Our Man Flint, James Coburn's Bond Spoof: Facts And Trivia

By | January 14, 2021

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Poster art for the sequel 'In Like Flint' by Bob Peak. Source: IMPawards

When James Coburn (flanked by groovy beauties) as agent Derek Flint hit screens in Our Man Flint and In Like Flint, he was riding one of the biggest entertainment fads of the '60s. Movies and TV were gripped by a kind of spy and secret agent mania. Thanks to the Cold War and changing sexual norms -- and two decades removed from the blood and guts of WWII -- people flocked to a different kind of action film. War wasn't the answer -- no, it was espionage.

The success of James Bond franchise, beginning with 1962's Dr. No, spawned films and shows that copied the formula or riffed on it: The Silencers, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart, Jonny Quest, and even the Thunderbirds marionettes. Our Man Flint follows the genre tropes of the Bond series to a T while cranking everything up to 11. The action, comedy, and sexuality are all heightened, making Our Man Flint and its follow up In Like Flint more than just parodies of the Bond series, they provide a kind of meta take on the series that exposes all of its ridiculous machinations while celebrating them, essentially doing what Austin Powers did decades before it was released.

As Derek Flint, James Coburn is cool and collected, but he's also incredibly American. The sly bashful nature of Bond is gone, and in its place is the prowess of someone who knows that they've already won. Our Man Flint may be a product of its time, but it's a spectacular look at the spy craze of the 1960s.

The 1960s were the prime time for super spies

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source: 20th century fox

As tensions between the east and west grew more strained in the 1960s, moviegoers expected to see their doomsday fears on the big screen. The threat of annihilation made for uncomfortable viewing -- Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove managed to pull it off as a black comedy, but nobody wanted to make or see a lot of movies that end with mushroom clouds. For crowd-pleasing entertainment, better to have the doomsday scenario always averted by someone much more capable than any baddie with the means to buy a death ray (or giant drill, or volcano based lair, or satellite with destructive capabilities).

It wasn't just the fear of widespread nuclear death that spurred on the success of the spy genre in the 1960s. The sudden ease with which westerners were able to travel internationally also played a major part in the success of the spy genre. After the economic boom that followed World War II in America people had the means to travel, and films following in the footsteps of Dr. No took audiences to exotic locations, many of which became tourist hot spots.

By the time Our Man Flint was released in 1966, the Bond franchise four films deep, Get Smart was on the air, and The Avengers and The Saint had been taking the spy or secret agent genre to dark new places for years. With such a glut of spy content, Our Man Flint had to be both over the top enough to play as parody while leaning into the tropes in order give spy fans what they were looking for.