cult film freak: STEPHEN BOYD IN 'FANTASTIC VOYAGE' WITH RAQUEL WELCH

Title: FANTASTIC VOYAGE Year: 1966 Rating: ****

By the time a miniaturized submarine is placed into the body of an important scientist... the vessel manned by two surgeons, a security agent, a female assistant and the pilot... the insanely fantastical premise of FANTASTIC VOYAGE is pretty much grounded since it takes around forty-minutes for the actual innerspace adventure to begin...

Yet the Richard Fleischer classic is more like an outer space mission with colorful special effects that, while of course dated today, look as mesmerizing and hypnotic as the meticulous, often surreal soundtrack similar to the latter Jupiter sequence from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY...

Raquel Welch in FANTASTIC VOYAGE with Stephen Boyd

As for the cast, this VOYAGE is no action flick since the young and muscular, perfect-looking leading man Stephen Boyd takes as many physical risks as old-timer scientists Donald Pleasence and Arthur Kennedy... the latter's importance relies particularly on his faithful assistant in the now legendary bombshell Raquel Welch...

Yet she's heavily covered in an astronaut-like uniform, relying on genuine acting while character-actor William Redfield, the captain/pilot, does the least despite technically being the most important...

Raquel Welch in FANTASTIC VOYAGE

The in-peril action sequences are intricate, deliberately slow-paced, and until the sole human antagonist is revealed it's pink and yellow antibodies that provide the only true danger during an urgent race-against-time to save the man they're inside of... who holds the key answer to free the free world from ruin (as Donald Pleasence himself could in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK)... plus they have to get out alive...

Meanwhile, back at the control booth, liken to those airplane disaster flick towers, are stressful Edmond O'Brien and Arthur O'Connell, awaiting an outcome in a cult curio that's especially fun as the journey begins: when the crew's as awestruck as the audience before this FANTASTIC VOYAGE — while always intriguing and suspenseful — goes on a bit too long.