At the beginning of "Fantastic Voyage," star Stephen Boyd can be forgiven for being momentarily distracted by the comely technical assistant for "the top brain man in the country." He's about to operate on a comatose Russian scientist who has defected to the West, but what he really wants to know is, "Who's the girl?"
Excellent question.
The girl turns out to be Raquel Welch in her first major film role. "Fantastic Voyage" was released on Aug. 24, 1966, and by year's end, the question would be moot. Everyone would know who Raquel Welch was.
For Welch, the picture was the beginning of her own fantastic voyage as a movie star and sex symbol - including playing a bikini-clad cavewoman that resulted in one of the more memorable film posters ever.
"It doesn't seem like 50 years to me," Welch said. "Time seems to go much faster, so there's never any time to absorb anything. But I look back and I think, 'Wasn't I just a very lucky young lady to have stumbled into these crazy circumstances?'"
By every measure, 1966 was a breakout year for Welch. The previous two years, the former Miss La Jolla beauty contest winner and a mother of two had had cameos and uncredited walk-throughs on such popular TV shows as "Bewitched" and "McHale's Navy," and in the Elvis Presley film "Roustabout."
A screen test opposite James Coburn for the 007 spoof "Our Man Flint" led to a multi-film contract with 20th Century Fox. "Fantastic Voyage" looked to her to be an auspicious beginning. "I knew it was going to be [director] Richard Fleischer and there was quite an illustrious cast of established, wonderful actors," she said. "It would be a good chance to see what it's like to make a big movie."