Night Tide (1961)

Interesting facts

Night Tide is a 1961 American independent fantasy film sometimes considered to be a horror film, written and directed by Curtis Harrington and featuring Dennis Hopper in his first starring role. It was filmed in 1960, premiered in 1961, but was held up from general release until 1963. The film's title was inspired by some lines from Edgar Allan Poe's poem "Annabel Lee".

Production

The movie was based on an original script by Curtis Harrington, originally called The Girl from Beneath the Sea. According to Spencer Kansa, Harrington based his script on a self-penned story titled "The Secrets of the Sea." Harrington admits the film was heavily influenced by Cat People and also the works of William Hope Hodgson whose fiction often involved the sea, notably The House on the Borderland.

Kansa states that prior to filming the director 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!"

Harrington estimated the final budget as between $75,000 and $80,000 although he says the cash outlay was $50,000. Harrington raised this in part from Pathe Laboratories, using a distribution guarantee from Roger Corman's Filmgroup.

Harrington said Hopper's casting came about when he met socially and expressed admiration for Harrington's short films. Harrington gave Hopper a script and the actor agreed to make it.

The role of Mora the Mermaid (played by Lawson) was originally to be played by Susan Harrison, who had been the lead in Sweet Smell of Success (1957). Harrison, at the time a friend of director Harrington, initially agreed to take the role, but then reneged when the person she was seeing in a relationship at the time pushed her out of doing the film.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.