I Watch Films: Night Tide

Night Tide

Johnny Drake (Dennis Hopper) is a sailor on shore leave in Santa Monica. He goes into a coffee bar (where the fabulously named jazz musician Paul Horn, who we last saw in A Bucket Of Blood, is playing). Also there is Mora, a mysterious woman who he tries to pick up, eventually walking her home to the apartment she lives in above a merry-go-round.

He discovered that she works as a mermaid, putting on a tail and sitting in a (false) tank with a lid that makes it appear to be full of water. As their relationship develops he learns that some of her former boyfriends have vanished; Captain Murdock who runs the sideshow attraction was her guardian. Between them they suggest that Mora was the child of a siren that Murdock adopted on his voyages.

Things get weird and creepy. There’s a blackclad woman who is following Mora about. The owners of the merry-go-round talk in dark ways about the missing boys. Captain Murdock gets drunk and talks about the strangeness of Mora’s background. Events spiral murderously out of control.

Watch This: For a fairly tense and moderately interesting fantasy romantic thriller
Don’t Watch This: Even with Hopper to carry us with an intensity of character, this is a lot of nonsense.

Both posters are great