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Let’s celebrate “underground” films; wait until you see the first of the “inside” films! It’s tagline is ‘Fantastic Voyage’ – and it opened yesterday at Loew’s State and the festival theater. So what is it? It is the latest in sheer science fiction fantasy about a group of adventurous people who take a way-out trip, a CMDF trip if you will, inside Dr. Benes (or perhaps that would be a better tag). That’s right, this team of scientists including a woman technician played by Raquel Welch, a newcomer, who is the most pneumatic-looking thing that has ever appeared in a screen skin diving suit. Then they are shrunk to microscopic proportions by advanced science. Afterward, they get injected into the bloodstream of a wounded Czechoslovak scientist to remove a threatening blood clot from his highly knowledgeable brain. Snugly embraced in a tiny capsule that bears a comforting resemblance to that wonderfully neat diving saucer of Capt.
Jacques-Yves Cousteau, These travelers through the bodily system are in a place like Mammoth Cave filled with a translucent liquid with colorful balloons floating in it. “That’s plasma,” someone says. Now we know how a germ sees blood in a human body. Trouble is unavoidable and inevitable. A fistular disturbance in the throat area diverts the small capsule into the jugular vein. Coupled with the pilot, William Redfield, fighting with the steering and CMDF officers Arthur O’Connell and Edmund O’Brien giving directions while on the operating table. The capsule is carefully driven through the perils of the caverns in the heart which is stopped for one minute to let the vehicle rush through. But that is only the tip of the iceberg. There is dangerous trouble spotted in the area of the lungs. The air pressure tanks have been dripping.
Stephen Boyd has to get out of the capsule and, using an air hose, refill the empty tank from the abundance of vapors hurtling through this cave of winds. The rest of the team has to perform intense bot surgery… on the nosers. Such a procedure is needed as the unwilling patients are diagnosed with multiple mucus blockages, warranting fearful extraction from nuclear intake valves. Miss Welch is getting some sort of new-age fur coat. Cotton candy crystals are frosting her skin-suit in the ear chamber. It’s hard to imagine a worse scenario. “Antibodies,” someone utters. The decisive plot twist happens when the heroes, which include Mr. Boyd, Arthur Kennedy, and Miss Welch, exit the capsule with the intent of using a laser ray to clear the clot that’s lodged in their arm and are ambushed by the wicked saboteur, Donald Pleasance, who openly attempts to run them over. Seeing a white corpuscle is bizarre enough, but then it sails right into exploding cotton wool and the operation is completely consumed by it.
What a dilemma! This might come off as pure science-fiction, but wow, this film was beautifully made, the most vibrant film[s] I have seen after “Destination Moon.” Richard Fleischer knew what he was doing, and paired with Harry Kleiner’s script and witty narration, there is nothing more to say but that it was fun and interesting to watch. The decorations were a sight to behold, being thick in imagination, much like you would find in Disneyland. Are they convincing enough? I overheard what seemed like students from Bronx High School Of Science debating that exact on in front of me. Not to say I know where the truth lies, but it is certainly an experience. The good thing is that every single one of these trips is located in the northern hemisphere.
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