Returns Policy
If you are unhappy with your purchase, you can return it to us within 14 days. More details
MovieMail's Review
There are some films you just know you're going to enjoy based on their titles alone: The Mermaids of Tiburon is one such.
You want more? Well, it's about a boring marine biologist who goes looking for some special pearls near the isle of Tiburon. But he's pursued by a gangster called Sangster, played by Kubrick favourite Timothy Carey, who's either over-acting or drunk. Possibly both. Anyway, under the sea around Tiburon, our boring hero discovers some mermaids and – wouldn't you know it? - they're all topless!
Basically, this film is what Gerry Anderson's Stingray would have been like if undersea princess 'Marina' had got her norks out: part simplistic aquatic adventure, part sub-Russ Meyer nudie flick, featuring buxom pin-up Diane Webber as the queen of the Mermaids. To be fair, John Lamb's marine photography is beautiful and the endless shots of semi-naked swimmers achieve an abstract, hallucinatory grace.
So you can cover any embarrassment occasioned by watching it by claiming that, actually, this is a neglected avant-garde masterpiece. And it is, sort-of. But it's also much more. Welcome to your new favourite guilty pleasure.
A surreal 'nudie cutie' fantasy, The Mermaids of Tiburon is an enchanting tale of beautiful mermaids and lost treasure.
Dr Samuel Jamison (George Rowe) is a marine biologist at an aquatic theme park who learns of an underwater treasure trove of 'flame pearls' from an elderly gentleman, who shows him some incredible colour-changing sea jewels which he discovered during a visit to the island of Tiburon. The scientist decides to go in search of the treasure, setting sail for Tiburon where he encounters a dangerous gangster who wants the loot for himself, and a band of mermaids - led by the voluptuous 1950s-60s pinup Diane Webber - who are intent on protecting the pearls at all cost.
