Triangle (1970) User Reviews (4)

"What are we going to film about The Other Generation?"

[The Hoyk · 4/10 · 25 July 2005]

There's nothing quite so amusing and yet so sad as filmmakers trying to depict characters and lifestyles that they have no more than a cursory knowledge about. And so it is with this terribly earnest drama about youthful discontent, where stereotypes abound.

Paul Richards plays a frustrated novelist in his mid-'20's who glumly decides to accept a teaching job from his wealthy aunt, who runs a well-heeled girls' school in Southern California. And the story keeps on hitting the late '60's hot button issues from there. His aunt (Dana Wynter, who gets top billing yet really has no more than 20 minutes screen time) struggles with trying to reconcile her position of respectability while engaged in a sexual relationship with the school psychiatrist -- you see, neither of them are married, which would be a complete non-issue now, but was obviously SCANDALOUS back then. His most problem student (Tiffany Bolling in her first starring role) is a mouthy troublemaker compensating for being ignored by her jet-setting parents. And his best friend and writing mentor is another professor (Ray Danton) who is so ultra-cynical and with-it he ultimately up and quits the place just after his younger friend's arrival.

The original shooting title of the movie was FACADE, which is ultimately much more apropos to the filmmakers' intentions, because all the characters are engaged in a performance of "Two Faces Have I": Todd Pearson is the teacher but he really knows nothing, matronly Olive Millikan wants to enjoy sex as much as the students she keeps in line, student Sharon McClure just plays at being a bad girl and really wants to be loved, and Professor Di Fermi...well, he's keeping a bunch of secrets. TRIANGLE may have been the sexier sounding title to get the pruriently curious in the door, but it's false advertising: only until the last third of the movie is there even a whiff of some sort of relationship triangle, and it's not even isosceles.

TRIANGLE is not an effective drama. As much as it wants to be depicting "edgy" sexual behavior, it's all too tame -- even a wine party sequence likely inspired by John Frankenheimer's SECONDS doesn't deliver any kind of turn-on. Unfortunately, it's not even good for camp value, because all the performances are reasonably well-acted and quite restrained; there's nothing over the top to ridicule. You can laugh at Paul Richards' perpetual sullenness or Tiffany's bravado, or the portrayals of the "big issues" of the time, but those titters dissipate into general boredom over the course of viewing.

What is interesting to watch in this movie though is Tiffany Bolling. She's compelling, pretty, and definitely makes an impression as a good actress. It wouldn't be later, until her unofficial drive-in trilogy (THE CANDY SNATCHERS, BONNIE'S KIDS, THE CENTERFOLD GIRLS), where she would get to fully display her range and become a cult movie icon.

This is a very hard movie to get a hold of, but as much as I hate to say it, you're not missing much from its absence.

Pretty bad

[jjnxn-1 · 3/10 · 8 May 2013]

Deserves some credit for including a bisexual character that isn't a blatant stereotype of a mincing queen, especially considering when it was made but that isn't enough to make the film one to recommend. Poorly directed, horribly dated with some howlingly awful scenes with two horrendous performances from the lead actor and actress, he's much worse than she is. Ray Danton and Dana Wynter are the only ones to emerge with their dignity intact but Ray's part is small and Dana's is almost an afterthought involving a meaningless subplot but she is so elegant and classy that she makes the few moments on screen some of the only worthwhile ones in the picture. Something for bad movie lovers, others beware!

one of my favorite films

[jonbecker03 · 10/10 · 9 November 2009]

i just watched "triangle" again tonight. it's one of my favorite films. Bernard Glaser apparently had such a hard time making this film that he decided that he would never direct another motion picture. yet "triangle" is a small scale masterpiece. a triumph of minimalism. "triangle" has a minimal number of sets and a relatively small cast; the whole project has a compact, "gemlike" quality. tiffany bolling has charisma to spare as the "bad girl." it's a shame she never became a superstar. Charles Knox Robinson (an obscure, underrated actor) gives a sensitive, effective performance as the male lead. the unjustly forgotten ray Danton scores as the arch bisexual. Dana winter is suitably demure as the girls' school principle. even Ann Jillian shows promise in her first role. Jacques Marquette's cinematography is superb. Ron foreman's production design is outstanding. his "airbrushed realism" visual concept helps to unify the picture. (in terms of set design, "triangle" resembles an episode of "dragnet." and from my point of view that is high praise indeed.) Raoul Krisha's score may be "kitschy," but that's part of it's charm. he takes a corny but catchy hook and runs it into the ground. the score is repetitive, but once again this is an element that serves to unify the picture, blending it into a seamless whole. see "triangle" if you have the chance. and give IT a chance. "triangle" will grow on you. this modest, unassuming picture is, in fact, a neglected masterpiece.

I loved this film.

[seadave · 10/10 · 22 March 2005]

I saw this movie one night in April of 1978 when I was still 13 years old and thought it was so cool. It was about a wild, bad girl who was running wild. I would love to see this somewhere again. There was some hard music and a dancing scene that looked like it was happening in a 3-sided barn and Tiffany Bolling was drinking out of a wine/whiskey bottle and dancing frantically. She talks to her teacher on a pay phone and tells him to go to h*ll. She reminded me a little of what Lita Ford looked like in the late 1980s even though I haven't seen this movie since 1978.

I never saw this again aired on TV or in a video. There has to be someone else who has seen this film. Tiffany Bolling was so cool in this bad girl movie. I can't remember seeing a movie geared towards teens during the late 1970s that I thought was cool or whose lifestyle I would like to mimic but this 1970 movie was a cool one. Most movies out during the late 1970s were too bland for me but this 1970 movie was a good one. I never saw it on VHS during the mid 1980s when all these retro movies were being put onto VHS.

Why can't this be put out on a DVD somewhere?

I would really like to see this film again.