Dans les profondeurs du triangle des Bermudes

After reading the other comments here, I see that this movie does truly affect people. The one and only time I saw this movie before last night, was when it first aired when I was only 4 years old. The turtle and Jennie's eyes were pretty much the only thing I remembered. Somehow this movie stuck out on my mind. I searched the web for it, not knowing the title but finally find it. I searched the web for a copy and finally found one. I watched it last night and got the full effect of it. This is actually such a sad, haunting tale of forbidden love and sadness.

The effects are good for its time and for a made for TV movie. The music is what conveys the sadness and gives the viewer a haunting sense of love that could never be and loss. This movie is many things-a love story, an adventure, a sci-fi movie and a fantasy movie. I'm so glad I was able to finally find it and see it as an adult so that I could get the full feel of it. I can see why so many others have had a lasting impression of it.

The acting is believable although not a full effort by some characters. Overall this movie is a definitely a must see for lovers of many genres.

SPOILER: Those of us old enough to remember the ABC Movies of the Week in the '70s remember more than a few science fiction, horror and fantasy pickings. Among them were "The Stranger Within," "Satan's Triangle," "The Last Dinosaur" and Irwin Allen's "The Time Travelers." On a cold, dark winter night of January 27, 1978, Rankin and Bass -- best known for their cheerful Christmas stop-motion cartoons -- took us on a two-hour trip to tropical climes with "Bermuda Depths," featuring lush locations filmed in where else but Bermuda.

In recent years, I obtained first a poor-quality copy of the movie and later the DVD. The first time I played it was with some trepidation. Would it be better left in the past? After watching it, I'm still ambivalent. It was good to see it again, but some parts were definitely B-movie quality, something an older but not necessarily wiser me finds less easy to forgive than 22 years ago.

This movie was an uneasy blend of science fiction and mystical fantasy. It appears the writers couldn't decide on which kind of movie to do. Sometimes, it's a supernatural story with the devil's servant - a gigantic turtle with glowing eyes - and a forever young "imaginary friend" who only appears to men about to drown or to be lost at sea. Then it turns around and both can be wounded by nothing more than spear-guns and harpoons. If only the writers had chosen one or the other, it would have been a stronger story.

One can't help but note the similarities with 1984's "Splash." A young man returns to a place of happiness from his youth. He finds a mysterious young woman, also with ties to his past, who is far more than she appears. Determined to ferret out the truth is an obsessed researcher. The biggest difference is that this story has the kind of ending Hollywood would never allow today. Not a single character is left happy. Not even bittersweet. "Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer," this wasn't.

The main musical theme was a delicate, somewhat melancholy piece composed by one of the masters, Antonio Vivaldi. It's the Largo movement from the Concerto for Lute, 2 Violins and Basso Continuo in D Major. Vivaldi composed in the early 18th century, the time of Jennie Hanniver. The Concerto also made several appearances in Georges Delerue's Academy Award-winning score for 1979's "A Little Romance." The first three minutes, an extended flashback to Magnus' days as a boy on the island, were the highlight of the movie as the lyrical concerto wended its way through scenes of childhood innocence.

The special effects were dead ringers for ones from Japanese "kaiju" giant monster movies, complete with blatant miniatures in the water tank shots. The giant turtle even looked a lot like Gamera in some shots. This is understandable as the effects actually were done in Japan, as with the previous Rankin/Bass monster effort, "The Last Dinosaur."

The young leads did what they could, but were hampered by their inexperience and the material. This introduced a lissome Connie Selleca. Leigh McCloskey fared somewhat less well as his character's motivations were never really clear. Nor was it ever explained why Jennie appeared to Magnus twice - first as a little girl and later as an adult - when he was not about to drown or be lost at sea either time, as the legend demanded.

A single U.S. production run of the videocassette was done in the '80s. With no promotion from the company, most of the tapes went into video rental stores. It took decades, but at long last, Warner is offering a manufactured on demand DVD with some decent picture quality. It's not perfect, but certainly no worse than our TV reception back in 1978.

Not many people know that animation studio Rankin/Bass made a few stabs into live-action productions. This may be their best known, if only because (especially evident in these user comments) so many people remember it from their childhoods! I can see why, since there are some haunting images and scenes (like the long opening where hardly a word is spoken), skillful use of classical music, themes of loss and despair, and a decidingly un-Hollywood ending. Though watching the movie with the eyes of an adult, its flaws become clear - unbelievably cheesy special effects, plot elements that are murky or underbaked, and characters doing/saying things that are laughable at times. All the same, the movie still has some magic to it, and when you watch it you can see the makings of a truly enchanting buried under mediocre production. It probably deserves a DVD release - I'm certain a lot of people would buy it to relive their childhoods! - but since the majority of the Rankin/Bass catalog today seems to be under the control of Warner Brothers (who are clueless about releasing older movies on DVD), it will probably never happen.

Echoing what others have said, I saw this movie when I was about 16. I only saw it the one time, the original broadcast in 1978, but it has remained lurking in my memory ever since. The music, the situations, the cheesy effects . . . The doomed romance element still makes my heart ache. For a cheap little Rankin-Bass production, this film is remarkably effective. This one *seriously* needs to be released on DVD.

This movie is my Holy Grail. I have found every movie that affected me as I grew up but this one. I was 8 years old when I saw this movie and all I remember is the sound of the ocean and the haunting memory of a lovely phantom girl who waits for her childhood love. (Carl Weathers being dragged to the oceans depths on the back of a giant turtle is a bonus as well.) It's been so long that I don't recall how the special effects were but it's tone and moodiness have stuck with me to this day.