The Devil's Triangle (1974)

Turn your brain off and take this for what it is, a ghost story of questionable veracity narrated by the great Vincent Price. I saw this film about the weird goings on in the Bermuda Triangle when it was released to theaters back in the mid 70's. It scared the living snot out of me and made me want to crawl under my seat. It was scarier than most horror films because "its based on fact".I have no idea how true any of it is. Over the years I've heard the stories bandied about so much by people saying the stories are true or false that I don't really believe anyone on either side. Frankly I don't really care. What I do care about is that this film, though dated (the effects are clearly 1970's independent cheap) is great deal of fun. Its creepy and scary if you are crazy enough to sit and watch the film with the lights out. Watch it as the cinematic equivalent of a campfire story. Don't try and deduce if the "claw" is real just go with the flow and you'll have a blast.

I still fondly remember a flurry of Devil's Triangle interest from my childhood during the 1970's in conjunction with the UFO / otherworldly phenomenon craze which led to such amusing cultural artifacts as IN SEARCH OF ... with Leonard Nimoy, PROJECT BLUE BOOK by Jack Webb, and various Bionic Man episodes involving ESP, space aliens, wolf boys, and Japanese soldiers who had held out since WW2. I probably encountered this TV special somewhere along the lines even if I don't specifically remember it -- the model boat footage has a familiar feel to it, and it's the kind of nonfiction G-rated harmless fluff that my folks would have allowed us 5 - 8 year olds to watch. Maybe on a Sunday night right after IN SEARCH OF ... which was weekly fare around our house.The film is presented as a documentary about The Devil's Triangle, using stock footage, interviews with apparent survivors of ill-fated forays into the famed area of the Caribbean, a few model special effects shots, and tourist footage of the Bahamas & lower Florida. It's never boring though, with Vincent Price's deliciously voiced narration always tweaking your geek nerve whenever he allows the phrase "The Devil's Triangle" to roll off his tongue. Price's narration is priceless and in spite of the dramatic footage chosen for the special, his wording is by far the most interesting aspect of the production.But the reason I sought this out as an adult is that it provides the only cinematic musical score credit to King Crimson, one of the great overbearing art-rock bands of the 60's/70's, 80's/90's, and still in operation today under the domineering fist of one Robert "Bob" Fripp, an accomplished guitarist, economics theorist, musical industry critic, and hero to legions of budding young musicians who have fallen sway to his mesmerizing Bournemouth spell. Fripp is the very embodiment of the rock musician as an intellectual: Short, bespeckled, usually dressed in a suit + tie since 1978 or so, he has confounded and intrigued three generations of acid eating art rockers who find his particular brand of electronic symphonics to be the best thing since sliced bread.I count myself as part of that legion, and my favorite era of King Crimson music has always been the 1968 - 1972 Fripp With An Afro period of the band's history. After being familiar with Fripp's somewhat caustic view of the world for 25 years now it is no surprise to figure out *WHY* this particular project he may or may not have been directly involved in hasn't been an emphasized footnote from his resume. THE DEVIL'S TRIANGLE happens to be the same title as the name of a composition -- 11 minutes in length on album -- that Fripp penned for his 1970 King Crimson without Ian McDonald album "In the Wake of Poseidon" that he regards these days with some disdain. Essentially a spin off on Holst's "Mars: God of War" from the composer's "The Planets" suite (which Crimson famously covered as their show-stopper climactic number from a legendary 1969 tour of Britain & America), which was apparently so close to the original composition that Holst's estate sued Crimson for plagiarism. Or so the legend goes.That in itself would be enough to give the always penny conscious Fripp a bellyache, but the producers of this TV special decided to use Crimson's "The Devil's Triangle" as the theme music for their movie. Mostly this amounts to the same 4 minutes or so of Mellotron heavy droning from the composition's middle segment -- we never hear it at full length, though the composition's (sic) flutey conclusion is used to good effect during the opening credits -- that most Crimsonites might be hard pressed to understand what the point of using it was. Other than cashing in on the title & using some of the music's atmospherics to add weightiness to cheaply staged model effects shots of a boat bobbing in some tank meant to represent the Caribbean Sea. And there are some anomalistic waftings of Mellotron-ish sounding noise/music here & there which just might be outtake reels from the "Poseidon" sessions, though nobody I have been able to ask seems to be able to identify them.One pictures Fripp agreeing to allow ABC & the producers to use the section of music, depositing a royalties check, being provided with a video copy of the finished project to enjoy, and watching with resigned bemusement as the same two minutes of music are repeated over & over & over again, with Mr. Pice ominously narrating the events being depicted. It would have been the very definition of the term "underwhelming", and as such Mr. Fripp's decision not to trumpet this as the career breakthrough he had been waiting for is somewhat better understood now that I have seen it for myself. King Crimson would have been a perfect choice for a rock band to score a movie, but sadly it never happened (though Fripp & Crimson's music has been heard in a few films of exception, most notably BUFFALO '66, and "The Devil's Triangle" was also used apparently without permission in the 1970 Hong Kong snake horror epic DEVIL WOMAN) and to date this remains the only official "musical score credit" to perhaps the most cinematic thinking of all the British art rocker dinosaur gods. Curious.The long and short of it is that if you really, really like "The Devil's Triangle" from King Crimson's "In the Wake of Poseidon", enjoy listening to Vincent Price talk, and have a thing for other worldly phenomenon studies, this movie was tailor made to your singular, unique and peculiar tastes. It's not a bad documentary either for what it's worth, coming in at under an hour in length and filled with offbeat footage, strange interviews with obscure individuals, and lots of groaning Mellotrons. You can do much worse for an hour of your time, actually.6/10

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.

I saw this turkey in the theater, but I had a good time. The special effects aren't worthy of a grade school production. A toy boat, representing a freighter, moving at speedboat velocity on flat waters while wind driven fog blows in the opposite direction. The red and blue flood lamps add that extra dramatic touch. Whatever cache Vincent Price was supposed to bring as narrator is completely overshadowed by dreadful production work. Calling this a documentary is like calling Britney Spears a musician. About 20 minutes into this, something struck me as very funny. Maybe it was Price's overly dramatic intonation of the oft-used line "They vanished into the Devil's Triangle! [cut to black; next story] Once I started laughing, my friends joined in. Next time Vinny said the crucial line, someone in the back yelled out: "Good!" After that, it got almost as many laughs as a Marx Brothers film. Nobody stayed for the dreadfully serious second feature "Chariots of the Gods."