Review of Night Tide (1961) by Brian S — 29 May 2012
An awful little movie about a sailor who falls for a sideshow mermaid. Slow and clumsy, it's more interesting for its cast than anything else. We get a 25 year old Dennis Hopper as Johnny Drake; he hasn't yet learned how to act, delivering a flat and awful performance... but still, it's Dennis Hopper. Luana Anders, who would later appear with Hopper in "Easy Rider," also has a small role as the daughter of the owner of a merry-go-round over which the "mermaid" lives. Marjorie Eaton, wife of occultist Jack Parsons, associate of L. Ron Hubbard, and scarlet woman/Kali from Kenneth Anger's "Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome," also makes an appearance as a mysterious woman who appears near water occasionally but never does much of anything other than stare at the "mermaid.".
If you're going to see "Night Tide," see it for the cast, because the movie itself is nothing memorable. A real mermaids wouldn't wear scuba tanks, are never in danger of drowning and rarely spend all their time in an apartment in Santa Monica, so there's no great mystery here. The only mystery is why her boyfriends have turned up dead, and there's a rather mundane explanation for how that happened.
In fact, "mundane" is a good word to describe "Night Tide." Others would be pedestrian, forgettable and sedative. Still, if you're a Dennis Hopper enthusiast, check this one out to see what he was like on a bad day. A REALLY bad day.
This review of Night Tide (1961) was written by Brian S on 29 May 2012.
Night Tide has generally received positive reviews.
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