05/05/06 Night Tide

Night Tide (1961), directed by Curtis Harrington

watched solo; DVD (personal copy) @ home

Running around to get ready for our big trip down to Alabama for the week, I needed to find a short film that would suffice for the time being and keep me entertained while packing. I decided on yet another cmpy sci-fi adventure from the catalog of hits that I own. This one stood out, as it had a young Dennis Hopper in the lead role, as well as a star appearance of one lovely mermaid (for all you mermaid fans out there...you know who you are Sister of L). I went in fully expecting some classic fodder for the MST3K ilk, but I was pleasantly (at least goofily) surprised that this one was a mysterious thriller. A very very very low budget Hitchcockian production of say "So I Married And Axe Murderer" mixed with "The Little Mermaid." Hopper plays a young sailor in the Navy who is on shore leave at a seemingly All-American boardwalk town (see Atlantic City or Coney Island), when he becomes intrigued by the mysterious dark haired beauty Mora. Soon the sailor learns that Mora plays a mermaid in the carnival, and lives in a small apartment above the carousel. Completely engrossed with the woman, the sailor does not heed the warnings of locals who know that Mora carries with her dark secrets and supernatural powers. When stories of Mora's past boyfriends having suddenly vanished become evident to Hopper, he begins the frantic quest to again find his strange love and the truth about her past. Is she really a mermaid, or not?!?! That is a question you will have to watch the movie for yourself to answer. It's campy, yes...but enjoyable. What it lacks in say talent (although you get to see psycho Hopper fine-tune his chops here), it makes up for in low-budget eeriness. A magical whodunnit, with a mystical whocares.

3 out of 5 stars