OUR MAN FLINT

OUT MAN FLINT
Directed by Daniel Mann
1965


Throughout the Sixties there was a surge of 007-alike characters released to cash in on the success of everyone's favourite secret agent. Most were dire but some such as The Man from Uncle series and Matt Helm were actually quite good in their own right. Thankfully, Our Man Flint belongs to the latter camp and was successful enough to spawn a sequel, In Like Flint in 1967.

The film is a total 007 clone - this is evident right from the start when we get the dancing ladies over the credit sequence and James Coburn's maverick secret agent is, the first time we see him, practising judo and he refuses to be drafted in for the mission to stop the evil organisation known as Galaxy, a group described as worse than Spectre, who have a secret weapon that allows them to change the weather - sending icebergs crashing into the Mediterranean and flooding whole valleys. They can even make volcanoes erupt on cue. Blowing up a nuclear device at Fort Knox is trivial in comparison.

This suits secret service boss, Lee J Cobb who sees Flint as a loose canon and would much prefer to use 0008 but on the president's insistence he is ordered to once again get Flint in on the mission. There follows an hilarious scene in which Cobb visit's Flint's mansion and finds the agent tied up with several beautiful women and again refuses to come back into the fold for another mission.

After an attempt on his life by a musician who uses her harp to shoot a poisoned dart, Flint decides that he will take the job.

What follows is a kitsch classic.

The film is available on a double DVD along with its less successful but still watchable sequel. Forget Austin Powers this is the real Bond spoof.