Bradley's Buzz

Turtle Soup Anyone?

Ever since I was a little tyke, I've been disturbed by a sense of deja vu regarding a giant sea turtle on a path of destruction. I knew there was a film I had seen when I was little about a boy and a girl who find a hatching turtle, they mark their initials on its back and set the little guy free. Years later, the guy returns to his small island home and finds the girl still there - though shrouded in mystery. Also around for fun, is a humungous giant and I mean frickin' huge sea turtle which begins to wreak havoc.

After years of talking to people, and looking for it - I began to think I had made up the whole thing. I knew there was a part in the film where the turtle sticks his head up out of the water and knocks a helicopter out of the sky, and I knew there was the little boy and girl with their baby turtle. I also thought the main star who played some kind of biologist was Raymond Burr or Orson Welles. So that's where my research began.

Everyone told me the movie I was thinking of was some strange Japanese film with Raymond Burr - who loved to have his American image thrown into those Japanese horror flicks. But the movie everyone was describing was not the one in my head.

Finally, I did what any free thinking internet savvy guy or gal would do - I googled "giant sea turtle movie" in which I found a few other blogs where people had had the same experience as I. They thought they made up the movie, they were told it was a Raymond Burr Japanese/American hybrid. But alas their research paid off and after years and years of being haunted, I too finally found The Bermuda Depths starring Leigh McCloskey (Of Dallas fame or pseudo fame), Connie Selleca (of Hotel fame or pseudo fame), Carl Weathers (of Action Jackson fame or pseudo fame) and BURL frickin' IVES!

The Bermuda Depths is a 1978 TV Movie in which everything I thought I had imagined actually happens. Produced by the people who brought you such classics as Rudolph & Santa Claus Is Coming To Town - the special effects are cheesy, but the movie is actually just as haunting and fun as I remembered... though editing is off, the acting is poor and there seems to be parts missing from the version I bought off Ebay... none the less and in spite of the poor quality of my version (I was screwed I guess) it is a find I will always treasure and now I know I didn't just make this damn thing up!

posted by swivek @ 9:09 AM