Night Tide
Encyclopedia
Night Tide is a 1961
1961 in film
The year 1961 in film involved some significant events, with West Side Story winning 10 Academy Awards.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:* Atlantis, the Lost ContinentB...

 thriller film, written and directed by Curtis Harrington
Curtis Harrington
Curtis Harrington was an American film and television director whose work included experimental films, horror films, and episodic television.-Biography:...

 and starring Dennis Hopper
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...

. It premiered in 1961, but was held up from general release until 1963. The film was restored by the Academy Film Archive
Academy Film Archive
The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of motion picture history...

 in 2007.

Plot summary

Seaman Johnny Drake (Dennis Hopper
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...

), on shore leave, finds a "Mermaid" sideshow attraction at the marina, operated by Captain Murdock (Gavin Muir). The "Mermaid" Mora (Linda Lawson), who lives in a hotel above the marina merry-go-round (the movie was filmed at the Santa Monica pier) and Johnny fall for each other. Everyone around them is wary of the romance, as her previous lovers have died mysteriously.

Mora believes she is a descendant of the Siren
Siren
In Greek mythology, the Sirens were three dangerous mermaid like creatures, portrayed as seductresses who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Roman poets placed them on an island called Sirenum scopuli...

s, mythic sea creatures who lure sailors to their deaths. From time to time a mysterious and seemingly sinister woman (Marjorie Cameron
Marjorie Cameron
Marjorie Cameron Parsons Kimmel was an artist, occultist, actress, and wife of rocket pioneer and occultist Jack Parsons. Cameron played a major role in the 1946 Babalon Working ritual.-Biography:...

) appears and frightens Mora. She believes the woman is the leader of the mermaids, calling Mora to fulfill her destiny. Mora's origins seem to be driving her to commit murder by the full moon. Johnny is unable to believe his lover is capable of murder, but Mora herself seems more certain. During a diving trip on the day of the full moon, Mora cuts Johnny's breathing tube and he is forced to surface, leaving her below, where she swims away into the shadows.

When Johnny returns to the marina the next day, he sees that the lifeless body of Mora is now on display in the mermaid tank. Murdock appears, brandishing a gun. It is he who has been committing the murders and convincing Mora that she was an actual mermaid. Mora had discarded her oxygen tank in the sea, and had drowned. In the ensuing struggle between Johnny and Murdock, the glass tank is shattered, and the water and debris pin Murdock down.

In the film's conclusion, at the police station, Murdock confesses to the crimes and Johnny returns to his ship accompanied by the shore patrol
Shore patrol
Shore patrol are service members that are provided to aid in security for the U.S. Navy, United States Coast Guard, United States Marine Corps, and the British Royal Navy while on shore...

. The one loose end to Murdock's story is that he denies any knowledge of the mysterious woman who had been frightening Mora. The police dismiss it as the man protecting her, but the door is left open to other possibilities.

Production

In order to film some of the underwater sequences in Night Tide, director Curtis Harrington
Curtis Harrington
Curtis Harrington was an American film and television director whose work included experimental films, horror films, and episodic television.-Biography:...

 gave detailed instructions to a cameraman who then shot the scenes underwater at the director's request.

Trivia

The role of Mora the Mermaid (played by Linda Lawson in the film) was originally to be played by Susan Harrison, who had been the lead in Sweet Smell of Success
Sweet Smell of Success
Sweet Smell of Success is a 1957 American film noir made by Hill-Hecht-Lancaster Productions and released by United Artists. It was directed by Alexander Mackendrick and stars Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison and Martin Milner. The screenplay was written by Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman...

(1957). A friend of director Harrington's at the time, Harrison initially agreed to do the role, but then reneged due to a personal relationship at the time.
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