Sun, sea and spying… Fathom (1967)

OK, what’s the excuse for watching this film? On a rare sick day it was good to watch the least demanding thing possible… and, as what passes for British summertime being what it is, additionally pleasing to watch a film based largely in that stretch of the Costa del Sol so beloved of the British tourist from the start of the jet age: Nerja, through Malaga to good old Torremolinos. Sunshine and nostalgia never seem more connected, especially with the British summer being what it is…etc.

Then there was also a fine cast led by smiley Anthony Franciosa, stalwart Ronald Fraser, comically-creepy Clive Revill, young and bumbling Richard Briers and, erm, the pre-eminent sexual super power of the time, Raquel Welch…

Great views all round

All round, the view is pretty spectacular and the camera spends much time on the natural beauties of Andalucía.

Fathom came after the initial post-Bond period when spy films had evolved into female spy films and also into comedy female spy films. As such it’s everything you’d expect, from an exponentially twisting narrative to snappy dialogue and the glamorous location… The Brits didn’t colonise Torrey for another full decade… and even now the country inland just a few miles is sensational.

The pre-eminient what?

Larry Forrester had invented the character in his 1967 novel A Girl Called Fathom and this film was based on the draft for his follow-up, Fathom Heaven-sent which was never published.

Miss Welch plays Fathom Harvill a dental hygienist who is also a part-time sky-diver. She’s in Spain to take part in a competition, one she has a very good chance of winning.

Fathom is briefed by the men from HADES

She is picked up by a casual and slightly comic Englishman, Flight Lt. Timothy Webb (Briers) who whisks her away to meet one Col. Douglas Campbell (Fraser) who is, Chief of HADES, a British secret agency who want to utilise her skills to land in a villa containing international spies who have stolen a valuable triggering mechanism for a nuclear weapon. The mechanism has been hidden in an ancient Chinese statuette, the Fire Dragon.

Timothy takes Fathom on a fly past to show her the location and the “enemy”, American mercenary Peter Merriwether (Franciosa) who is working with the Chinese secret service agent Maj. Jo-May Soon (Greta Chi) and the strange English family of Mr and Mrs Travers…

Fathom meets the baddies?

Fathom makes her drop armed with a helmet containing a recording device. But when she enters the vila she finds a dead body and, picking up the murder weapon by instinct, is photographed by Merriwether. He intends to blackmail her into telling him everything but she’s pretty smart for an untrained spy/trained hygienist and quick talks her way to safety after helping him dispose of the still unexplained body.

She books a room in Casa Miguel, a charming local hostelry run by ex-pat scuba-diver, photographer and hotelier Mike (Tom Adams).

Tim presents Fathom with the secret weapon...

Fathom is then sent armed in iconic lime green bikini, to investigate a third party who is interested in the Firefly… a strange Russian Sergi Serapkin (Revill) who inhabits a temperature controlled yacht… his metabolism always has him ten degrees cooler than an average person, so far so sixties…

Fathom cools Sergi’s passion and uses an explosive earring supplied by the Brits to make her escape.  Serapkin pursues her but is intercepted by a speedboat recklessly driven by Timothy.

The plot gets really complicated as Fathom is unsure which guys are the bad guys and if, indeed there are any good guys. By this stage, as in all such things, it hardly matters as the twists and turns are “cheaply” made and, literally anyone could be either and anyone could be alive or playing dead.

Spot the baddie...

The surprises are maintained though, largely thanks to the excellent cast who make up for any plot deficiencies by playing it for laughs. Fraser and Briers make for a good pairing, both capable of “sinisterly-comic” whilst Franciosa more straight-ahead good humour could easily be mistaken for the amorally psychotic.

The Joey Tribbiani school of acting...

As for Raquel… she acquits herself well and has more comic timing than she’s maybe given credit for. Maybe the abundance of revealed flesh confuses the viewer and possibly distracts from any balanced view of technique. Sixties sexuality was a curious thing… Fathom side-steps feminism and the character gives better than she gets from the chauvinists all around her.

Leslie H. Martinson provides snappy direction and oversees some glorious shots of La Costa whilst British jazz legend,  Johnny Dankworth provides a knowing and of the moment score.

Dusty verdict: undemanding and good-looking comfort food for rainy days and sick days.

It’s available on DVD from the usual suspects…

TGI… Perfect Friday (1970)

This surprisingly snappy film was a vague memory from childhood viewing of a, no doubt heavily censored, version on TV… there’s very little violence but an awful lot of Ursula “Undress” as the wits of the day put it.

Smartly directed by Peter Hall (yes, that one: father of Rebecca and now a Sir…) it’s an ostensible straightforward turn of the decade heist movie which features a still unpredictable plot and three very strong leads. Its narrative structure is also unusual with deft turns in time which explain and elaborate on what could have been a less straight-ahead story.

The Office...Stanley Baker with TP McKenna next door

Hall keeps us on our toes throughout and it’s only when the robbery actually takes place when the viewer sees how it is to be done… not quite The Italian Job!

Stanley Baker (who also produced) plays Mr Graham a seemingly straight-laced Assistant Bank Manager with a great future behind him and a predictable course set ahead.

The film opens with a brief encounter with him telling an shadowy individual that he’s going to get some money… the titles roll in a computer-typeface over the modern London where Graham’s bank is located (Regents Park?). He walks into his glass office next to an identical unit housing Mr Smith (the great TP McKenna) and another, larger, room in which their boss Mr Williams (David Waller) practices his golf stroke.

Mr Graham has a meeting with Lady Britt Dorset (Ursula Andress) who is in need of a loan, too enable her to see her ill father back in Switzerland… She is granted £500 and two months in which to pay it back… now that’s what I call British banking!

Ursula Andress and Stanley Baker

The story is a ruse to allow her some funds to buy a new car – a splendid 1966 Sunbeam Alpine Series V – along with some new clothes. Taking a shine to her new financial friend she picks him up for dinner and explains the ploy.

A suit turns out, Britt’s dishonesty is exactly what Graham has been looking for – it’s unclear whether he arranged their first meeting… especially as their further connections are revealed.

Their date goes well and the Lady and the Bank Manager find themselves in bed – they obviously have more in common than at first appeared.

A boat briefing as they pass the old Southbank...

Graham begins to explain his true plans to Britt who volunteers her good-for-very-little, husband as a further accomplice.

But it seems that Graham and Lord Nicholas Dorset (David Warner) have already met – and it was "Nick" who suggested his wife as the potential third member of their putative gang… just one of many twists and turns that keeps things away from predictable.

Graham issues Britt and Nick with explicit instructions which verge on the over-cautious. He insists on their telling only the truth and feeds them both lines that he knows will come back to him unadulterated by their own agendas.

Nick is sent on various errands – to Amsterdam to buy a wig and elsewhere – untraceable steps in a larger caper. And, all the while Graham and Britt continue their bed-based intimacy… not that Britt and Nick have fallen out of their own habit.

Another side of Ursula...

Every Friday the bank sends an employee to count the money in the safe.  The person is identified with a passport and accompanied by the manager, Mr Williams. But Williams’ fondness for golf leads him to occasionally feign sickness in order to get a head start for weekend tournaments… and, when he’s away, Smith and Graham deputise in accompanying the teller…

All clear?

Now Graham has worked out a way to use this to his advantage and it would be churlish to reveal how this will be done, especially as the film takes so long to reveal the plot.

Needless to say, both Nick and Britt are heavily involved and everything is timed to perfection… well, almost everything…

The heist gets postponed in the nick of time and tension builds… can any of these people really trust each other: it’s not a question of will they get away with it but who will get away with it?

David Warner is his usual unsettling self - reminding me a lot of Rhys Ifans, a world-weary lothario who is just about likeable.

The face...

This is one of the best things I’ve seen Ursula Andress in and she acts with a subtlety that allows her natural beauty to come through much more than in her more overtly vampish roles… She has a good chemistry with Baxter and her sense of humour is reigned in to allow more sophisticated jokes to be made than in say, What’s New Pussycat?

Baker is also superb acting against type as the timid but determined Graham. Even the comb-over hair and appalling moustache can’t dent his masculine edge but he obviously relished the chance to play the blue-colour criminal.

Warner and Baker

Hall directs with invention and youthful zest and all is topped off by a superb score from John Dankworth (he also became a Sir later.)

Dusty verdict: An enjoyable crime caper with a little more under the bonnet than others of the same vintage may lead you to expect.

Now available on Blu-ray and DVD from those nice people at Network… it’s worth buying and re-watching every ten years as you’re bound to forget the plot details.

The Sunbeam Alpine

Tea and toast