A classic example of a film which sadly fizzles when it really ought to sizzle. The basic premise is certainly intriguing enough: a handful of folks in planes and boats alike mysteriously vanish in the legendary Bermuda Triangle located just off the coast of Florida. Alas, William A. Graham's blandly by-the-numbers direction crucially fails to provide any much-needed suspense, vitality and spooky atmosphere. Instead the movie gets bogged down in a tedious surplus of dull talk, with precious few scares or action to alleviate the general boredom. The cast do their best with the meandering story: Fred MacMurray gives a typically robust and amiable performance as an affable retired wealthy businessman while both Sam Groom and Donna Mills are solid and engaging as an estranged young couple. Plus future "Different Strokes" TV sitcom star Dana Plato pops up as a spunky little girl whose mother disappears in the Devil's Triangle. Gayne Rescher's pretty, picturesque photography and Harry Sukman's suitably shivery'n'sinister score are likewise up to par. But only at the very end does this largely lethargic snoozer finally come to life and deliver some excitement with a fairly creepy zinger of a surprise ending, but by then it's way too little much too late to redeem this mediocre timewaster.
Review of Beyond the Bermuda Triangle
Beyond the Bermuda Triangle
(1975 TV Movie)
A strictly okay 70's made-for-TV supernatural thriller
1 August 2006