Friday, November 30, 2007

NIGHT TIDE - Chaino - "Bongo Madness" (1961)

Back in about 1965, my Dad brought home an album called "Jungle Echoes" by Chaino & His African Percussion Safari that he bought somewhere for about 69 cents after he'd won $1.75 playing pinball, back when pinball machines actually paid off, and on that Chaino LP I remember there was all this freaky jungle bongo percussion unlike anything else we'd heard before, but I never really thought that over 40 years later I'd be talking or writing about it. Oh, Well.... here you go. Chaino's bongos in the movie "Night Tide" are riveting as Mermaid Gal dances & dives into a frenzy of percussive madness. 

Dennis Hopper's pretty cool until she goes about 3 & 1/2 steps too far and loses it! This is a very interesting film that needs to be re-discovered if you're not doing anything else! Chaino's Jungle Drums

2 comments:

Greg Goodsell said...

Curtis Harrington strikes again with his first feature! Avoid the DVD of this as Harrington and Dennis Hopper contribute the most boring DVD audio commentary track ever!

Anonymous said...

I disagree wholeheartedly. This film, even when produced with one of the lowest budgets ever, was pure genius. Only Curtis Harrington could have accomplished such a feat. You, greg, must be either confused about what film you're writing about or you are smoking something real weird.

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??