In Like Flint

In Like Flint

It’s a very arguable case that the James Coburn Flint Movies were the true gold standard for the superspy genre over even The Bond Franchise. The films were not so much spoofs per se as they were just radically different and original spy films with action and a bit of drama, but more importantly they were films which openly realized that the plots for these types of adventures were completely ridiculous to begin with and running with that idea while the whole time refusing to make Coburn’s Derek Flint into any sort of a homage to other characters but rather instead allowing Coburn to just slide in and do his thing without ever making anyone think about Bond or anyone else for that matter. The key element was the almost complete lack of misogyny or viewing of women as being some sort of a sexual threat which was common throughout the Bonds where female obstacles were often placed in 007’s path in order to obstruct the mission. Flint on the other hand, maintained an enormous and unabashed love for the opposite sex, apparently feeling that even the most villainous women could be helped by simple things such as love, tenderness and attention from a good man while generally reserving his scorn and contempt for his fellow males whom he could beat up on in hand to hand combat or disagree with even if they were his allies. Even today, this remains a refreshing worldview in the era of so much cynicism over gender equality as fairy tale romances now only seem to blossom if the man’s bank account can withstand it. This sequel from 1967 at times does boast a lesser story, but it turns out to be much more Coburn’s baby than the original, as he himself noted years later that the studio seemed to just throw the whole thing together and credited director Gordon Douglas (who had directed Little Rascals shorts in the 1930s) was so clearly disinterested on the set that he was literally on autopilot, leading Coburn to take a cue from his fictional counterpart and literally direct the movie himself (or so he claimed). The plot is rather intriguing, as it serves as a direct test to Flint’s aforementioned set of values as first laid out in the original Our Man Flint: Once again an evil organization is planning to take over the world through mind control and a little saber rattling with nuclear weapons. The kicker though is that the whole organization in and of itself appears to consist entirely of beautiful women (with a couple of matronly older women who seem to serve as advisors). The key is to ensure that the whole world becomes entirely controlled by women, at which point “everything will fall into place”, even as they giggle and laugh at the predictably masculine bumblings of all the males who are in power. They do have a small handful of male contacts within the United States military (including a general) who are assisting them in achieving their goals and have even managed to replace The President Of The United States with a double (who really is a famous actor who has had extensive plastic surgery leading Flint to remark at one point “An actor as President?”) whom they can give their marching orders to. It turns out that the switch was made during a golf game between the real President and Flint’s old intelligence boss (Lee J. Cobb returning from the original as well) and when Cobb’s suspicions start to make him a liability, he finds himself discredited by a phony sex scandal as they start to infiltrate his intelligence network as well. This leads Cobb to once again lure out of retirement the legendary Flint, fit as a fiddle and just not giving a shit, leading his usual life of leisure with three new live in girlfriends (the others from the previous film are now said to be married off after having been “prepared” by him) who of course all love him with unbridled, sincere passion because he knows how to treat them right (which leads at one point to a female organization member to remark wistfully in reference to Flint, “Did you ever wonder?”). Flint also conducts his own scientific experiments in his Manhattan penthouse in order to fill his time, including working with dolphins and sonic frequencies. Flint travels first to Moscow to glean some information off a Russian ballerina / operative (Yvonne “Batgirl” Craig) before heading to the command center (which doubles as the headquarters for a chain of beauty salons called “Fabulous Face”) of the organization based out of The Virgin Islands, where beauty parlor hairdryers are used as brainwashing devices, the real President is being held captive wearing beach bum attire and we even get the sight of a beloved and respected actor such as Lee J. Cobb walking around in drag when he attempts to infiltrate the place (and immediately gets thrown into the brig alongside the real President). Of course Flint’s three girlfriends are also there too for a “beauty makeover” and when it turns out that none of their brainwashing techniques are working on the girlfriends because of their obvious steadfast love for Flint, it gets the other women there all talking about Flint and just what kind of an actual man that he might be (“He must be a hypnotist.”). Naturally, when Flint finally makes it to the island, he becomes the subject of much curiosity, easily claiming the organization’s beautiful leader (Jean Hale) as his own, but when confronted with the concept of “women taking over the world”, he laughs heartily and suggests “why don’t you just sit back and wait for it to fall into your lap?”. Again, the idea of having women viewed in a purely positive state in a seemingly male dominated action / espionage world remains the saving grace that makes the Flint films stand the test of time nearly 50 years after they were made. Even Flint himself states when asked point blank why women find him so attractive that it is because he “doesn’t compete with them.” This is what makes Flint stand head and shoulders in many ways above most movie heroes because he is portrayed as being an unashamed heterosexual masculine male who nonetheless has his values towards the opposite sex in strictly the right place and never ever wavers from them even if they can be seen as a possible threat. It also shows the (very real) power that women can have over men when the girls launch “Operation Smooch” where their scantily clad selves easily approach and disarm a number of armed soldiers while using little more than just kisses and touches (one young soldier being brought down and overwhelmed can be heard breathlessly saying “I’m married. “I’m married.” as he is made to heel). However, there is still the matter of the phony United States President to deal with, having assumed all possible power that he can once he’s had a “view from the top.”, along with a number of other hindrances that must be contained (including the nuclear weapons of course). But the overall defining characteristic of both films is really in just how straight much of this ridiculous material is played off as, with little to none of the childish humor that permeated the Austin Powers films and Coburn’s arrogant yet confident superspy being portrayed without even the slightest hint of irony, because Derek Flint really is everything that he seems to be and the fact that Coburn was able to pull it off so convincingly (keeping in mind that he has played a long line of villains in his career) with such abundant reserves of charisma is testament to him being perhaps one of the most underrated major stars to have ever lived. The film stumbles a bit with Cobb’s character here (kind of a cross between Bond’s M and the Pink Panther films’ legendary Chief Inspector Dreyfus only without the murderous rage) being reduced to just sitting there at times in a sullen state (although the insecurity that his spy chief feels over comparing himself to Flint is downright palpable) and much of the comedic exasperation which Cobb brought to the first film is missing here. Many of the other male co stars fail to make much of an impression as well, but the fact still remains that the Flint concept was so original and strong in its own right apart from other spy films (and sadly it was Coburn himself who declined to continue making them) that a faithful, updated version applying the same main set of values for its main character would be most welcome in this day and age even though it is obviously impossible to either replace or replicate what the late, great James Coburn could always bring to the table…

8/10

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