The tale of an angry, manipulative and thoroughly awful kid.

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Humphrey Bogart in Knock on Any Door (1949)

Cornell Borchers, Yvonne Mitchell, and Michel Ray in The Divided Heart (1954)

Cornell Borchers, George Nader, and Michel Ray in Flood Tide (1957)

Cornell Borchers and George Nader in Flood Tide (1957)

Abner Biberman, Cornell Borchers, and George Nader in Flood Tide (1957)

George Nader

Cornell Borchers

Michel Ray

Barry Trivers

Dorothy Cooper

To save a man wrongly convicted of murder, Steve Martin reluctantly begins a relationship with a widow and her son.

Abner Biberman

Flood Tide

Fascinating romantic melodrama

Shot in glorious black &amp; white &apos;Scope (a format I adore but which is rarely used), &quot;Flood Tide&quot; from Universal is an anomaly: instead of a Douglas Sirk feature starring Rock Hudson, we have George Nader starring for the studio and director Abner Biberman (whose previous Universal dramas starred the likes of Merle Oberon and Mamie Van Doren!) in material more suited to an exploitation film by some indie of the pre-porn era.

I greatly enjoyed the numerous perverse twist and turns of the script, which centers around a young boy played by Michel Ray who is crippled. He has an unhealthy codependency relationship with his mom Cornell Borchers, and by chance both of them become inextricably linked with Good Samaritan bachelor neighbor Nader, who happens to be a handsome, wealthy playboy completely disinterested in any lasting relationship.

The movie begins in a format familiar from that great, influential stage-to-film &quot;The Bad Seed&quot;, in which Patty McCormack was the cinema&apos;s ultimate evil child. Having a crippled, seemingly helpless kid (Ray) do terrible things repeatedly and get away with it is a novel story starting point, which gradually is overcome by the foreground off and on love affair between his mom Borchers and handsome, sympathetic Nader. The way the conflicting plot threads are resolved is quite satisfying and uplifting, the opposite of the vicarious thrills of rooting for the bad guy one gets in an exploitation movie.

Watchinig it seven decades after release, I had odd reactions. First of all, the &quot;crippled kid&quot; centerpiece reminded me immediately of Girlfriends FIlms&apos; greatest hit from a decade ago (and its sequel) &quot;Poor Little Shyla&quot;, in which crippled Shyla Jennings is tormented sexually not only by her peers but especially adults in an all-female lesbian dark XXX melodrama. The gimmick of women being the perpetrators rather than men gives this type of child molesting/abuse story a vicarious thrill that tickled a large porn audience, presumably predominantly male (whatever the marketing declares, lesbian porn is, like all porn, aimed at and consumed by males).

Making the saga even stranger is the casting of Nader, who in later years was revealed to the public to have been Rock Hudson&apos;s homosexual lover. Throughout &quot;Flood Tide&quot; he convincingly plays a knight in shining armor out to save not just his romantic interest Borchers but her son Michel. The homoerotic attraction between the two men is present but never made explicit, and one could imagine a 21st Century remake of this material in which it was brought out more to the surface (tastefully) -and providing a challenging role as the playboy turned savior for any number of stars to fight for, say Gosling, Chalamet or Austin Butler opposite some talented child star plus glamorous leading lady. Add in the inherently incestuous subplot between mother and son and you have the makings of a unique mainstream project.

Shot in glorious black & white 'Scope (a format I adore but which is rarely used), "Flood Tide" from Universal is an anomaly: instead of a Douglas Sirk feature starring Rock Hudson, we have George Nader starring for the studio and director Abner Biberman (whose previous Universal dramas starred the likes of Merle Oberon and Mamie Van Doren!) in material more suited to an exploitation film by some indie of the pre-porn era.

I greatly enjoyed the numerous perverse twist and turns of the script, which centers around a young boy played by Michel Ray who is crippled. He has an unhealthy codependency relationship with his mom Cornell Borchers, and by chance both of them become inextricably linked with Good Samaritan bachelor neighbor Nader, who happens to be a handsome, wealthy playboy completely disinterested in any lasting relationship.

The movie begins in a format familiar from that great, influential stage-to-film "The Bad Seed", in which Patty McCormack was the cinema's ultimate evil child. Having a crippled, seemingly helpless kid (Ray) do terrible things repeatedly and get away with it is a novel story starting point, which gradually is overcome by the foreground off and on love affair between his mom Borchers and handsome, sympathetic Nader. The way the conflicting plot threads are resolved is quite satisfying and uplifting, the opposite of the vicarious thrills of rooting for the bad guy one gets in an exploitation movie.

Watchinig it seven decades after release, I had odd reactions. First of all, the "crippled kid" centerpiece reminded me immediately of Girlfriends FIlms' greatest hit from a decade ago (and its sequel) "Poor Little Shyla", in which crippled Shyla Jennings is tormented sexually not only by her peers but especially adults in an all-female lesbian dark XXX melodrama. The gimmick of women being the perpetrators rather than men gives this type of child molesting/abuse story a vicarious thrill that tickled a large porn audience, presumably predominantly male (whatever the marketing declares, lesbian porn is, like all porn, aimed at and consumed by males).

Making the saga even stranger is the casting of Nader, who in later years was revealed to the public to have been Rock Hudson's homosexual lover. Throughout "Flood Tide" he convincingly plays a knight in shining armor out to save not just his romantic interest Borchers but her son Michel. The homoerotic attraction between the two men is present but never made explicit, and one could imagine a 21st Century remake of this material in which it was brought out more to the surface (tastefully) -and providing a challenging role as the playboy turned savior for any number of stars to fight for, say Gosling, Chalamet or Austin Butler opposite some talented child star plus glamorous leading lady. Add in the inherently incestuous subplot between mother and son and you have the makings of a unique mainstream project.

bappamtv

Flood Tide

🎭 Top Cast

🎬 Technical Specs

🏷️ Keywords

🎯 Categories

⭐ Featured Review

💡 Did You Know?

🎬 More Like This

📖 Synopsis