User Reviews

Also known as Beyond This Place There Be Dragons and wow, what a high minded title for a TV movie - this movie is all about Fred MacMurray as a yacht sailing daddy who falls for a gold digger who actually loves him, including a long speech about the first time they made love and how he finally knew what it was like to be a man and you know, all the negative reviews of this movie can go jump in a Bermuda Triangle because this movie is all about old man loss and yearning, including a professor whose wife disappeared and he was afraid to go into the door into another dimension to find her.

There's also a great speech about being a dreamer, as well as Donna Mills showing up and a young Dana Plato, which also makes me wistful and sad. This was her first acting job.

Sure, it's languidly paced, but we all live inside now and maybe we need time to reflect on a place that used to take trophy wives from would-be sea captains and men of industry.

Director William A. Graham started in TV back in 1958, so he probably made something you've seen, like Birds of Prey, Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones, The Last Ninja, Calendar Girl Murders, Elvis and the Colonel: The Untold Story (he also directed Change of Habit, Elvis' last fictional movie), The Hunt for the Unicorn Killer and Death of A Cheerleader.

This movie was produced by Playboy Productions, which brought 76 productions to large and small screens, including And Now for Something Completely Different, the Oliver Reed version of Fanny Hill, Saint Jack, Young Lady Chatterley II (I have so much to say about that one), the mind-destroying Playboy's Roller Disco & Pajama Party, A Summer Without Boys and so much more.

Another contrived TV-movie of the week.

Everybody's getting killed at the most famous hot-spot in the world, so dried-up sea captain Fred MacMurray tries to figure out what the hell is going on. Donna Mills tags along occasionally - not that anyone ever gives a crap what she does, and boat-freak Sam Groom is the village idiot who likes to talk about what a loser he's been all his life to anyone who's bored enough to listen. Sweet Dana Plato is cute as a recently orphaned little girl.

Directed by William Graham for Hugh Hefner Productions, this film takes place at Bimini Island 50 miles off the southeastern seaboard.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz--- oh sorry, I didn't see you there. I was just taking a little nap. You see, I was watching 'Beyond the Bermuda Triangle' and I dozed off. Can't imagine why.... it was so (*cough*) interesting.

The plot of the film involves some has-been actors-- I mean, local islanders, who begin investigating the disappearance of various boatniks. Fred MacMurray leads the pack by taking aimless excursions through the Everglades via ship and plane to look for the lost idiots-- I mean, people. Donna Mills stands around doing nothing in particular except making out with boyfriend Sam Groom before she refuses his marriage proposal (she's gotta do what's right for her.... whatever that may be). Dana Plato is sweet as the daughter of a vanished couple.

Minor sea adventure has the presence of MacMurray and pretty scenery, not much else. (*Yawn*).... excuse me while I resume my nap.

What could have just been ulan acceptable TV disaster movie ends up a silly soap opera thanks to storyline involving wealthy yacht owner Fred MacMurray's obsession with finding people who have all of a sudden disappeared in the triangle, involved in an undeveloped romantic triangle with a younger man and a woman MacMurray loves, the pretty Donna Mills and Sam Groom, who are having boring romantic problems, all the while mourning his wife who disappeared at sea. Mills is taking care of young Dana Plato, who has a telepathy which makes her think that she's able to contact the spirit of her late parents who disappeared in the triangle.

I had to rethink my vision of the soapy storyline, never confirmed outside of brief conversations between McMurray and Groom and an awkward encounter with Mills who joins him on an excursion how to see to find Groom's missing boat. The veteran actor, never really one of my favorites, tries to be sincere but he is greatly affected by the strange teleplay that implies several different things but indicates other moods out of the blue. You really shouldn't have to put TV movies under a microscope to figure what is what who is who, and this one just left me cold. Even the obvious location footage is an exciting enough to make this worthy of a trip into a TV movie Twilight Zone.

I just viewed this film for the first time and had mixed feelings about it. Fred Macmurray plays a retired businessman who starts looking for the reasons why people are disappearing in the Bermuda Triangle. He believes there is a door or something like it that is taking these people somewhere else. He goes out at the end to search for the woman he was going to marry. She has disappeared. He promies to come back if he cannot find her or the door. The movie ends with the coast guard finding his boat with no one aboard. I choose to believe he found that door and was reunited with her somewhere. Sam Groom and Donna Mills add to the supporting cast. I enjoyed all three leads and enjoyed the story. I just felt there could have been more to the story. The movie only ran 1 hour and 13 minutes. It was a tv movie of the week back in 1974.

Although "Satan's Triangle" had more spook-factor about it, I cared not one jot about any of the characters, especially the annoying Coast Guard man played by Doug McClure. "Beyond The Bermuda Triangle" at least has a couple of characters I could feel sorry for, in Dana Plato's character who loses her Mom to the Bermuda Triangle, and dear old Fred MacMurray who loses his bride-to-be. At one point, the film appears to go a bit over the top with cast members disappearing daily, but then, history says that this HAS happened, eg boats/aircraft going missing, then the search teams following them into the unknown.

This TVM is a reasonable time passer, and kind of spans the generations as the Golden Age Fred MacMurray ("Double Indemnity") shares the screen with a very young Dana Plato ("Diff'rent Strokes"), just starting out. Sadly, Sam Groom did very little, other than drive a speedboat or a car, and the romantic filler between him and the equally wooden Donna Mills was just that, unnecessary padding. That falderdash could have been left out, and in its place, MacMurray and the Coast Guard going toe-to-toe over the reasons for the disappearing boats and planes....the USCG man tells Fred that there IS NO "Triangle" but his personal investigations lead Fred to believe otherwise.

He believes that there's a door to another dimension and that his wife-to-be went through it, leaving her sailing vessel behind, intact, totally undamaged. With the tacit blessing of Mills & Groom (there's romance!) dear old Fred takes his multi-million dollar vessel out to the Triangle looking for "the door" and the Coast Guard find the yacht, undamaged and Fred "missing" leaving the viewer to decide reasons. A solid 7/10 in spite of Groom and Mills.

Pretty cool story about some folks in the 'Triangle' who are either lost or trying to find out the whereabouts of others whom have already become lost.

Fred MacMurray dons his little captain's hat which he bought at the local boat shop so he can pretend he's King of the Sea or something, Sam Groom is his aquatic entrepreneurial protégé, and Donna Mills is Sam's chick. Donna is beautiful, which is what held my attention for the duration. Sweet Dana Plato is a little girl whose parents have disappeared in this most famous 'hot-spot'.

Somewhat mundane TV-movie (most TV-movies in the 70's sucked), but concomitantly interesting. It will help to be buzzed while you watch. I'm buzzed right now on Admiral Nelson's Spiced Rum and I've got this flick on TV as I type this--

.... wait a second! I think Donna is going to take off her top!.... Gotta go!

The Bermuda Triangle(or Devil's Triangle) was a very hot topic in the 1970s, in films, television, and a number of best-selling books. It's a little surprising there weren't more TV films made on the subject, then, frankly.

BTBT is a mid-level mystery/horror effort in which Fred MacMurray investigates the disappearances of aircraft, and boats/ships in the area off of Florida's eastern coast. Donna Mills is on hand to offer her stunning beauty, as is the ill-fated Dana Plato whose first credit this was, I believe. She gives a performance with a nice touch of pathos as the young girl who has recently lost her mother to the Triangle.

Mills wasn't yet terribly well-known although she was popping up often on television by this point. Her performance is engaging, and it's always nice to see her, of course.

The film meanders along somewhat, which modern viewers will probably find somewhat tedious, but there is a nice twist at the conclusion for those patient enough to wait for it. Used to be shown on local indi stations, and cable fairly-often, but seems to have disappeared it self, more or less. Wonder if it's available on disc? For those of us who recall the usually excellent made-for-TV suspense/horror/sci-fi films of the 1970s, I imagine most would like to own it for the sake of completeness.