Customer Reviews

Night Tide [VHS]

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Great low-budget indy horror film from the 60s inspired by the Val Lewton classic 'Cat People'. Fans of other b/w indy horror flicks like 'Carnival of Souls' should really enjoy it. It stars the great Dennis Hopper ('Giant', 'Easy Rider', 'River's Edge', 'Blue Velvet', etc.) as a naive young sailor named Johnny who falls for a mysterious & beautiful girl called Mora. Mora works as "Mora the Mermaid" in a sideshow during the day on a CA Boardwalk. After they become lovers, Johnny discovers that Mora's last two boyfriends mysteriously drowned and soon he starts wondering if Mora is a real mermaid or one of the spooky "Sea People".

The soundtrack is a mix of great bongo numbers & bad b-movie music, but the real highlight is the eerie atmosphere and great stylized photography. The director tried hard to raise "Night Tide" out of the usual b-movie abyss and it shows. Excellent flick!

"Night Tide" makes extensive use of the Venice, California milieu in which the story is set, telling the story of a lonely sailor (Dennis Hopper) who is attracted to Mora (Linda Lawson), a young woman who enacts the role of a mermaid in one of the sideshows on the pier. Mora, her guardian, and several of the people who make up the sideshow subculture hint at the possibility of a terrible secret about Mora's past loves and perhaps her true otherworldly nature, and the film takes off from there. The streets of Venice (as it appeared in the early '60s when the film was made) are turned into a shadowy, bizarre landscape through the excellent photography and editing, and the colorful supporting characters contribute to the strange, dreamlike mood. Performances are uniformly excellent and right, from the leads to minor characters. Director/writer Curtis Harrington, in his feature debut, has made a low-key suspense/fantasy film that, like the films of Val Lewton in the 1940s (Cat People, The Seventh Victim, et. al.), substitutes our dread of monsters for the monsters themselves and keeps us guessing until the end. Though not well-known except in cult cinema circles, this is a beautifully-done, effective film you can watch again and again.

A haunting, mysterious and magical movie. Marjorie Cameron adds an element of real life magic. Kenneth Anger also had done this when he used her in `The Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954)'. Marjorie Easton also adds to the spell, and Dennis Hopper is wonderful. The carnival is the perfect background for a a plot about fantasy and reality. Filmed at the Santa Monica Pier, Venice and Ocean Park, California, where Anton LaVey played organ at strip joints in the late 1940's. The name Mora is found in many parts of the world as the death aspect of the `Triple Goddess', or Night Mare, or female vampire.

I won't go into a treatise on the film except to say that it is one of my sentimental favorites of the fantasy genre (inspired by Val Lewton's films of the 40s, particularly Cat People) even though there's no monsters, sci-fi apparatus, etc. Just a wonderful, evocative mood and sense of place, offbeat and interesting characters, effective photography, etc. According to the accompanying commentary, Harrington and Hopper felt they were making a "movie of the streets" like the Italian directors and I think that's part of what contributes to Night Tide's uniqueness; that feel really comes through. Anyway the DVD is very clean, the best I've ever seen the film, letterboxed, with no video or audio problems that I noticed. The commentary, although there are occasional lulls, is quite interesting. Harrington and Hopper have to jog each other's memories a bit (although Hopper eventually remembers quite a bit more detail about the movie than one would expect) and some fascinating bits are revealed (they identify nearly every location they shot on, many of which could still be visited by the intrepid.) In summary, fans of serious, atmospheric fantasy-horror (or Lewton freaks) won't be disappointed in the movie or the DVD.

This film is a fine example of how low budget is sometimes better than big budget: its qualities come partly from moody black and white lighting on ordinary locations and subtle suggestions of fear and the supernatural with lighting and editing rather than blatant special effects. It has a quiet and eerie, dream-like atmosphere, with excellent acting by Dennis Hopper, Luana Anders, and Linda Lawson as "Mora the Mermaid." The music score by David Raksin is excellent, and a rare example of a major film composer working on a very small budgeted film. Curtis Harrington's directing creates a sense of psychological eerieness and shadowy imagery rarely seen since the Val Lewton classics of the forties, which it is similar to (especially the original "Cat People" with Simone Simon). This DVD release is very good quality, and features an excellent and informative commentary by Curtis Harrington and Dennis Hopper.

This underated cult classic is very entertaining, especially considering the fact it was made on a shoe-string budget. That just goes to show that you can make a great movie with little money! If you're considering buying this on dvd, then the Image Entertainment edition is the one you should get.

A very young Dennis Hopper stars as a sailor on leave in California who meets a beautiful young woman who works as a mermaid in the seafront carnival. He knows nothing about her but quickly falls for her (can't blame him for that!). Over time, however, he notices she's got a dark, mysterious side to her that she's hiding.

Hopper confronts the woman's guardian (a step-father, sort of) and tries to learn more, but he's told that she is a real mermaid who's already lured two former boyfriends to their deaths. Only too late does Hopper doscover the truth, but I won't give away the ending.

With memorable music by the legendary composer David Raksin and an independantly-filmed movie script that actually works, this is a movie that will entertain fans of suspenseful classics and especially fans of Dennis Hopper. The picture and sound quality of this dvd are surprisingly good for an independant movie this old. Highly recommended!

I adore this little film . It was obviously made on a shoe string but it offers more entertainment value than many big budget blockbusters. All the players do a grand job and they've all got interesting characters to work with . The two standouts for me , however , are the woman who plays the fortune teller (haven't got her name on me right now) and Gavin Muir as Captain Samuel Murdock. The fact that much of the action takes place at the Santa Monica pier amusement park (?) adds to the film's surrealistic air of fantasy. If you're looking for an excellent , low budget early 60's movie that's really well crafted stick this one in your trolley and proceed straight to the check out. If you like "Carnival of Souls" you'll like "Night Tide". It certainy goes into my basket of "Desert Island" videos. Essential viewing for cult movie fans.

I saw this film first in 1963 as the 2nd half of a double-bill; American-International pictures usually put out the Corman/Poe films which were mostly under 90 minutes in length, and they filled up the time by throwing this off as a 2nd bill. It was certainly better than "The Comedy of Terrors" (1st bill). Here we have Curtis Harrington before he "went Hollywood" (Who Slew Auntie Roo?, etc.), an intuitive director who creates an atmosphere that's hard to describe; slow moving, never boring, always compelling. An innovator of the "indie" scene, Harrington couldn't find a distributor in 1961, but A-I picked it up. There's a wonderful bongo/jazz score and a wonderfully understated and heartfelt performance from Dennis Hopper (before he tried to impress everyone with his individuality and maverick style). The photography, often in dark venues, is remarkably clear and atmospheric. There's also the excellent Luana Anders, who, along with Salome Jens, was never given the career she deserved. The style of this film seems to suggest a mood which the great John Frankenheimer later perfected ("Seconds"). Not a horror film, "Night Tide" certainly had a head-start on the psychological suspense stories that became popular. Definitey worth a look!

I was surprized when this film came out. I didn't think it would. The plot was pure genius and was well produced, especially
with the low budget. It was also Congo Drummer, "Chaino's" first
film appearance. It was interesting to see him as young as he was
when he recorded 6 LP's that have appeared in many films and Videos since, HBO's "Sex and the City" and Steven speilbergs, "The Forces of nature." This film will no doube become a classic, being the first film for "Dennis Hopper." We love it. It's the kind of film one can enjoy no matter how many times they see it.

This is an odd movie, but a good one none-the-less!!

I recommend this movie to conisieurs of the obscure!

It is one of the best mermaid movies ever made!!

Directed By Curtis Harrington!

Odd and unique! Great Movie!!