An undeniable part of my love for the spy spoofs Our Man Flint (1966) and its immediate sequel, In Like Flint (1967), is due to their trippy, spectacular music scores by Jerry Goldsmith.  But music alone does not ensure a hip, classic movie.  I’ve always loved the James Bond movies (and their music, too) but I love Our Man Flint even more than the films it spoofs!  That says something.

Derek Flint (James Coburn) is a super-spy because he is super-smart, super-suave and supremely athletic.  He talks to dolphins, has invented his own secret code, rarely carries a gun and can charm any woman.  Flint out-bonds Bond in every way imaginable, always works alone, despises the political ways of the world and is always seeking to make the world a better place.

In Our Man Flint, he is forced to take action against a triumvirate of scientists trying to control the weather.  They, too, want to make the world a better place, controlling mankind’s most violent impulses, but Flint knows that free will is far more important than the strict order they can provide.

Daniel Mann’s film of Flint’s efforts to save the world from those who would control it is a hip document of its era.  The dancing, jargon, paranoia and general atmosphere certainly spoofs the James Bond genre, yet it goes further than that.  Flint questions everything.  He reluctantly grants that national security is worth preserving, but only because other powers would sacrifice freedom.  He respects women yet never has less than four at his beck and call.  He utilizes science and technology to solve the mystery assigned to him but refuses to use military might as an option.  He can take society or leave it, yet he can move within any circle confidently.  Derek Flint is a hero for all the right reasons, and I love the guy.  My rating:  ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆.  (10:4).