The Film Ron Howard Should've Watched Before Directing Splash

The Film: Night Tide (Phoenix Films, 1961). Directed and written by Curtis Harrington. Starring: Dennis Hopper, Linda Lawson, Gavin Muir, Luana Anders. Running time: 84 minutes.

My intro to the film: First viewed it in 1989. My old buddy and fellow film buff Dee Wolfe loaned it to me on VHS. Thanks, Dee! (Dee loaned me a lot of movies that I'll be reviewing here in the future...)

What can I say about this movie?: Ten things oughta sell this sucka: 1) Dennis Hopper at age 25 (six years after appearing in Rebel Without a Cause); 2) A mysterious woman named Mora (Linda Lawson) who's either a human or a sea creature/siren disguised as a woman (nah-nah-nah! I'm not givin' it away here!); 3) The great beatnik subterranean scene where Hopper's character Johnny Drake first meets the Mora - and the chemistry that later develops between them; 4) The strangely hypnotic scenes of early 1960s' Malibu and Santa Monica; 5) Luana Anders as the young woman who warns Hopper not to get involved with Mora; 6) The atmospheric cinematography by Vilis Lapenieks; 7) A surprisingly decent screenplay for such a low-budget movie by Curtis Harrington (Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?); 8) The film keeps you guessing whether Mora is really a mermaid/sea creature, and it finally resolves the mystery; 9) Why are all these people warning Hopper to stay away from Mora? Is she really so dangerous?; 10) You can watch the film free online at the Internet Archive. Most of the prints of the film that I've seen are pretty lousy in quality, but the beatnik musical sequences hold up extremely well.

Some additional ramblings: Night Tide is a compelling, dream-like, rock-bottom-budget film from the early 1960s. The oceanside setting of Night Tide, the beatnikish flute music throughout the movie and Hopper's believable performance as a confused young sailor add to the intrigue. We want the film to end happily for Johnny/Hopper, but the sense of dread deepens with each frame. This is the final film of character actor Gavin Muir, a recognizable face who appeared in countless Hollywood movies. He elevates the film several notches with his performance as Mora's troubled caretaker.

Bottom line: This movie is by no means a masterpiece, but an eerie and absorbing piece of cinema nonetheless. One of the better made low-budget films made during the heyday of Grade-Z drive-in fare. It paved the way for Herk Harvey's Carnival of Souls, released the following year. And Night Tide demonstrates that just because the budget is almost nonexistent, the film need not be a piece of schlock like The Beast of Yucca Flats.

Footnote that I didn't wish I had to add: The legendary Dennis Hopper is currently struggling with cancer. In October, the 73-year-old actor was admitted to the hospital with flu-like symptoms. While some news outlets are claiming that he is losing the battle against prostate cancer (source), he is in my thoughts. He is a wonderful actor. He has had such an amazing career. He is an icon of American cinema. And he ought to have many good years ahead of him in the movies. Let us all wish for a recovery for Dennis Hopper.

Roman Polanski's Work of Twisted Genius

The Movie: Repulsion (Compton Films, 1965). Directed by Roman Polanski. Written by Roman Polanski and Gerard Brach (adaptation and additional dialogue by David Stone). Starring Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser, Yvonne Ferneaux. Running time: 105 minutes.

My First Viewing: About 25 or 26 years ago, in a theater in Pasadena, California, with an Englishman named Mick who loved movies.

The Straight Dope: This is Roman Polanski's first English-language film, shot in mid-sixties London in glorious black and white. How to describe it to someone who hasn't see it? It's a deeply disturbing film, directed by a troubled man. I just noticed the film has a 100 percent approval rating over at Rotten Tomatoes, so the critics clearly love it. Polanski was only 32 when he made this dark horror film about a young woman Carole (played by ghostly Catherine Deneuve), a sensitive and troubled young Belgian beautician who's clearly on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She lives in a spacious London pad with her sister, Helen (Yvonne Ferneaux). There seems to be a lot of distance between the two sisters. Helen is more outgoing. She's a product of Swinging Sixties London culture. In fact, she goes on a vacation with a married man, leaving poor, tormented Carole alone in the flat for an extended period. This is where the nightmare begins, as Carole begins to spiral downward into total madness while she's a alone. The stark cinematography by Gilbert Taylor only adds another nightmarish layer onto this already surreal motion picture. Carole is not helped by the fact that she suffers from androphobia (the fear of men). While Helen is away, Carole retreats deeper and deeper into her own fragile insanity. She stays locked up in the flat, and all the food begins to go rotten (there is a scene of a decaying chicken that you will not ever forget). Best not to give too much away, other than to say that about midway through the film, you can tell it isn't going to end well. Let's just say there's a landlord in the film who really shouldn't have tried so aggressively to get Carole into bed.

Why I... uh... was troubled by this film: It's a damn disturbing movie. The rotting chicken has stayed in my mind for over a quarter of a century (that's a hell of an image not to be able to shake for 25-plus years). The film is now available from the Criterion Collection (right). There's a great sneak preview on the Criterion website (just tap the link in the previous sentence). Psychological horror films do not come any more unsettling than this one. Also, watching the film two and a half decades after I originally viewed it, I was struck by Polanski's ability to relate to women and portray them as multi-dimensional, fully realized characters. If you don't believe me, watch Repulsion - or have a look at Rosemary's Baby (1968), Chinatown (1974), Tess (1979) or Death and the Maiden (1994). Each film contains a complex female protagonist. You can trace Polanski's perceptiveness back to Repulsion.

Bottom Line: It may not be your cup of tea, but watch it anyway, if you want to see a nightmare beautifully portrayed on film. Only a troubled man like Roman Polanski, with the Holocaust in his background and a host of demons roaming around in his closet, could have created such an elegant and ultimately horrifying work of art. Grade: I am not going to grade films anymore. The "Bottom Line" entry should suffice.

The Great Depression, Bogdanovich Style

The Film: Paper Moon (The Director's Company, 1973). Directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Written by Alvin Sargent. Starring Ryan O'Neal, Tatum O'Neal, Madeline Kahn, John Hillerman, P.J. Johnson. Running time: 102 minutes.

My first viewing: Whoah Lord, I don't know. Back in the 1970s sometime. I've seen the film so many times, I've lost track. Seems like the first time I saw it, I must've been seven or eight. It came on television often in Southern California. Hell, for all I know, I might've seen it in the theaters.

The 4-1-1: Paper Moon is one of those films that's like an old friend. I watched it over and over again, much like The Wizard of Oz (1939). Firing it up in the DVD player today, I feel the same sense of comfort I experienced when I viewed it decades ago. For some reason, during the 1970s, filmmakers made magnificent movies set in the Great Depression (recall Chinatown, Bound for Glory, Boxcar Bertha, Sounder, the list goes on and on). Paper Moon is yet another wonderful Great Depression movie from the seventies. It's a movie about a con man and a little girl who may - or may not - be father and daughter. The sparks between the O'Neals (papa Ryan and sweetly Tomboyish little Tatum) is nothing short of awe inspiring. What a delight it is to watch the two of them engaged in verbal boxing matches. It still works beautifully today, 37 years later. Madeline Kahn is a damn hoot as the floozie Trixie Delight, who spends her time trying to get her hooks deeper and deeper into Moses Pray (Ryan O'Neal). Young Addie Pray (Tatum) conspires along with Trixie's African American servant Imogene (P. J. Johnson) to drive a wedge between Trixie and Moses. Watch out for scene stealer Burton Gilliam as the foolish desk clerk Floyd, who is one of Addie's many pawns in the film. Gilliam is one of those character actors who is everywhere. You'll recognize him when you see him. He has a smile that can stop a train dead in its tracks. And John Hillerman, who played snooty Higgins in Magnum P.I. during the 1980s, turns up as twin brothers. Like Gilliam, Hillerman is one of those character actors who found an awful lot of work in the 1970s. Although he's from Texas, he has one of those great Orson Welles-esque deep baritone voices. He's in top form here, especially in his role as the sheriff. This was, of course, right before he landed the part as the deliciously slimy Russ Yelburton in Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974).

The Real Star of the Film: Without question, the main reason to see this film is the astonishing cinematography by László Kovács. His stark, high-contrast black-and-white shots of Kansas and Missouri absolutely boggle the mind and recreate the grandeur of Dorothea Lange's Great Depression photographs. Thanks to him, Paper Moon bears a much closer resemblance to America in the 1930s than any films actually made at the time.

Bottom Line: Peter Bogdanovich was on fire when he directed Paper Moon. Look at his filmography: Targets (1968), The Last Picture Show (1971), What's Up Doc? (1972) and Paper Moon (1973). All superb films. Alas, after Paper Moon, he began making films like Daisy Miller and Nickelodeon. Nothing that Bogdanovich has made since Paper Moon comes close to touching the film. Thankfully, in recent years, he has been writing some wonderful film criticism and he remains one of the finest film historians in the United States today. Nobody understands the language of cinema more than Peter Bogdanovich. Without question, Paper Moon was - along with The Last Picture Show - his finest moment. Grade: A-.

Five Film Noirs (I know: the proper plural is films noirs, but screw it) that you probably haven't seen, but really should watch...

I love film noirs (or films noirs for you hardcore francophones). I saw my first noir, Double Indemnity (1944), when I was fifteen (I'll be blogging about it soon, I assure you) and I've been hooked ever since. I've seen most of the big enchiladas (Double Indemnity, The Asphalt Jungle, The Big Heat, etc. etc.). And I've also seen a lot of obscure noirs. What follows is my list of Five Noirs you probably haven't seen, but should watch at some point.

1. Shack Out on 101 (1955): Put Lee Marvin in a film and no matter how lousy the film is, he always has a way of partially redeeming it. This is a terrific B-movie set in seaside diner. The movie is brimming with Red Scare paranoia. Marvin plays a goon who cooks in the diner and hatches a scheme with Dr. Sam Bastion (Frank Lovejoy) to deliver secrets to the Reds. Bastion might be a good guy or he might be a bad guy (you'll find out). Terry Moore foils the plot. Throw in Keenan Wynn as the owner of the diner and you've got a forgotten noir full of unintentional laughs, truly tense moments and good old Lee Marvin.

2. The Hitch-Hiker (1953): Actress Ida Lupino directed this tight Fifties noir. This one also stars Frank Lovejoy. Along for the ride is another noir veteran, Edmond (White Heat, The Killers) O'Brien. They play buddies who make the mistake of picking up a psychotic hitch-hiker. I know what you're thinking: Not another psycho hitch-hiker movie... But this is the granddaddy of 'em. This one started it all. William Talman (right, who played Hamilton Burger on Perry Mason) plays one of the coolest psychopaths in any Old School Noir: a maniacal gunman with a dead eye who menaces Lovejoy and O'Brien. There's a great night scene in the desert, near a campfire, where you can't tell if Talman's character is asleep or awake (because of his dead eye). Truly chilling stuff. Lupino was not only an underrated actress. She was a gifted director, too.

3. Quicksand (1950): Mickey Rooney had recently stopped playing 17-year-olds when he took the role of Dan Brady, a two-bit grease monkey who wants to impress looker Jeanne Cagney by taking her out for a night on the town. Problem is, Brady's broke, so he lifts a $20 out of the cash register, thinking, "What's the worst that can happen?" Mayhem ensues. How, you wonder, can a stolen twenty dollar bill snowball into a noir full of twists and turns where even Peter Lorre makes a small appearance? To find out, you have to watch Quicksand. Actor/director Irving (Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid) Pichel directs this taut B-thriller.

4. Red Rock West (1992): Looking for a truly great modern noir? Look no further than Red Rock West. Nicolas Cage (right), back before he won the Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas (1995) and then made the leap into all these lame action movies, stars as Michael Williams, a fundamentally honest guy who is down on his luck and looking for work. The late, great J.T. Walsh plays a wealthy married man who mistakes Cage for the hitman he planned to hire to kill his wife (Lara Flynn Boyle). Cage takes the big bucks from Walsh and then goes to warn femme fatale Boyle that hubby wants to bump her off. Add to the mix the real hitman (played in the usual over-the-top fashion by Dennis Hopper) and the pure noir mayhem ensues. Director John Dahl is the neo-noir director who also gave us The Last Seduction (1994) and Rounders (1998). He also co-wrote the script with his brother Rick. The end result is a tight, well-made Western noir with plenty of atmosphere, fine performances, and a really cool ending (I won't give it away).

5. He Walked By Night (1948): Richard Basehart stars in this noirish police procedural as Roy Morgan, a genius psycho who shoots and kills a patrolman in the middle of a burglary attempt. Morgan is pursued by two police detectives, but he stays one step ahead of the police by monitoring their movements on a radio that picks up police frequencies. Roy actually has a past with the Police Department (I won't give it away, but you find out his connection -- and the experience he gained from it helps him outwit the police at every turn). Scott Brady and James Caldwell are the police detectives who relentlessly pursue every tiny lead, every dead end and twist and turn, in the search for Morgan. The real treat in this film is a pre-Dragnet Jack Webb, who actually has a pretty decent role as a police forensics specialist. The pseudo-documentary Los Angeles street scenes remind me of the same year's Naked City, set in New York City. Alfred Werker, who built a whole career around directing now-mostly forgotten B-movies, handles this one superbly. It will keep you on the edge of your seat.