20th Century Fox were partial to big budget sci fi in the 1960s - Irwin Allen made a bunch of movies there, they did the Planet of the Apes series and threw a lot of money and one of their favourite directors (Richard Fleischer) at this effort.
It's got one of the best ever silly concepts - a crew of scientists is shrunk and inserted in the body of a defecting scientist to perform an important operation. It starts off very excitingly - Fleischer has done a very good job - with the scientist defecting, agent Stephen Boyd on the case, someone shooting the agent, and the operation having to be done.
The crew consists of Boyd (who really has no business being there, isn't he an agent?), pilot William Redfield (who has that craggy bland accountant look so familiar in 60s cinema eg Arthur Hill), scientists Donald Pleasance and Arthur Kennedy, and assistant Raquel Welch.
Welch doesn't have much of a role - he mostly stands around and listens, and says the odd line. Boyd molests her a little at the beginning but nothing much more happens between them. She goes out swimming with them a few times and once has to be rescued. She doesn't even take her clothes off, which I thought was going to happen. But it must be said, at least she gets to go along on the mission. (I was hoping she would turn out to be the traitor or at least have a romance with Boyd, but no).
There's some decent action on the voyage - a saboteur is on board. Boyd thinks it's Kennedy then stops suspecting him when Kennedy talks about God, because no Commie would believe in God, presumably. Really he should know it would be Donald Pleasance.
There's some decent imagination here - the crew are at risk of being attacked by anti bodies, the danger of going up into the ear drum (a loud noise outside threatens them), a ticking clock when the miniaturisation stops. I really like how the film commits to its central idea.
Some of it is dull - the special effects and sets probably cost a bomb so there's a lot of lingering over them. All the scuba diving stuff gets a little dull after a while (this is a common feature of many underwater movies). I felt also the plot could've done with another threat - an attack on the outside maybe?
But generally well done. Edmond O'Brien and Arthur O'Connell are sweaty military men.
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