In Like Flint

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USA • 1967 • 114m •

• Directed by: Gordon Douglas. • Starring: James Coburn, Lee J. Cobb, Jean Hale, Andrew Duggan, Anna Lee, Hanna Hertelendy, Totty Ames, Steve Ihnat, Thomas Hasson, Mary Michael, Diane Bond, Jacqueline Ray, Herb Edelman. • Music by: Jerry Goldsmith.

In this amusing parody of spy films, the American president has been replaced by an actor ("An actor? As president?"), and a group of beautiful and powerful renegade women, led by the lovely Helena, plot to take over the world. They wish to create a race of female soldiers by brainwashing women with a device planted inside beauty salon hair dryers. Flint, the super secret agent and supreme ladies' man, really has his hands full trying to foil their plot.

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3:18

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0:56

Review:

and multiple reviewers pan it. But it's by far my fave 60s flick (surpassing Our Man Flint--at least in hot girls; too bad "women--make that people--of color" were excluded) and credits were minimal (blacklisting fear remains today; on-film credits: always elusive). The plot addressed feminism (a mid-60s U.S. taboo) in an industry that only reluctantly credited ingénues (a Stepford Wives film-making bug alive and well four decades later--esp. in the Republican party. Star-making machinery has little room for "nobodies"), keeping rich men rich and in control! Note how the bad guys were finally subdued? The women were in command (a usual ending). Silver screen life's corny but sells. I'm misty for films like this but glad the era's bygone. Douglas had an eye for one flavor of female beauty: vanilla (and Hollywood isn't so racist--they simply sell flesh and fantasies to a racist, lazy country), and directed James Whitmore in Them! (1954Warner) and slews of other B pix (and was a child actor in the 30s).

The music sucks. Jerry Goldsmith, of extraordinary work elsewhere, fails miserably here (even for tongue-in-cheek)! But the script is packed with more stuff than most action films. Like it or not Coburn was a great actor in his prime (see also Steve McQueen--whom women in my family detested for womanizing ways and resented me for liking--it was "the battle of the sexes" period). Coburn was well paid and enjoyed his roles, obviously informed by Sean Connery's "Bond, James Bond." Here Fox boxes with the slick MGMUA "Secret Agent 007" franchise and I think wins despite the production values (I wonder how much it cost to make)... but (like Lee Marvin an ex-Marine) I can relate to this nonsense just fine, thanks, even the "weak" story lines.

Bring on the ladies! Didn't Coburn also frequent the Playboy Mansion? The hard if shallow life of a Hollywood legend: in 74 years he must've had some fun playing a character "irresistible to women and awed (envied) by men," to smoke Cuban cigars, and to generally be the man of the hour. He led a charmed life and was a charmer--certain roles suited him. I should be half as suave (though I'm a new-age non-actor). Guesting on the Tonight Show Coburn didn't take himself too seriously; I think he embodied the fantasies of a lot of wannabe male actors. His look was "in" for men in those days and he did martial arts in real life (Bruce Lee eat your heart... although action sequences are lame).

Lee J. Cobb in drag?? I lol'ed at this in the zenith of the Beatles era AND while watching the DVD in my car last night 40 years later.

What people overlook (their loss) is what's best about In Like Flint: the EYE CANDY! Also Flint's magazine collection included Architectural Digest {sb Female Anatomy Review?} in his so-manly library--maybe Hef dressed the set with incredible furniture. Dig reel-to-reel tapes, swimming pool wcompassionate dolphin caretaking (nod to FlipperMiami?) and false-wall bookcase, etc. What's hip? High echelon multilingual sexy private detectives save the planet, mix their own bach-pad music on RTR and love women (wSinatra-like ability to make 'em swoon over artistrymachismo). Same old story... this film's about smoking & sexiness and how to remain manly in the face of more T&A than a fistful of films including Goldfinger it spoofs (no more seriously than TV Batman spoofed comics). Hello folks... it sold popcorn, tickets, smoking, and male superiority, not season tickets to the Metropolitan Opera (like Fox does today). Hey, we never learn all 82 functions of his lighter--but who cares?--imagine how many gold lighters {Flintget it?} this film sells. I haven't seen a single full-head turbo-dryer in a women's salon in a long, long time (dismantled by people in real fear of mini-tape players?--possible inspiration for the Sony Walkman). Pity, the end of a glamorous era. But for me cheesecake and heroism aren't over, and I surrendered to the ladies long, long ago... Sorry fellas, you're on your own. I got most if not all of the jokes.

Now the spoilers (sorry, long review--you can leave now to avoid): In a rooftop scene with the only shoot-'em sequence (note: nearly all of the action is fistfightjujitsu, not gun play), Flint leans on what's supposed to look like a stone roof parapet and it bends, proving it's really papier-mâché. And other things were pretty lame and improbable, like the de facto astronauts removing their space helmets in outer space. Yeah right, that's where my review coincides with others here. But Goldfinger only won an Oscar for special and sound effects, so in most respects this was just Hollywood taking care of competitive business as usual. And was the lead's name "Fred" in early filming? Maybe another inside joke they didn't bother to fix, or the "script girl" got her job for sexual favors (my wild idea)? Am I the only one who noticed this?

Still, I'd plunk down the cash for the DVD, even making Murdoch richer. The trailers of other 60s Fox Flix are well worth seeing, too. Goodbye to the 60s: a quirky, colorful, expansive time in American politics and film. I wonder what happened to several of the nonspeaking females in this one but few others from the 60s. Raquel Welch had speaking roles at Fox (a trailer's on this DVD), but men weren't interested in her elocution. Film, the great American art form born in France.

Review by Frank-42 from the Internet Movie Database.

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