Rating: 
Summary: A Strange, Moody, Effective Low-Budget Film
Review: "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.
Rating:
Summary: Something's happening here....
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Mermaid Nightmares
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: Essential viewing for cult movie fans
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Essential viewing for cult movie fans
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Creative & thought-provoking...
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: A movie before its time
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A movie before its time
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Classic film done justice on disc
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Beware the Siren's Song.
Review: NIGHT TIDE stars a very young and quite handsome Dennis Hopper as Johnny Drake, a sailor on leave visiting a California beach somewhere not too far from Hollywood. The movie begins when a horny Johnny Drake enters the Blue Grotto looking for someone to share his mojo with. Unfortunately, most of the women in the jazz night club already have partners or don't even acknowledge Johnny's existence. Then, across the crowded room, Johnny catches the eye of a beautiful brunette sitting across the way. He approaches and though she pushes him off, the romantic sparks start to fly. He learns that her name is Mora. Then some strange woman shows up mumbling some wierd words to the girl. Whatever the old lady said makes the girl get up in a hurry. Johnny follows and catches up with her. The persistent little devil walks with her to her apartment and gets her to invite him to breakfast the next day. The relationship begins. Things don't get very far before Johnny learns from the people who run the carousel below Mora's apartment that her last two boyfriends disappeared and have never been seen. Mora also works as a mermaid at the local side show run by her former guardian. The job pays pretty well, but Mora actually believes that she is a mermaid allowed to live on land and that when the moon gets full the sea beckons her back home. By this time Johnny is madly in love with the girl and doesn't know what to do. A full moon is approaching and Mora acts more strange all the time. A fateful diving expedition ends up revealing the truth.
NIGHT TIDE was filmed on a budget of less than $76,000. It was the film that gave Dennis Hopper his first major break. The title of the movie is based upon a poem by Edgar Allen Poe and the film has gained a cult following over the years. The movie reminded me of watching an episode from ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS. With a mood such as that, it's easy to understand the cult following. Nevertheless, though I was impressed at how well the film was made on such a small budget, I found the picture to just be an average movie. Nothing more and nothing less.
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