Night Tide marked the feature film debut of Curtis Harrington (1928-), one of the most gifted young directors working in the avant-garde film scene that flourished on the West Coast during the late 1940s and 1950s. Night Tide is the key transitional film in Harrington’s oeuvre, poised between the poetic cinema of his early experimental shorts (Picnic, On the Edge) and the stylish, subversive genre films which he later directed for the Hollywood studios (What’s the Matter With Helen?, Games). Night Tide’s haunting tale of impossible love was shot largely on location in Venice, California, and features a nuanced performance by Dennis Hopper-in his first starring role-as well as important contributions from legendary film composer David Raskin (Laura) and cinematographer Floyd Crosby (Taboo). Simultaneously echoing the trance films of Maya Deren, on the one hand, and the work of Val Lewton’s legendary B-unit, on the other, Night Tide reveals the strong mutual influence between the avant-garde and commercial film that was a signature feature of film production during the first years of the New American Cinema.