The Devil's Triangle

Coast Guard finds a boat on an fish trip in the Bermuda Triangle with one female passenger alive an all the others dead from mysterious circumstances. One by one the mysteries of their death are explain or so it seems. This was one of the better ABC movies of the week.

Vincent Price is the narrator of this story about the Triangle and its place in recent history (about 200 years) as a frightening area of the ocean with respect to planes and ships.

Most of the movie is ultimately spooky, albeit at times it's a bit animated. Good interviews with folks who have a connection to the Triangle, though some of them appear to have been coached. Alan Kosnar, whom was one of the naval personnel involved with the disappearance of the infamous 'Flight 19', states his version of what happened on that fateful day.

Trenchant script adds to film's flavor. Comfortably short running time at only 52 minutes

The Devil's Triangle (1974)

** (out of 4)

Vincent Price narrates this documentary that takes a look at several mysterious disappearances that happened in what's known as The Bermuda Triangle. The documentary has interviews with people who are experts on some of the disappearances including a few members of a search party who went out looking for five missing planes.

If you're a fan of mysteries then you'll probably want to watch this at least once but there's no question that it's a product of its time and has been replaced with many, many better documentaries on the subject. The stories told here are all rather interesting but at the same time they're told rather blandly so they never really build up any tension or scares.

THE DEVIL'S TRIANGLE does feature some nice narration by Price so fans of his will also probably want to check this out but for the most part this has been forgotten for good reasons.

This is a documentary narrated by Vincent Price and tells the history of the Bermuda Triangle AKA The Devil's Triangle which is one of these great mysteries of the modern era and always fascinated me as a schoolboy and has perhaps been solved in the meantime which I'll come to in a moment

In its favour it's not a documentary that doesn't make things up unlike a notorious spoof documentary called THE OUTER SPACE CONNECTION which claimed the last words from the ill fated Flight 19 was " Don't follow us they look like they're from outer space " but is slightly guilty of missing things out and leaving more scientific explanations as a short footnote

Take Flight 19 for example . The official report says the flight got lost and ditched in the sea and a plane involved in the search was lost having exploded . This documentary acknowledges this and makes a big play that flight 19 commander Lt Taylor mentions " white seas " which insinuates something . Add to this the dulcet tones of Vincent Price an actor best known - only known ? - for his horror roles and you think you know what's being insinuated - something supernatural . The truth is Lt Taylor a pilot with a reputation as being a bit of a maverick led the flight got slightly lost and in order to compensate for this tried to find his coordinates and get the flight even more lost . On the morning in question eye witnesses stated they thought Taylor was suffering from a bad hang over ( Not mentioned in the documentary ) which wouldn't have helped and could have been a major factor is the loss of the flight The plane that went missing during the search for Flight 19 was a Martin PBM Mariner . So what you ask ? It wasn't a plane that was very popular with crews who often referred to the as " flying gas tanks " In fact when the RAF bought them from the Americans during the war they ended up returning them asking for their money back and use their own flying boats . Eyewitnesses during the search said they saw bright lights in the area where the Mariner was searching ( Not mentioned ) and these lights would almost certainly have been an explosion

There was also an incident including two Strato Fortress planes in 1962 " The first jet age victims of the triangle " but the documentary fails to mention that wreckage was recovered and the board of enquiry concluded both planes collided with one another and that it was a tragic accident . They didn't disappear from the face of the Earth as suggested here

When this documentary was produced a phenomena little known in the mid 1970s - gas hydrates emitting from the sea . This means water loses all buoyancy and ship passing over it would quickly sink . It's interesting that during his domed flight Lt Taylor mentions " white seas " and if someone was to sails across a stretch of sea with gas hydrates it would sink . Planes in general and the Grumman Avenger bombers weren't known for their floating ability . Heaven anyone trying to land in a plane in this stretch of ocean . It also explains the other disappearances

As it stands THE DEVIL'S TRIANGLE isn't a total loss . It's not a documentary that doesn't make up myths of its own but does play up to the known myths and speculation while ignoring important facts . In other words it's a sensationalist documentary

I have seen this movie and the explanation of NOVA's Case of the Bermuda Triangle. You must see both to understand that this movie was made for the exploitation of Mr. Whiner's book only. They asked him many questions that they could prove but he couldn't, only argue. It's simple to see that he wanted to make a scary movie (with a sinister voice like Mr. Price). The facts were deliberately vague and eliberated. The movie was so convincing that he made a 2nd book: 'Devil's Triangle 2'. If you want a scary story (loosely based on fact), then this is your movie. If you want to see the truth; then this will only make you laugh. It was originally released by HBO, they must have pulled it because it was so fake.