Cinema Retro columnist David Savage continues his coverage of the Tribeca Film Festival with a report on a surprise appearance by Dennis Hopper at a screening of one of his earliest films.
The newly restored 35mm print of Night Tide (1961),
USA
Last year saw the passing of Curtis Harrington (1926-2007),
the director of a slew of delicious psycho-thrillers from the '60s and '70s,
including Who Slew Auntie Roo? (1971) and What's the Matter with
Helen? (1971), both with Shelly Winters, as well as the critical favorite
The Killing Kind (1973) with John Savage. So it was a fitting tribute to
the director that Tribeca Film Festival screened two newly restored prints of
Harrington's at Pace University last Sunday, April 29th -- his 1948
experimental short, Picnic, and his rarely seen, first feature film,
Night Tide (1961) with Dennis Hopper. Both prints were fresh out of the
Academy Film Archive labs in Los Angeles. Adding to the insider-thrill of the
occasion was a surprise visit by Hopper himself, who drove in from Queens where
he was on location shooting a new movie. Hopper said he hadn't seen the film --
his first, full-length starring role -- in several years, so it was interesting
to watch the 25-year-old actor on the screen, then steal furtive glances over at
him in his seat watching himself, some 47 years earlier.
Night Tide tells the tale of a young sailor, Johnny
Drake (Hopper) on leave in the then-derelict area of Venice, California, who
becomes smitten with a mysterious, dark-haired girl, Mora (Linda Lawson) who
portrays a mermaid in a carnival sideshow on the pier. They meet in a beatnik
grotto-bar complete with jazz combo and snapping, turtlenecked patrons, and from
there embark on an enigmatic, moody love affair that spells trouble from the
get-go. Her handler and sideshow boss, Captain Murdock (Gavin Muir), warns
Johnny that her previous boyfriends were both found drowned, and hints broadly
that the fishtail she wears in the sideshow may not be a put-on. Other troubling
signs include her serving fish for breakfast, and on one date, she succumbs to
the incantatory rhythms of a beach bongo-duo and draws a crowd as she writhes
expressionistically to their performance. Johnny won't listen to locals who also
try to warn him off the mysterious Mona, until it's nearly too late.
Highly atmospheric and evocative of Los Angeles' beatnik art
scene in the late '50s-early '60s (of which Hopper was a member), Night
Tide is a odd delight, full of eccentric bit players, stilted dialogue and
the lurid backdrop of a seedy amusement pier. It also sets the tone for
Harrington's later pictures, most of which are campy thrillers involving a
mentally fragile woman in a setting of decayed glamour, in the same genre as
Aldrich's What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962).
But digging a bit deeper, it hints at Harrington's
involvement in the occult. Harrington, according to Dennis Hopper, was a friend
of notorious occult filmmaker Kenneth Anger, with whom he went to school and
collaborated on Anger's and his own first experimental films -- many of which
deal in mythical and pagan topics. Their mutual friend was an artist in the L.A.
art scene of the time known simply as 'Cameron,' and who plays the role of The
Water Witch in Night Tide. In the film (credited as
Marjorie Cameron) she appears elusively as a witchy woman in black, usually
accompanied on the soundtrack by ringing bells. Her appearance throughout
Night Tide is never explained, but it casts doubt on the true provenance
of the character of Mona, and whether they are mother and daughter, or something
more sinister. Interestingly, Marjorie Cameron was married to Jack Parsons, a
pioneering genius in rocketry and occult enthusiast, and together they were
friends of L. Ron Hubbard and other science fiction writers. According to a
short bio on the Internet Movie Database, in 1946 she, Parsons and L. Ron
Hubbard undertook the famous "Babylon Working," a complex ritual spell
attempting to create a "magical child." In the early '50s she lived in a house
in Pasadena reputed to be a hive of occult and sexually transgressive behavior.
In 1954 she appeared in Kenneth Anger's Inauguration of the
Pleasure Dome (along with Harrington) and was a friend of Satanist Aleister
Crowley, Dennis Hopper and actor Dean Stockwell. How well Hopper knew Cameron
was unclear by his comments, but it was intriguing information, providing a
glimpse into his early days as an actor in L.A. and the cast of characters that
populated art galleries, living rooms and underground film sets of the time.
Hopper went on to comment that Night Tide was "one of
the first independent films," made for $28,000 and listed on Time
Magazine's 10 Best Films of that year, although it was never released in
theatres, owing to a dispute with labor unions. "Making independent films back
then was nearly impossible," he told the audience from the stage. "It was
virtually unheard of to work outside the studio system." Harrington, Hopper
revealed, was Twentieth Century Fox head Jerry Wald's assistant and got his
start in movies the old fashioned way – by serving as a gofer and working his
way up from there. Still flinty and ornery as hell at 72, Hopper makes a
compelling case for career longevity and still does not suffer fools easily, as
evidenced by his sarcastic answers to many questions posed from audience
members. When he mentioned his authorship of Easy Rider (1969),
vigorously disputed by Terry Southern and others, I was going to raise my hand.
Then I thought, hmm…better not go there. This dark man of indie cinema
just turned a shade more sinister.
To watch the original trailer of Night Tide, cut and
paste this URL into your browser: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2275213593/
-David Savage
CLICK HERE TO BUY THE NIGHT TIDE DVD DISCOUNTED FROM AMAZON