like I do).

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.

I first saw this movie many years ago and had happy memories of its moody seaside-carnival atmosphere, of Dennis Hopper's likably open youthful performance, and of Linda Lawson's enchanting mermaid, Mora -- all aspects much commented upon here at IMDb. I recently picked up a cheapie DVD version (its cover actually manages to misspell Lawson's name twice as "Larson") from a bin at a dollar store down at appropriately seedy Rockaway Beach; and though I can see why I fell in love with the sexy dark-haired Lawson, a real beauty, and still admire the film's haunting atmosphere and its excellent black-and-white photography, it is a bit more talky and slow-moving than I'd recalled, and owes a bit more to Val Lewton's "Cat People" than I'd first realized. (Perhaps I'd have been more patient with it if I'd been seeing it for the first time.) I'd also believed, all these years, that the story ended on a distinctly supernatural note, or at least one of ambiguity. The conclusion does retain, in truth, a hint of the supernatural, but it's outweighed by a long psychological explanation -- long and, for the Mora character, genuinely tragic -- which I'd conveniently blotted out of my memory. Still, Lawson does remain one seductive mermaid, and the sadness of her story -- of what is essentially her victimization -- makes her character all the more touching.