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Our Man Flint
The 1960's found movie audiences enraptured by three superspy heroes. Of course, Sean Connery was the biggest of them all as James Bond. Dean Martin played Matt Helm in four movies. Though my personal favorite was the dashing Derek Flint, played the charismatic James Coburn in two films, the first of which was 1966's Our Man Flick.
Apparently, there are three mad scientists who have invented a giant machine that controls the weather and after a govermment agency called Z.O.W.I.E. loses an entire team of agents trying to get this machine, a huge computer decides that the only person who can handle the assignment is a rogue agent named Derek Flint, who the head of Z.O.W.I.E, Mr. Cramden (Lee J Cobb) hates working with, but is outnumbered as the united nations of the government organization won't accept anyone else for the job.
The screenplay by Hal Fimberg and Ben Starr is kind of confusing because we're first told about this evil weather machine, but once Flint is on the job, we find him searching for a secret cold cream from the Exotica Beauty Company which has some kind of connection to this weather machine and two people keeping Flint from the cream, the insane Malcolm Rodney (Edward Mulhare) and the breathtaking Gila (Gila Golan) are assigned to stop him, a plan that includes kidnapping Derek's international girl posse and trapping him in a giant safe and burying it underground. As closely as I watched, I never really got the connection between this cold cream and these scientists who wanted to control the weather, though these guys had a higher purpose than weather control, which was revealed way too late for the viewer to care. It's definitly done in the style of a spoof, but with a slightly straighter face than the Matt Helm movies.
The plot is so not what makes this movie so much fun. What makes this movie fun is the perfect marriage of actor and character in James Coburn and Derek Flint. Coburn absolutely lights up the screen in this movie and appears to be having a ball while he's doing it. The realationship between Flint and Cobb's characters reminded me of the relationship between Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom in the Pink Panther franchise. I loved the fact that Flint didn't want any of the assistance offered to him by Cramden and that he didn't have a whole lot of gadgetry to assist him, just one gadget...he had this gold cigarette lighter that could do just about anything Flint needed it to.
Twentieth Century Fox poured a lot of money into this movie, that is gorgeous to look at, the scenery, be it geographical or feminine is stunning and the story features some really amazing set pieces, especially this weather machine, but nothing outstages the sexy and dynamic Coburn, who makes this movie worth watching all by himself. Edward Mulhare tries to channel Michael Caine and Golan is gorgeous, but this is Coburn's show and he knocks it out of the park. Followed by a sequel called In Like Flint.
The 1960's found movie audiences enraptured by three superspy heroes. Of course, Sean Connery was the biggest of them all as James Bond. Dean Martin played Matt Helm in four movies. Though my personal favorite was the dashing Derek Flint, played the charismatic James Coburn in two films, the first of which was 1966's Our Man Flick.
Apparently, there are three mad scientists who have invented a giant machine that controls the weather and after a govermment agency called Z.O.W.I.E. loses an entire team of agents trying to get this machine, a huge computer decides that the only person who can handle the assignment is a rogue agent named Derek Flint, who the head of Z.O.W.I.E, Mr. Cramden (Lee J Cobb) hates working with, but is outnumbered as the united nations of the government organization won't accept anyone else for the job.
The screenplay by Hal Fimberg and Ben Starr is kind of confusing because we're first told about this evil weather machine, but once Flint is on the job, we find him searching for a secret cold cream from the Exotica Beauty Company which has some kind of connection to this weather machine and two people keeping Flint from the cream, the insane Malcolm Rodney (Edward Mulhare) and the breathtaking Gila (Gila Golan) are assigned to stop him, a plan that includes kidnapping Derek's international girl posse and trapping him in a giant safe and burying it underground. As closely as I watched, I never really got the connection between this cold cream and these scientists who wanted to control the weather, though these guys had a higher purpose than weather control, which was revealed way too late for the viewer to care. It's definitly done in the style of a spoof, but with a slightly straighter face than the Matt Helm movies.
The plot is so not what makes this movie so much fun. What makes this movie fun is the perfect marriage of actor and character in James Coburn and Derek Flint. Coburn absolutely lights up the screen in this movie and appears to be having a ball while he's doing it. The realationship between Flint and Cobb's characters reminded me of the relationship between Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom in the Pink Panther franchise. I loved the fact that Flint didn't want any of the assistance offered to him by Cramden and that he didn't have a whole lot of gadgetry to assist him, just one gadget...he had this gold cigarette lighter that could do just about anything Flint needed it to.
Twentieth Century Fox poured a lot of money into this movie, that is gorgeous to look at, the scenery, be it geographical or feminine is stunning and the story features some really amazing set pieces, especially this weather machine, but nothing outstages the sexy and dynamic Coburn, who makes this movie worth watching all by himself. Edward Mulhare tries to channel Michael Caine and Golan is gorgeous, but this is Coburn's show and he knocks it out of the park. Followed by a sequel called In Like Flint.