Review of In Like Flint / Our Man Flint

Introduction

Produced at the height of the spy craze of the 1960s, the two Flint movies are easily the best of the 007 clones. James Coburn stars as Derek Flint, a man who can do absolutely anything from ballet to brain surgery and armed only with a cigarette lighter. The two movies are spoofs in the Adam West "Batman" style, rendered with atom-bomb-arming seriousness no matter how goofy the situation. Attended by a bevy of beautiful secretary-companions, Flint answers (reluctantly) to Lloyd Cramden (Lee J Cobb), head of Z.O.W.I.E (Zonal Organization World Intelligence Espionage) and the President`s right hand man. Unfortunately in both movies, Flint`s little three-girl harem proves to be his Achilles` Heel as both times they are captured by the forces of evil and brainwashed.

In "Our Man Flint", Derek Flint is up against Galaxy, a triumvirate of brilliant scientists who want to take over the world for its own good. They have advanced technologies at their control enabling them to change the weather, make volcanoes erupt and dams collapse. Of course, they have to have somebody to do their dirty work for them and that job falls to Rodney (Edward Mulhare - you may remember him as Devon, Michael Knight`s controller in Knight Rider). His subordinate Gila (Gila Golan) proves the old Kipling line about the female of the species being deadlier than the male (as opposed to the one about making exceedingly good cakes) as she tries and fails on a number of occasions to kill Flint. Flint succeeds in deprogramming his lady friends from being "pleasure units" in the service of Galaxy and blows the island up in best Bondian style. Trivialists may recognise the high dive from the water outlet as being part of the main title sequence for tv`s "The Fall Guy" with Lee Majors. They may also get a kick that the bloke servicing Flint`s Lear jet is company boss Bill Lear himself.

"In Like Flint" (1967) is the film Austin Powers identifies as his favourite movie at the beginning of "The Spy Who Shagged Me", and it is fitting as of the two movies, the sequel has the more Powers-esque plot. In this movie, an organisation of women bids to take over the world by brainwashing housewives through their network of beauty salons. They also take control of the US`s first space platform with an eye to arming it with nuclear weapons. To consolidate the plan, they replace the President of the United States with their surgically altered duplicate. This last act leads to Flint`s incredulous (and prophetic) line "An actor in the White House???". What is slightly creepier is that Andrew Duggan (playing the President) looks and sounds (and acts) unnervingly like Richard Nixon - a full two years before Tricky Dicky was sworn into the White House.

Video

Both films are presented in the original CinemaScope (2.35:1) and while there is a fair bit of wear and tear visible in places, they look absolutely beautiful. Colours are genuinely vibrant without going nuts. The picture is well contrasted, full of details and retaining enough filmic feel not to give you the feeling somebody has gone bananas with the digital restoration kit.

Both pictures have their original full-length Fox CinemaScope fanfares (a la Star Wars). If there`s one thing that spoils the package, it`s the 26 second cut the BBFC insisted on to get "Our Man Flint" its PG rating. If you check on the BBFC website, the reason given for the cut is the old "imitable techniques" one. The missing sequence turns out to be at the point in the movie where Flint accepts his assignment. After he has attacked two guards on the door of Cramden`s office, the bodies of the two original guards (replaced by the enemy agents Flint attacked) are found in an ante room. Flint is able to resuscitate one of the men - and this is the cut - he unscrews the lightbulb, sticks Cramden`s finger in the fitting and using Cramden as a conduit uses the mains voltage to shock-start the guard`s heart. In the R2 print, Flint simply bends over the guard, rubs the man`s chest then straightens up to deliver the last couple of lines of the scene. Imitable techniques?? That strange sound you can hear is my mind boggling.

Audio

"Our Man Flint" is presented in Dolby 2.0 Mono, as the R1 version was. "In Like Flint", however, has been given a Dolby 5.0 mix of its Stereo soundtrack (unlike the R1 version which like its sibling was presented in Mono). Neither soundtrack possesses any oomph to speak of - these movies were made long before subwoofers were introduced into soundtrack technology. They are, however, well-modulated and the shrillness common to pre-Dolby soundtracks is minimal.

Both movies have scores by cinema legend Jerry Goldsmith (The Omen, Star Trek TMP, Alien), which incidentally are available as a CD from Varese Sarabande. Goldsmith was also responsible for the theme for "The Man From UNCLE" and there are distinct similarities and echoes in the "Our Man Flint" soundtrack.

Features

These are bare bones releases. Full subtitles are provided, and there are theatrical trailers for both movies, but otherwise that`s it.

The discs come in a transparent double Amaray (of the type used for the Star Wars releases). There are no brochures or inserts, but scene selections are printed on the reverse of the slick along with Bob Peak`s magnificent poster artwork for "In Like Flint". The cover art is also Bob Peak`s poster art for the two movies and works better than the R1 covers. For the US release, the movies were put out individually (in a small series that included Raquel Welch`s "Fathom" and Monica Vitti`s "Modesty Blaise" movies). The R1 cases cropped Peak`s artwork and replaced the original typography with an aim to cash in on Austin Powers. The R2 cover, while combining the two poster arts retains the original typography and doesn`t reference Austin Powers at all.

Conclusion

Two of the best 007 clones of the sixties in a smashing budget package that makes the films less than £7.50 each even at the RRP. Let`s hope there are plans afoot for "Fathom" and "Modesty Blaise" in the future, and maybe this will give Columbia-Tristar the impetus to release the even wackier "Matt Helm" pictures with Dean Martin.