garyldibert Fathom open in Finland on December 1, 1967 and open 12 days later in New York City on December 13th 1967. Fathom is a 1967 British spy comedy film directed by Leslie H. Martinson, starring Anthony Franciosa and Raquel Welch. Fathom Harvill (Raquel Welch) is a dental assistant and an American skydiver touring Europe with a U.S. parachute team. A Scottish agent to recover an atomic triggering mechanism approaches her. The film was based on Larry Forrester's second Fathom novel Fathom Heavensent then in the draft stage but never published. His first Fathom novel was 1967's A Girl Called Fathom. The film 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.Summary: The movie opens with a body shot of Fathom pounding in a post. Then Fathom starts to unroll her parachute. She then repacks the parachute. Fathom then heads for the sky to parachute in competition. After winning the skydiving championship in Spain, Fathom Harvill is abducted by a man named Timothy and taken to Douglas Campbell, a Scotsman who claims to be working for NATO intelligence. He enlists her aid in outwitting two teams of foreign agents who are after the "Fire Dragon," a nuclear trigger device that was lost in the Mediterranean following the crash of a bomber plane. Representing Communist China is Serapkin, an eccentric Armenian millionaire. Peter Merriweather is acting for the United States, aided by a glamorous Asian, Jo-May Soon. Fathom parachutes into Merriweather's villa and learns that the "Fire Dragon" is a priceless jeweled figurine stolen from a Peking museum by a Korean War deserter who is being pursued by a private detective. Although she now realizes that Merriweather and Campbell are the deserter and the private eye, she cannot determine which is which.Questions. Who was behind the bull being in an empty arena? Who was behind the harpoon attack on the hotel owner? Who was behind the two knife attacks? What did Fathom find in her makeup case? Why did two men try to grab Fathom? Why was Fathom forced in an airplane? My thoughts: Fantastic movie right from the start. Anthony Franciosa was good in his role as Peter Merriweather. Now for the star of the movie Raquel Welch who was just Fantastic. Her role as Fathom Harvill was great. The outfits she wore in this movie were out of this world. It started with the tight parachute outfit. From there the green bikini never fit a body better than it did Raquel Welch. I'm use to seeing Raquel in stupid comedy that wastes her talents. However, in this one her talents were used to perfection including that gorgeous body. Because of Raquel Welch and her talent, I give this movie 10 weasel stars. You can buy this movie at Amazon.com

James Hitchcock 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

ferbs54 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!

Robert_Wagner62 Any movie containing a 27 year old Raquel Welch dressed in a bikini is something worth watching. True the story, plot & other characters are boring, but Raquel Welch circa 1967, is a 10, and any film she was in during this time is a 10! BEAUTIFUL WOMAN!