Fox has released special editions of two sci-fi classics and one mid-range film. The two real gems are Fantastic Voyage and Voyage to the Bottom of Sea. The third title is the little-seen adventure The Neptune Factor. We'll be reviewing them all over the course of the next week, but for the moment let's begin with Fantastic Voyage - a special edition that fans have been lobbying to get for years. The premise finds a diplomat who is about to die from a blood clot on his brain. He possesses vital intelligence information that pertains to national security. A team of scientists are shrunk to microscopic size and injected into his body. They have a very limited time table to perform surgery from inside the patient then get out before the body's natural defenses begin to attack them. Thus, this makes the first film in which you can justifiably shout "What a body" without it referring to star Raquel Welch.
Welch was one of the last actresses to be signed under the old contract system at a major studio. Despite all of that system's restrictions and frustrations for artists, her experience indicates how the grooming and nurturing the studios provided could really enhance an actor's career. Fox placed Welch in a variety of eclectic films that allowed her to show both her dramatic and comedic skills. While many other sex symbols turned out to be flash-in-the-pans, Welch continued to thrive and built a sturdy career. Most of the Fox movies she appeared in had plenty of gratuitous scenes designed to get her into a nightgown or bikini. Fantastic Voyage, however, keeps her wardrobe largely confined to a demure scuba suit. (Couldn't the screenwriters have written a scene in which she receives a call to HQ while lounging in a steam bath?)
Welch's fellow scientists include rock-jawed leading man Stephen Boyd and a wonderful cast of character actors such as Donald Pleasence and Arthur Kennedy with able support from Edmond O'Brien and Arthur O'Connell. It's a pleasure to watch these pros work and at the risk of beating a dead horse, one should realize that if the film were made today, not one of these people would even be considered for a screentest. The screenplay presents a predictable plot device: one of the crew members is an enemy agent who is actively trying to sabotage their mission. The plan goes awry and the scientists must battle against time to defeat attacks from the natural defenses inside the body they inhabit. This leads to some ingeniously scripted scenes, inventively directed by Richard Fleischer- another Fox contract workhorse who never got the credit he deserved. The key to the film is the special effects, which were remarkable when the film was released in 1966. What is most impressive is that they hold up very well today. The movie was created in an era in which the audience could still be impressed by technical aspects of a movie. In the age of CGI, that thrill is gone forever - no matter how great FX look today, we know they were achieved by a guy sitting at a computer terminal.
Fox has done a very good job of giving the consumer their money's worth with this edition. There are a host of bonus extras that include:
- Commentary by film historian and author Jeff Bond
- Isolated score with commentary by Bond and music experts Nick Redman and Jon Burlingame
- A tribute to the special effects team from contemporary experts in the field
- Storyboards and script excerpts of a deleted scene that was never filmed
- Still gallery featuring rare international movie posters
- An interactive feature that allows you to browse through the original pressbook
- Original TV spots and trailers
- A rare vintage promotional short that is incorrectly listed as a TV promo. In fact, it was a reel shown the theater owners to entice them to play the film
Make sure this is one "Voyage" you intend to take in the near future.
ORDER FANTASTIC VOYAGE DISCOUNTED AT AMAZON