Fathom | |
---|---|
Directed by | Leslie H. Martinson |
Screenplay by | Lorenzo Semple Jr. |
Produced by | John Kohn |
Starring | Raquel Welch Anthony Franciosa Ronald Fraser Richard Briers |
Cinematography | Douglas Slocombe |
Edited by | Max Benedict |
Music by | John Dankworth |
Production company | Twentieth Century-Fox Productions Ltd (uncredited)[1] |
Distributed by | Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation |
Release date |
|
Running time | 99 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | $2,225,000[2] |
Box office | $1,000,000 (US/ Canada)[3][4] |
Fathom is a 1967 British spy comedy film directed by Leslie H. Martinson, starring Raquel Welch and Anthony Franciosa.
Fathom Harvill (Welch) is a skydiver touring Europe with a U.S. parachute team. She is approached by a Scottish agent to recover an atomic triggering mechanism. The film was based on Larry Forrester's second Fathom novel Fathom Heavensent, then in the draft stage but never published.[5] His first was 1967's A Girl Called Fathom.[6]
This was one of three 1967 20th Century Fox films about female spies, the others being Doris Day's Caprice and Andrea Dromm's Come Spy with Me.
Writer Lorzenzo Semple said "It could of been very good. It’s so conused. I watched it a couple of times, and I really didn’t know what was gonna happen! I didn't know who done it or what they'd done!"[7]
Fathom Harvill, a beautiful skydiver, is in Spain with a U.S. parachute team. She is abducted by a man called Timothy and taken to see Douglas Campbell, who says he is a Scottish agent working for NATO and wants Fathom to help him find a triggering mechanism for a nuclear weapon that has gone missing in the Mediterranean.
The device is hidden inside a figurine known as the Fire Dragon. In hot pursuit of it is an Armenian man named Serapkin who is working on behalf of Communist Chinese interests. Fathom skydives into the villa of a second man, Peter Merriwether, who has a trusted Chinese assistant Jo-May Soon, and is also searching for the figurine.
Fathom discovers that the Fire Dragon was stolen from a Far East museum by a Korean War deserter who is now being tracked by a private investigator. Campbell is one and Merriwether the other, but Fathom needs to find out for certain which is which.
After fending off a Serapkin knife attack and another from a harpoon, Fathom finds the figurine in a makeup case. She concludes that Campbell is the trustworthy one and boards a plane with Timothy and him, who promptly attempt to toss her from it. Merriwether arrives in another plane. In the confusion the bad guys fall out of the plane and Fathom decides she's not cut out for a life of crime.
As appearing in screen credits (main roles identified):[8]
Actor | Role |
---|---|
Raquel Welch | Fathom Harvill |
Anthony Franciosa | Peter Merriwether |
Ronald Fraser | Col. Douglas Campbell, Chief of HADES |
Richard Briers | Flight Lt. Timothy Webb |
Greta Chi | Maj. Jo-May Soon (Chinese Secret Service) |
Tom Adams | Mike, Owner of Casa Miguel |
Elizabeth Ercy | Ulla |
Ann Lancaster | Mrs. Trivers |
Tutte Lemkow | Mehmed, Serapkin's servant |
Reg Lye | Mr. Trivers |
Clive Revill | Sergi Serapkin |
The film was made by 20th Century Fox to cash in on the success of the Modesty Blaise comic strip and film. It was written by Lorenzo Semple Jr and directed by Leslie Martinson who had just made the film of the TV show Batman. Semple says the studio were attracted by the fact that he and Martinson had made Batman so quickly and cheaply.[9]
Semple said "Fox bought a novel called FATHOM, about a big, tall girl. She was called Fathom because she was six feet tall. They thought that would be their Modesty Blaise."[7]
He wrote the script in Boris Karloff's old house. Semple wrote the first twenty pages "making it up as I went along... I made every page exciting".[9]
Semple says he sent the first twenty pages to Fox and David Brown and Richard Zanuck liked it. They gave it to John Koch, who they wanted to produce. Koch insisted on writing the script with Semple line by line.[9]
The lead was given to Raquel Welch. She was a 20th Century Fox contractee who had leapt to fame with Fantastic Voyage and One Million Years B.C..[10] This inspired Fox to give her her first starring vehicle.[11]
Semple recalled "The movie MODESTY BLAISE came out and it was a spectacular flop. So that cooled off the whole project, they were stuck with it."[7]
Filming started September 1966.[12] It was shot in Cártama, Mijas, Málaga, Torremolinos, Nerja, in Andalucía, Spain and Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England. Semple says that Welch and Martinson had a fight on the first day of filming and never spoke throughout the rest of the shoot.[9]
Semple also said "Franco was still in command then, there were a lot of things in the script they didn't like, so a lot of the script was thrown away on the first days shooting."[13]
Second unit director Peter Medak later said of working with Welch:
She was at that time quite inexperienced, exactly like one of those American drum majorettes. But she tried very hard and went to see the rushes each day, gradually improving. 'Who's this dumb broad?' people used to say. But I said: 'You wait. I'll bet she made it.' I liked her very much because she was such a genuine person. And she had a beautiful body which always helps.[14]
"I played a blown up Barbie doll," said Welch later. "I have never appeared completely nude but I don't condemn people who do."[15]
Shortly after filming ended Welch announced she would marry her manager, Patrick Curtis.[16]
All the film’s musical score was composed by John Dankworth. An official soundtrack was released in 1967 in the United States by 20th Century Fox Records and Stateside Records in the U.K. on an 11-track vinyl.[17][18] It was reissued on CD by Harkit Records as a twelve track in 2009.[19]
The film was released in the United States on 9 August and in the United Kingdom on 1 October 1967.[20] The U.K. theatrical release was cut with the British Board of Film Classification giving a U (Universal) Suitable for all rating.[21]
According to Fox records, the film needed to earn $3,875,000 in rentals to break even and made $3,295,000, meaning it made a loss.[22] Semple says it was "meant to be a series, but it was killed."[7]
The Los Angeles Times film critic said that "each new Raquel Welch picture brings further proof that when Maria Montez died they didn't break the mold. Like Maria, Raquel can't act from here to there, but both ladies seem to have been born to be photographed... this sappiest of spy pictures."[23] On the other hand, the New York Times called it "crackling good fun" and said, "Somewhere between her unfortunate arrival in the revival of 'One Million Years B.C.' and the new film...Miss Welch has learned to act."[24]
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