The sailor loved the mermaid in the twinkling of the moon Shy sailor Johnny in a jazz club met with the mysterious beauty Mora, and their young love would bloom, but Mora has a terrible secret.
A very nice film, its strengths are an intriguing plot, a stylish verified black and white picture and locations, not always smooth, but sincere play of actors, a wonderful soundtrack. It feels like the Night Tide is the full-length debut of director Curtis Harrington, and as the debut it is reverently lovingly made, in many ways naive, but full of halftones and mysteries. The script is also written by Harrington and in the storyline a lot from detective and noir; to help the beloved Johnny undertakes a real investigation, meets different people, even visits a fortune teller. The film has a measured rhythm, and the chamber, cozy and at the same time disturbing atmosphere delicately reveals the poetic side of the horror, although the last third and rationally all the explanatory ending spoiled the overall positive impression.
The overall situation is not maritime, but rather seaside. Loneliness, melancholy and off-season lull reign in the resort town where the action takes place, melancholy and doom blows from the fragile romance of Johnny and Mora. In many ways, the depth of the story is given by the performer of the main role by the very then young Dennis Hopper, his Johnny is not a broken sea wolf at all, but such a cute, nervous guy with a sad smile, some very real (what a funny shape the American sailors have, like a children's suit). Beautiful cheekbone Linda Lawson is also good in the role of the mysterious wordless Maura. Her heroine is Greek and it is beaten with tunic dresses with cone-shaped boulders, and her name refers to the ancient Greek goddesses of fate moirs, and stories about the sirens of fascinating sailors are recalled. A snow-white breakfast on the balcony as Mora summons a seagull or her strange trance dance on a night beach amidst a crowd of beatniks are some of the film's highlights. By the way, in the small but memorable role of the woman in black who haunts Maura, Marjorie Cameron appeared. Cameron is an artist, poet, actress and experienced occultist, a follower of Thelema Aleister Crowley, she was married to rocket pioneer and collaborator of Thelemit Jack Parsons. Director Curtis Harrington was close to this circle, even making several short films for the odious Kenneth Anger. But in the “Night Tide” there are practically no Luceferian references, rather in ease and atmosphericity it is more similar to the works of Maya Derain of the cinema-godfather Harrington, and of course the influence of the films of Val Lewton and Jacques Turner is felt, there are direct analogies with the mystical masterpiece “Cat People”. And of course, "Night Tide" fits into the American New Wave of the 1950s-60s, when young independent directors were able to make unusual, experimental films (often mystical or horror films such as "Carnival of Souls" 1962, "Dementia 13" 1963, "Incubus" 1966).
Bottom line: The Night Tide has blossomed like a bizarre flower on the unwelcome soil of American commercial cinema. And despite the attempt at a rational explanation of magic at the end of the film, all the same mystical beginning wins and in the closing credits as a dedication appear the lines of Edgar Allan Poe:
And in the twinkling of nights I am all with her, I am all with her.
With the unforgettable - with the bride - with my love
I am standing next to her in the distance.
In the seaside sarcophagus.