BY TODD GARBARINI
Tsugunobo Kotani is a film director whose
name does not roll off the tongue throughout film circles. A handful of titles
to his credit consist of Hatsukoi (1975), The Last Dinosaur
(1977), The Ivory Ape (1980), and The Bloody Bushido Blade
(1981), and there are a good number of Japanese-language titles that appear in
his early filmography. An Internet search of “Tom Kotani,” the Americanized
variant of Tsugunobo and the director’s name as it appears in some of his
movies, yields even less information. While most people may not recognize him,
there is a small but significant percentage of film viewers, yours truly
included, who have been deeply affected by one of his films in particular: the
made-for-television undersea effort The Bermuda Depths. Filmed in the
British Overseas Territory of the Bermudas in 1977, The Bermuda Depths
is mysterious for several reasons. It is a film that is difficult to categorize
as it touches upon several genres: action, fantasy, romance, and science
fiction. It attempts to mix several elements of the fantastic (a giant turtle
and its relation to a voluptuous young maiden lost at sea) with the realistic
(a young man in search of the truth behind his father’s mysterious and untimely
death).
Arguably the most memorable film “inspired”
by Stephen Spielberg’s Jaws (1975), The Bermuda Depths was
originally broadcasted on the ABC Friday Night Movie on January 27, 1978 and
was repeated on Friday, August 29, 1980. A smattering of repeat broadcasts and a
curiously unheralded VHS release followed. It benefits from a touch of myth
from Ambroise Paré’s “On Monsters and Marvels” and plays out in a dreamlike
fashion. Leigh McCloskey stars as Magnus Dens, a drifter who returns to the
scene of his father’s death hoping to find closure. He encounters an old
friend, Eric (Carl Weathers), who is completing his master’s degree in Marine
Biology while working for the avuncular Dr. Paulus (Burl Ives). The scientists
are both interested in abnormalities and gigantism in sea life, technically
known as Teratology, and are looking for any sea creatures that live in the
deepest depths of the ocean to study them. At the heart of all of this is an
enigmatic woman named Jennie Haniver (Connie Sellecca) who may or may not be
real. Jennie lives in the ocean and comes ashore when Magnus shouts her name.
Jennie and Magnus used to play together as children, and on the beach they
found a large turtle upon which they inscribed their initials. Now the turtle
has reached enormous physical proportions and lives deep in the ocean,
occasionally rising to the surface. The last third of the film concerns Eric’s
futile attempts to capture the sea creature and gives the filmmakers the
opportunity to put the three men on a boat a la Sam Quint, Matt Hooper, and
Chief Martin Brody, with the “Panulirus” sitting in the for the “Orca”.
If The Bermuda Depths is about
anything that we can be absolutely sure of, it’s that highly successful films
inevitably spurn imitations. This was certainly the case during the mid-1970’s
when everyone and his brother was scrambling to re-enact the success of Jaws.
The Bermuda Depths takes the unusual step of adding a supernatural love
story into the mix and successfully creates a tragic tale of love and doom. Mr.
McCloskey was a successful television actor by this point, best known for the Rich
Man, Poor Man (1976) mini-series, and sports the natural Southern
California good looks that make Magnus appealing to young women. Carl Weathers
of Rocky (1976) fame embodies Eric with terrific zeal, although his truncated
half-shirt near the film’s ending is a questionable wardrobe choice. Burl Ives
is wonderful as the elder who tries his best to get Eric to look at the
situation through scientific eyes. Connie Sellecca, in her first film role at
age twenty-two, does an exceptional turn as Jennie Haniver. She possesses a
magical, ethereal quality and is achingly beautiful. Julie Woodson, Playboy
Magazine’s Miss April 1973, is remarkably beautiful and quite good as Eric’s
wife Doshan. Ruth Attaway, who played the nurse in The Taking of Pelham 123
(1974) to comedic effect, is mysterious and eerie as Delia, the housekeeper and
proverbial party pooper who warns Magnus about the Legend of Jennie Haniver,
seemingly a believer in the supernatural.
The Rankin Bass team responsible for their
wonderful collaborations in the Sixties and Seventies on the Christmas holiday
television show specials that millions grew up on, especially Rudolph the
Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) which also featured Mr. Ives, produced the film.
There is a definite “Rankin Bass” feel to The Bermuda Depths, particularly
in the special effects which today look quite amateurish: the helicopter crash
sequence near the film’s end looks similar to the finale of the Mad Monster
Party? explosion on the island, and close-up shots of the vessel’s
propeller and the trawler crashing against the ocean waves in slow-mo look as
though they was filmed in a bathtub. The special effects-laden ending almost
compromises the intriguing supernatural and romantic mystery that precedes it.
This is a case where the film’s style almost outweighs its substance. Despite
this, however, the low-budget effects add a certain charm to the film, a
reminder of filmmaking from days gone by when less money and more ingenuity was
considered an asset.
The film possesses more than its share of derivations:
Dr. Paulus’s throwaway line about needing “a bigger boat”; Eric’s decision to
pursue the turtle on the Fourth of July of all days; Delia’s unexplained
disappearance from the second half of the film; and Magnus’s inquiry into his
father’s death mirrors Luke Skywalker asking the same of Obi-Wan Kenobi, whom
Dr. Paulus even resembles. Composer Maury Laws provides a beautiful score which
I always wished would appear as a soundtrack album. Hopefully, some independent
label (i.e. Waxwork Records) will give this score its due.
While the film does
appear somewhat corny after more than forty years, it possesses an innocent
quality about it that is sadly lacking in most entertainment product of late.
The slow and languid images of Magnus and Jennie on the beach and in the cave
recall a time in American filmmaking when the audience failed to be bombarded
by fast editing and could actually digest the images presented to them.
Unquestionably there are those who will complain about the film’s slow pace,
but there are plenty of treasures here film to make it one that deserves a new
generation of admirers: the eerie day-for-night photography which Mr. Spielberg
also employed in the opening of his 1975 masterwork; Maury Laws’ soothing title
tune “Jennie” with vocals by Claude Carmichael; and the use of Antonio
Vivaldi’s elegiac “Largo” from his “Concerto for Lute (Guitar), Two Violins
and Basso Continuo in D Major” as the lovers’ theme.
Rather
than writing off The Bermuda Depths as just another Jaws rip-off,
it emerges as a work of its own, though it was originally intended, along with
the aforementioned The Last Dinosoaur, for theatrical release. The film
was one of the first titles released on the Warner Archive label on DVD in
August 2009. I have been hoping for a Blu-ray release for years and my prayers
have been answered. Warner Archive has released it with a gorgeous transfer of
the film. You have the option of watching it in either 1.33:1 (the original
television aspect ratio) or the newer 16 x 9 anamorphically enhanced image for
large televisions. The 1.33:1 version has a wonderful commentary with author
and film historian Amanda Reyes (editor of Are You In The House Alone?: A TV
Movie Compendium 1964-1999 and http://www.madefortvmayhem.com) and Lance Vaughan (co-founder of http://www.kindertrauma.com) who discuss some truly introspective elements that I
had not entertained despite multiple viewings. Regardless of which framed
version you decide to view, the Blu-ray restores the washed out look that was
so prevalent on the VHS tape. The deep blues of the ocean are strong, and
Bermuda’s Natural Arches, sadly destroyed by Hurricane Fabian in September
2003, in the film’s opening look great.
For
die-hard aficionados of the film, this Blu-ray is a must.
CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER FROM AMAZON (THE BLU-RAY SHIPS ON MARCH 30).
Click here to
order Are You In The House Alone?: A TV Movie Compendium 1964-1999 on
Amazon.com. Five of my reviews appear in this book, hence the shameless plug!