Johnny Drake (Dennis Hopper) is a sailor on shore leave. After wandering around a seaside carnival he stops at a club called “Blue Grotto” to have a beer. Sitting next to the jazz combo on stage Johnny looks around the room. Across from him is beautiful young woman. He goes over and asks to sit at her table. She allows it but she is interested in just watching the band perform. A woman comes over to their table and speaks to the young woman in a foreign language. The young woman appears upset and leaves the club.
Johnny follows her and strikes up a conversation. He asks to walk her home. She says her name is Mora (Linda Lawson). Mora lives above a merry-go-round on the Santa Monica Pier. Johnny makes a date to see her the next day for breakfast. The next morning Johnny meets the merry-go-round operator (Tom Dillon) and his granddaughter Ellen Sands (Luana Anders) before heading up to Mora’s apartment. At breakfast Mora tells Johnny that she works on the attraction pier. She is known as Mora the Mermaid, a half woman half fish phenomenon.
Later she introduces Johnny to her boss Captain Samuel Murdock (Gavin Muir). Sam is also Mora’s guardian. He found her as an orphan on the island of Mykonos in Greece. Johnny and Mora begin seeing each other a lot. The next time Johnny sees the merry-go-round operator and Ellen a detective, Lt Henderson (H.E. West) drops by. After he leaves Ellen tells Johnny that the last two boyfriends Mora had were found dead, drowned.
Later Captain Murdock tells him that his life is in danger if he continues to see Mora. He says that she suffers from a compulsion to kill. He also says that she belongs to an ancient race of sea creatures. They lure sailors to their deaths. She is a siren. Murdock advises Johnny to be careful during the time of the full moon. That’s when the tides pull the strongest. Mora confirms what Murdock told him. She too believes she is a siren and the old woman that talked to her in the bar is from the race of sea creatures. She wants Mora to return to where she belongs. With them. Johnny tries to tell her that what she believes is not true and he almost convinces her. At least until Mora tires to kill him.
“Night Tide” was released in 1961 and was directed by Curtis Harrington. It is a low budget American fantasy horror film. Harrington also wrote the story and screenplay. Reportedly the movie was originally called “The Girl from Beneath the Sea” and was sold to Roger Corman in 1956. Harrington says that Corman didn’t finance the film but helped him find financing.
Harrington based his script on his unpublished story titled "The Secrets of the Sea”. Writer Spencer Kansa states that, prior to filming Harrington had turned down an offer from the Mickey Cohen gang to finance the picture. "They were very charming men but I had visions that if the film didn't do well I'd end up at the bottom of the LA river in a block of cement!"
The film is a little different than normal fantasy films. Harrington said that when he wrote it he was influenced by Val Lewton’s “Cat People” 1942. There is an ever so slight ambiguity to the film, even at the end. It lends an intriguing atmosphere to the movie. It’s a slow moving film but it has an imaginative flare to it that gives it a slightly noir aspect. It’s a good movie but more as an artistic film than something standard of the horror or fantasy genre.
Reportedly the when the Sea Witch is talking to Mora she is speaking Greek. Someone translated the dialogue into English. It translates as: "Soon you will meet your people, my love! Oh yes, very soon we will meet again!"
The band that is playing at the Jazz club in the movie is Paul Horn’s band. He was the one playing the flute. Horn was well known jazz musician and composer. He played various instruments and released several albums. In 1959 he scored the animated television series “Clutch Cargo”.