Night Tide
by Curtis Harrington
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Dennis Hopper, Gavin Muir, Linda Lawson, Luana Anders, Marjorie EatonDirector: Curtis Harrington
Writer: Curtis Harrington
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 84 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-01-21
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Alpha Video
Movie Reviews of Night Tide
Movie Review: Dennis Hopper meets a mysterious woman with long black hair.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of those little-known films I watched during late night television in the 1980's. I was so intrigued, I never forgot it. Now I finally own the DVD copy of it. This film is interesting to watch and really has that weird 1960's feel to it. Set during the month of August. This film offers the most relaxed performance I've ever seen Dennis Hopper play in any film and he was the age of 24 at the time. This isn't your normal beach movie and it's in black & white. Dennis Hopper plays a sailor on shore leave. He roams around Santa Monica pier and comes across the Blue Grotto, a nice jazz place. There he meets a woman with long black hair, "Mora" (Linda Lawson). A mysterious old woman comes out and tells "Mora" she must leave quickly. John the sailor is so drawn to her that he follows her into the night on the beach. She lives in a apartment above the Merry Go-Round. The sailor asks her to see her again tomorrow for breakfast. A friendship begins. Mora's job is a pier attraction. She is the mermaid. But there is another side of Mora so mysterious that Johnny doesn't know. Memorable good scenes are those when Johnny follows the old women to Venice and who can forget Marjorie Eaton as the Fortune Teller. Also in the cast is Luana Anders, Tom Dillon and Gavin Muir.
Linda Lawson appeared in "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" tv series, episode: "I Can Take Care Of Myself", May 15, 1960.
Most recently, Linda Lawson appeared in the "ER" tv series, episode "You Are Here", May 5, 2005.
Some of the locations in this film can also be seen in The NBC Mystery Movie: Columbo--Make Me A Perfect Murder (1978-TV).
Summary of Night Tide
No ordinary cult film, Night Tide covers a variety of different waterfronts. It's a film from the American underground, it's a horror movie, and it's an early example of independent cinema (before there was such a term). Shot in 1960, it's also a strangely haunting artifact of its time. Night Tide was written and directed by Curtis Harrington, a member of the experimental avant-garde of the '50s who went on to make the atmospheric shocker Games and many an episode of Dynasty. Mounted on the cheap, and shot on authentic locations in Santa Monica and crumbling Venice, California, Night Tide has a loose, lyrical quality not found outside Cassavetes and Godard films of the same era.Dennis Hopper, whose youthful looks and Method style were still intact at this point, plays an innocent sailor at liberty in a coastal town; he falls for a girl who plays a mermaid at the sideshow. Or is she really a mermaid? Inspired by Val Lewton's horror classic Cat People, Harrington cooks up a supernatural stew with the suggestion that the willowy lass is one of the "Sea People," called back to her ocean home by a weird sea witch (played by a real-life occult celebrity called Cameron). Yet Night Tide only occasionally feels like a horror movie; with its naturalistic exteriors, bongos, and coffeehouse atmosphere, it's more a slice of poetic bohemia. Luana Anders, who should have had a major movie career but later became a B-movie leading lady, is wonderfully fresh as the good girl, and the music score by Hollywood pro David Raksin (Laura) is inventive and offbeat. Shown at the Venice Film Festival in 1961, the film did not secure a U.S. release until 1963, when its New-Wave-ish style probably looked less innovative. Seen today, Night Tide is both a lovely mood piece and a look back at a peculiar moment in American moviemaking, and either way a bit of low-cost enchantment. --Robert Horton
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