Une fille nommée Fathom

Welch looks good in this, to be sure. But she also carries across the oddball charm this movie is attempting to convey. She looked good in Bedazzled and Myra Breckinridge as well, but wasn't given much to do. Here she gets some good dialogue to parry the men with, and she comes across as an exciting heroine that unlike Flynt or Matt Helm, should have been given more than one movie to do her thing. This film is very reminiscent of the more whacked-out Modesty Blaise. Just a little funnier. One could also find the roots of the current Charlie's Angels flix in this movie, albeit without the battering music.

Leslie H. Martinson is a director who should be studied more closely. He did so many TV shows, it would be easy to dismiss him as style-free. But from what I've seen (Hot Rod Girl, PT 109, Batman) he uses simplicity in his favor, and makes good little movies that stick with you.

In 1965 a then little-known young actress named Raquel Welch auditioned for the part in "Thunderball" that eventually went to Claudine Auger. Raquel never achieved her ambition to become a Bond Girl, but two years later, and by then a rising starlet, she went one better. She became a female Bond.

"Fathom" is a typical example of the sort of spy comedy-thrillers that were popular in the sixties. It shares its continental European setting with the likes of "The Prize" and "Charade". Raquel plays Fathom Harvill, a member of the American national sky-diving team, who finds herself at the centre of an espionage drama while on a visit to Spain. (We are offered a number of contradictory, and increasingly surreal, explanations for the heroine's unusual Christian name, without it ever being established which one is correct).

The plot is a complex and confusing one; even Raquel's co-star Richard Briers punned that he could not fathom it. At the centre of the action is a mysterious object named the "Fire Dragon", which may be either a triggering device for atomic bombs or a stolen artwork. In search of the Fire Dragon are Colonel Campbell and his sidekick Timothy Webb who may be either members of the British secret services or international art thieves and Peter Merriwether and his attractive female assistant Jo-May, who may be either private detectives or agents for Red China. (Ignore the cast list which names Jo-May as a Major in the KGB, which was of course a Russian agency rather than a Chinese one). Somewhere in the middle is Sergei Serapkin, a villainous Russian tycoon who has designs both on the Fire Dragon and on the lovely Fathom.

Even though a few people end up dead, the mood is light-hearted, and even one of the corpses manages to rise, Lazarus-like, from the dead. The film's main asset is the presence of Raquel Welch herself, the most beautiful Hollywood sex symbol of the late sixties and seventies. (As most of her early films, she spends much of the time in a bikini). I cannot, however, agree with the reviewer who said that she was at the peak of her sexiness- Raquel's sexiness took the form of a plateau rather than a peak, as she remained as attractive throughout her thirties and forties as she was in her twenties. Her acting skills are never seriously tested, but she succeeds in making Fathom a likable heroine as well as a sexy one. The film does not make a great deal of sense, but then it was never intended to. It succeeds in being what it was intended to be- slick, glossy, glamorous and entertaining nonsense. 6/10

I'd never seen or even heard of this offering in the 60's comedy spy genre until Film 4 padded out their evening schedule with it. How dated it all looked, understandably. But it was a jolly romp, great locations and with pretty good enthusiastically staged stunts. Ms Welch was very decorative as usual and the Britsh character actors excellent in support. Good to see Tom Adams in a solid supporting role, Clive Revill was always good value in this sort of movie too. Amazingly the two aircraft flown in this movie, a Cessna 172 and a Piper Cherokee 180, are still active and licenced in the UK, wearing their original registrations, forty years after the film was made.

Back in 1967, Raquel Welch's appearance (rather than performance) in "Fathom" helped jump-start the puberties of around 40 million baby-boomer boys. I never got the chance to see this picture back in '67, unfortunately, and had to have MY puberty jump-started the old-fashioned way: by watching James Bond in the movies and Honey West and Emma Peel on TV (not to mention Laurie R. in junior high!). But 40 years after the fact, I finally caught up with "Fathom" last night. And you know what? The picture really isn't half bad. It's got a good, twisty, intelligent script, tongue in cheek though it may be; beautiful Spanish location shooting; and some colorful characters. The picture also moves quickly and features some good action sequences (such as Racky dodging a maddened bull in a bullring and swimming away from a harpooner in a speedboat). Half the fun in the movie comes from trying to figure out who is lying and what the characters' various motivations are (nobody seems to be telling the truth about anything in this film, and poor Fathom is understandably confused throughout). I quite enjoyed the film, and must say that Raquel's acting is much better than she is given credit for, and that she does indeed look sensational in every scene. Now I can finally understand all those raised hormonal levels 40 years ago!

Skydiving dental assistant from La Jolla, CA finds herself in hot water while touring Spain after she's recruited by two blokes from Western Intelligence to locate a stolen treasure from the Ming Dynasty--the elusive Fire Dragon! Opening credits montage with Raquel Welch as Fathom Harvill packing her parachute is so frisky and welcoming, it sets the perfect light tone for the rest of the picture. The clever screenplay by Lorenzo Semple Jr., adapting an unpublished novel by Larry Forrester, is full of fresh, funny banter (with an amusing running joke that has different characters speculating on how Fathom got her name: "As a child you were very...deep?"). One of Welch's best films, with Clive Revill fabulous in support as an eccentric collector allergic to cold weather. Beautiful locales, a wonderful score by John Dankworth, plus a terrific airplane-chase finale. Good show! ***1/2 from ****