The Devil's Triangle

It was in released in the mid-1970s when everybody was coming out with movies trying to explain the Bermuda Triangle craze. Unlike most of those (which were mostly documentaries anyway), this one was a fictional explanation. It seems pretty straightforward in it's storytelling until the last ten minutes. It is this last ten minutes that actually frightened me. If you have the chance to see this one I'd recommend it.

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.

Back in college I studied marketing and, even though I missed a whole lot of classes and never really paid any attention, I will always remember the main and most essential principle of marketing, namely: it's not what you sell; it's HOW you sell it! This principle fully applies to "The Devil's Triangle", as it's basically a beautifully wrapped and enticing yet empty package. Writer/director Richard Winer knew exactly that he had to divert the viewer's attention away from the major inaccuracies, so he threw in some elements that never fail when it comes to providing a creepy atmosphere, like the sinister voice of narrator Vincent Price and the oddball music of King Crimson. And I'm guessing Richard Winer's dirty little tricks worked very efficiently, as there was a huge Bermuda Triangle hype going on during the mid-70's and literally every movie production – whether it was an inaccurate documentary or a sleazy exploitation flick – covering the topic earned big money at the box office. "The Devil's Triangle" overwhelms you with data that is unstructured and often irrelevant, but the severe dramatization of the facts and of course the intimidating stark voice of the almighty Vincent Price generates an ambiance of fright and creepiness. The narration constantly jumps back and forward in time and covers a massive amount of "strange occurrences" and "mysterious vanishings" of ships and airplanes in the Bermuda Triangle throughout a period of nearly one whole century, but the reports remain extremely vague at all times and the eloquent Mr. Price invariably ends every chapter with the sinister words "… just another unsolved mystery of the Devil's Triangle…". After a couple of cases the whole formula simply becomes laughable and almost pathetic, but I guess it caused genuine mass hysteria back in 1974. The documentary expands a little more on the most notorious Bermuda Triangle mysteries, like the five planes of military Flight 19 that inexplicably disappeared all at once and the peculiar case of the vessel USS Cyclops, but still even in these chapters only a minimum of serviceable information is given. The cameras never at one point go underwater to explore the depths of the Bermuda area, for example, and the testimonies of the supposedly real-life witnesses of the dramas suspiciously look like staged acting scenes. If you're looking for an informative and objective documentary on the Bermuda Triangle, I certainly wouldn't recommend this movie, but in case you want to sit back and listen to Vincent Price's hypnotizing voice for nearly a full hour, this is your chance!

This is a short, entertaining documentary that gets most of it's mileage from the slightly arch voice work of the great Vincent Price and from it's very silly script. You can't really take the documentary seriously because, as other reviewers have pointed out, the production values are so bad they are funny! It's an "Ed Wood style" documentary with lots of laughs. They start early when you get not one, but two openings for the film ending with Price intoning the oft-repeated line..."in...the..DEVIL'S TRIANGLE!". Then you get badly edited cuts that jump all over in time. At one point you are in the 40's with a Christmas day flight that disappears while singing Christmas Carols. Of course, the director uses a recording of a whole chorus singing while Price ominously intones that they had flown into (yes, you guessed it) "..the..DEVIL'S TRIANGLE". Another fun bit in the show is the fragmented use of music by King Crimson. I couldn't quite place the album it was pulled from, but the same piece was used over and over again along with some weird noises that sound like they came from an old Halloween record. There are also some very funny re-enactments in the film. At one point an eccentric captain of a Navy coal ship heading to South America strolls onto the deck of the ship with his hat and cane, wearing only long underwear. Later in the story we see the same actor strolling back and forth across the deck in the same long-johns! And last, but not least, there are many "artists conception" paintings of what the director thinks may have happened on board the missing ships. The paintings look like they've been drawn and colored by a 12-year old. But the real fun here is with the voice acting of Vincent Price, who pulls back from the top just enough to keep his performance from becoming camp. But he just can't resist a little exaggeration here and there, like when he is describing the people who are heading through the triangle to get to vacations spots and describes the "..unattached women who find unattached men..". He gives the lines just a hint of perversion which is very funny indeed. Oh, give this documentary a try. You will enjoy it immensely if you try to see it as an Ed Wood film. I'm voting for Guy Maddin to do the remake.

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