In Like Flint

Plot synopsis:
After observing the launch of a new space platform, Z.O.W.I.E. (Zonal Organisation World Intelligence Espionage) Chief Lloyd C. Cramden joins President Trent (Andrew Duggan) for a game of golf. While on the links they are interrupted by a small group, two women disguised as boys and an actor disguised as an old man, all from the Fabulous Face organization. Discreetly substituting the presidential golf ball with a small gas bomb they succeed in temporarily immobilizing the presidential party and replacing the president with the now-undisguised actor, who has been surgically altered to look exactly like him. The Fabulous Face organization has conceived a plot to gain control of the world and run it entirely by a group of women led by Elisabeth (Anna Lee); Cramden has more-or-less inadvertently stumbled upon this world-domination plot. The women want to establish a matriarchy, and the first step in their plan is to gain control of a US space facility in the Virgin Islands. Elisabeth has established the spa there as a cover. The women establish their headquarters near the rocket base to brainwash their male-oriented sisters by planting tape recorders in their hair dryers.
Puzzled by an apparent three-minute time discrepancy - revealed by a perusal of a stopwatch that was active during the switch - Cramden visits former agent Derek Flint at his New York City home. Greeted by Flints' three female live-in companions in the living room of Flint's spacious Manhattan apartment, Cramden is informed that Flint is experimenting with the creation a dolphin language dictionary. Flint tells Cramden these undersea mammals are intelligent creatures and that they use sounds or sonics to communicate, a notion that had been only relatively recently reinforced by scientific experimentation at the time the film was produced. Flint then shows Cramden a sonic device of his own invention that is integrated into a cigarette lighter (and that, amongst many other uses mentioned - 82 are claimed for the gadget - is later revealed to service as a belt buckle), first moving and then shattering a white cue ball on the pool table. Cramden requests that Flint investigate the "lost" three minutes recorded by the stopwatch. Flint agrees to take up the matter after his return from a survival exercise in the Mojave Desert. During their meeting, Lisa Norton (Jean Hale), an operative of Fabulous Face, is meeting with Flint's three live-in girl friends, where she tricks the girls into accepting a free visit to the Fabulous Face Spa in the Virgin Islands. That evening Cramden encounters Norton, whom Fabulous Face has re-tasked to deal with his unexpected interference with their plans, at an Italian restaurant. Disguised as a southern schoolteacher visiting the city, she drugs him using cigarettes treated with a soporific substance and stages a compromising scene with a prostitute at a hotel; the scene is then photographed and published under the auspices of General Carter (Steve Ihnat), who is working with Fabulous Face. With Cramden framed as a libertine, the "imposter" President publicly suspends the disgraced spy chief from active duty.
Recalled from his exercise, Derek Flint hypnotizes Cramden with his watch, which incorporates lights specifically designed for such a purpose, and learns the details of the encounter with Lisa. Tests of trimmings from Cramden's mustache (secured through the use of the ubiquitous, multi-talented cigarette lighter) reveal traces of "euphoric acid", a drug that when mixed with alcohol leaves the subject mildly sedated and aroused. Investigating further, Flint breaks into Z.O.W.I.E. headquarters and discovers that the two astronauts on the recently launched space platform are, in fact, Russian female cosmonauts. Flint is interrupted by General Carter and a force of turncoat guards who, after a struggle, believe they have killed Flint when he apparently falls into a document incinerator.
Having actually escaped his supposed demise, Flint travels to the Soviet Union to investigate the cosmonaut connection. Dancing in the Bolshoi ballet, he makes contact with ballerina Natasha, unaware that she is a Fabulous Face operative until she attempts to drug him with soporific cigarettes, as Lisa Norton had done to Lloyd Cramden in New York. Flint manages to foil Natasha's designs, but his subsequent interrogation of her is interrupted by the KGB, who arrive at her apartment intending to bring Flint to the Soviet Premier. Flint escapes their clutches and leads the KGB agents in a chase across the roof, tricking one agent to looking over the ledge by imitating a pigeon (making cooing noises), then reaching up from his precarious perch beneath the building's eaves and pulling the man to his death. Flint, hopping atop roof again, evades the other agent and manages to propel a grappling hook, shot from his multi-purposed cigarette lighter, onto another nearby roof and, walking along the line he's secured at his end, crosses over and escapes into a lower vent hatch. Flint next sneaks into the Kremlin, where he overhears the Premier bluffing the (fake) U.S. President; conversational clues point Flint to the Fabulous Face spa in the Virgin Islands.
Cramden has also traveled to the Fabulous Face Spa to investigate further but he is captured and imprisoned with the real President. The Fabulous Face staff, in anticipation of Flint coming to the spa, have imprisoned his girl friends in cryogenic freezing chambers. Flint boards an Aeroflot flight for Cuba disguised as a bearded Cuban Revolutionary. An amusing scene ensues on the Russian airliner which pokes tongue-in-cheek fun at the idea of how an airline would be run in the Caribbean "socialist paradise". Distracting the other passengers, he ties up the pilots, parachutes out over the Virgin Islands, and swims to the Fabulous Face complex. There he is intercepted by Lisa Norton, who brings him before the Fabulous Face leadership, a group of female business executives who explain their plan to brainwash women (through the use of subliminal messages transmitted by salon hairdryers, as revealed in the film's opening scenes) into overthrowing the male-dominated political order. As Flint attempts to talk the women out of their plan, he is interrupted by General Carter, who is dissatisfied with his subordinate role in the women's plot and plans to take power himself with the aid of the fake president. After a fight, Flint is captured by Carter's men and placed, along with Cramden, the captive U. S. President, and the Fabulous Face leadership with their lead staff, into cryogenic suspension. Derek Flint escapes his freezing chamber, where he has been imprisoned with the lovely Miss Norton, with the sonic wave amplifier device he demonstrated to Cramden in his New York apartment. Subsequently, Flint decides to join sides with the women in stopping Carter's plan to atomically arm the space station. Flint, Cramden, the real President Trent, and the women of Fabulous Face travel to the nearby base where the launch is scheduled to take place. Once they arrive, the women execute "Operation Smooch", using their beauty and sexual allure to distract, seduce, and subdue the male guards. After the women thereby succeed in taking over the control room, Carter (who is on board the rocket) threatens to activate the atomic warheads under his control unless he is allowed to proceed with the launch. Flint manages to board the capsule just before it takes off; once in orbit he and Carter fight in zero gravity, causing the spacecraft to tumble. After overpowering Carter, Flint escapes the capsule, which is then destroyed with a nuclear missile launched from the surface. Using his wave amplifier, Flint floats to the nearby space platform, where he enjoys the hospitality of the female cosmonauts there while awaiting return to Earth.

Tags: brainwashing

Review:
It's filled with silly stuff like exploding golf balls, brainwashing via hairdryers, Flint talking fluent dolphin and Lee J.
"In Like Flint" is a sequel to the spy parody film "Our Man Flint" starring James Coburn.
To achieve and establish it, they kidnap and replace the U.S. President, discredit the Head of the Z.O.W.I.E. intelligence agency, and commandeer a nuclear-armed space platform, all directed from Fabulous Face, a women's spa in the Virgin Islands.
Cramden", Flint's ex-boss.Like all parodies, it's not fair to compare it to the original genre and you have to expect it to be at least somewhat silly - especially in this film the plot of feminists trying to take over the world.
The last reviewer who gave it a low score obviously totally missed t.he point it's a parody It's a fun movie that moves along at a fast & Coburn is great in the James Bond spoof role.
If you ever wondered about how the film series like Austin Powers came to be inspired, James Coburn does a memorable performance as Flint, original man of mystery in this film.
The plot includes the world being overthrown and manipulated by smart beautiful seductive women on a Caribbean Island where their leader is played by Anna Lee (General Hospital's beloved Lila Quartermaine).
Derek Flint's second outing falls juuuuuust a bit shy of recapturing the fun-filled spirit of this short-lived series' first film, 1965's "OUR MAN FLINT".Being more in the style of the "BATMAN" TV series (which 20th Century Fox produced at that time as well), this film accentuates more of the absolutely outlandish camp, as opposed to the more subtle (okay, not REAL subtle, but...) tongue-in-cheek, nudge-nudge, wink-wink of the original "Flint" film (at one point, the audience is invited to "follow the bouncing Russian Star" & sing along with the Russian National Anthem as our hero, disguised as Fidel Castro, hijacks a plane FROM Cuba TO the Virgin Islands to foil the villains' E-ville plot...
Sorry, but no one else but James Coburn can bring the character of Derek Flint to life.
Even so, it seems that Coburn's interest in the character had begun to wane a tad by this time; after all, 2 years had gone by since "OMF", the world's political view had begun to change radically, & the Summer of Love was in full swing, baby...
yeeeeaaaaaaahhhh!!"IN LIKE FLINT" still has some of the first film's charm, but quite a few of the plot points are VERY dated & insulting, especially when viewed in the cold light of today's often harsh, overly-PC environment.
In fact, most of the time, the general mentality -- even that of the suave & cool, ultra-hip, super-modern Derek Flint -- is downright primordial, even in light of, or despite, the '60s Women's Rights Movements.Even though it ain't great, it still ain't too bad, all things considered.
In this sequel to "Our Man Flint," a further parody of the James Bond films, the threat is again a weird organization which plans to rule the world.
Flint is again played by Coburn as a super-smooth genius who seems to play the secret agent as a side job, called away from his Hugh Hefner-style existence into spy activity when something really unusual rears its nasty head.
The film is a bit too long, having a padded feel at some points: Flint has an exciting running fight with the soldiers towards the end, but he's captured anyway, so the whole thing was just an excuse to show off his martial arts.
The outer space theme, reflecting the space race between the U.S. and the Soviets of that time, was also prevalent in that same year's Bonder "You Only Live Twice." Flint would return in another incarnation in a TV Movie in the seventies.
Most sequels don't come close to the wonderfulness of the original productions, but "In Like Flint" does.
It's sense of fun, spoof and action equals the original as super secret agent Derek Flint fights yet super-duper evil organization, this one run by America's richest and most powerful women, including the knockout blond Jean Hale; and veteran actress Anna Lee, who was John Wayne's squeeze in "Flying Tigers" in 1942.
Cobb is marvelous as Lloyd Cramden, head of our super-duper secret spy agency, Z.O.W.I.E.Jerry Goldsmith returns to handle the spyalicious score, chock full of hip tunes like "Your Z.O.W.I.E Face." Coburn is great and the two Flint films are just so darned fun!
It's your basic Cold War type movie with some women who want to rule the world (and *oh the humanity* are betrayed by the military man they put their trust in, played by a fiendish Steve Inhat) tossed in..
The colors are bit more wild, and true to this series, there're lots of nice looking women.The movie shows the belief that the western world had on science to better our world.
James Coburn was perfect fit as super agent Derek Flint.
There is hardly an action scene where he plays Flint like a fighting master ...
But Flint loses his fun when it became too much Austin Powers.Btw, the Powers movies would have been much better if they had been played as a homage to Flint/Bond.
He should probably have been hired to make more westerns and more high-tech thrillers; but in Derek Flint, zen-trained super-spy, in the two films he was allowed to complete in this series, he found his most famous and acclaimed role.
Cobb, which was in my opinion a superior satire but less successful The storyline in the second entry has to do with an offer to Flint's three female assistants to visit an Island run by an outfit's leaders calling their operation "Fabulous Face".
Derek Flint's girls are in danger and that leads his organization, Z.O.W.I.E., his boss Lloyd Cramden and Flint into the exotic blackmail-the-world plot involving female astronauts and nuclear Macgoffins.
But first there are the lethal tricks the ladies have thought up; Cramden loses ninety seconds on a golf course; Flint discovers hair driers are being used for brainwashing sessions; and the island resort Fabulous Face runs in the US Virgins turns out to be replete with pretty girls and pretty dangerous ideas.
The film is subtle in unexpected ways unlike its satirical predecessor which was less funny and more a direct comment on gimmick-heavy spy movies.
In the cast, James Coburn looks awkward at times but handles the super-spy cerebrations and courage aspects well.
Perhaps the Austin Powers movies also got somewhat based on the Flint movies and there are obviously some small references to it.This movie is a James Bond satire on its own right.
James Bond movies never really have been known for its strong feminist elements or strong female roles but in this movie it are the ladies who are trying to rule the world.
The movie also features lots of other typical James Bond element such as of course lots of spy-elements, females in bikinis, a womanizing main character and silly gadgets and this all combined with an unmistakable '60's atmosphere and typical style of film-making.
The '60's were perhaps not the best time period for film-making but it definitely was a colorful era, to say the least.It's a good written spy-comedy with some fine characters and actors that are portraying them.
It all helps to make the movie very amusing to watch.Quite amazing that actors such as James Coburn and Lee J.
"In Like Flint" (1967): So Hollywood money moguls are sitting around trying to come up with another idea to compete with the VERY successful James Bond/007 fliks.
Coburn claimed that Fox wanted to get 'In Like Flint' into cinemas so badly, the script was of little concern.
After the first film, which closely imitated the James Bond franchise, it seems the creative minds behind Flint felt free to do their own thing.
The sequel involves an all-female terrorist group, a kidnapped President, an outer-space science lab, hypnotic cigarettes, and Derek Flint communicating with dolphins.Lee J.
Cobb is great as perplexed Z.O.W.I.E. chief Lloyd Cramden and James Coburn returns as eccentric secret agent Derek Flint.
If you've never seen the scenes where Colburn speaks dolphin, they alone are worth the time lost while watching this film.
"In Like Flint", the second and last Derek Flint movie, is arguably a bit better than its predecessor, but not better enough to compete with the Bond films of the same era (or with "Deadlier Than The Male", for that matter).
The production is once again colorful, with some truly beautiful shots and some neat gadgets (like a time-freezing device!); the plot is more elaborate and not fully revealed until the second half of the movie; and the sexism of "Our Man Flint" has been considerably toned down (Flint is "trying to cut down" his harem habit - he has 3 instead of 4 girls in it now!
James Coburn is once again very good in his fight scenes; the problem is that, just like in "Our Man Flint", those fight scenes make up about 90% of the total action.
I say `slightly inferior' because there are still some entertaining elements here (i.e., funny sight gags, competent music, terrific cinematography and locales); and, let's face OUR MAN FLINT isn't THAT great a movie (in retrospect).
Somewhere between James Bond and Austin Powers lies ZOWIE agent Derek Flint.
In "In Like Flint," the supersuave agent goes up against a cabal of women hellbent on world domination.
This is another spoof of James Bond, with all its gadgets, Flint's impossible skills, roguish attitude and his way with women.
This second installment in the Derek Flint spy spoofs is not as good as its prequel, being much looser than that, but like pizza, even when it's not as good as the legendary Pizza Malabon, it's still pretty good!.
The success of the James Bond films spurred on the various studios to make their own spy movies.
And then, they've got another enemy to contend with....one within their own.Having just seen two of the Matt Helm films only a couple nights ago, my seeing "In Like Flint" was perfect timing.
Yet again, just about the only reason for watching it is James Coburn's cool persona in the title role while the several reasons for not watching it include a literally hair-brained plan for women to take over the world by means of hairdressing/brainwashing appliances, Lee J Cobb hamming it up as Flint's boss and of course the decade long tradition of using scantily-clad women as eye-candy.
Perhaps like the camp classic 60's T.V. Series of "Batman", the aim was the same, namely to get the audience to laugh at, as much as with the characters, with all the actors in on the joke.I just don't think this was the best way for Hollywood to rip-off, sorry, take inspiration from the successful James Bond series, the over the top approach hardly helping the movie appeal to latter-day audiences.
Coburn gets one great accidentally prescient line "An actor...as president?" and otherwise stroll through the film in cool clothes.
The inane plot could be funny like Revenge of the Stepford Wives, but Gordon Douglas' direction and the special effects are on a par with TV's Gilligan's Island and Lost in Space respectively, and the ultimate effect is flat and dull and the same could be said for most of the cast including James Coburn whom I've liked before and since this film.
In And Out. It's ironic Derek Flint gets not one but two post-mortems in James Coburn's second and final turn as Twentieth Century Fox's goof on James Bond.
The first Flint film, "Our Man Flint," managed to develop the character quite well that way; it works as a comedy as long as there's some attempt at grounding it as a serious adventure.This time, goofiness takes over early.
"In Like Flint" pits Flint and Cramden against a female conspiracy that supplants the president with an actor and works toward a society where men no longer get much of a say.
This time, the enemy lair is well- designed, and the cinematography quite brilliant in places, especially when the movie moves to Jamaica, Bond's home territory.Cobb, a boon in the first film, really shines here, showcasing a warmer side in Cramden's relationship with Flint.
Watching Coburn have a rather steamy kissing scene with Yvonne Craig put me in an accepting mood, but too many U-turns make you feel the film isn't really playing fair.
It's a fun film, but there's nothing in "In Like Flint" to make you think he shouldn't have gotten out..
Semi-decent plot development in dated production (a film like this could only have been made in the late 60s or early 70s ) with complete lack of witty dialog, pathetic special effects (dig those space shuttle shots and that cheesy wrist-watch compliant gadget he uses in Z.O.W.I.E.'s headquarters to count the heartbeats of the cosmonauts in the space shuttle), several somewhat illogical scenes (read on), and an abundance of average looking women with the exception of the luscious Yvonne Craig.
The only witty dialog centers around Flint being irresistible to women and even that dialog is often times awkward and embarrassing.Flint is amazingly laconic in all the scenes outside of his penthouse and comes off like a COMPLETE dunce when face to face with the leaders of Fabulous Face.
James Coburn finally takes a seat and looks completely lost in the last minute of this scene.Flint visits Natasha to inquire of cosmonauts aboard the space shuttle and yet is shocked when he discovers she's involved.
Some older women that look like the head-honcho-err- ets, are observing a missile launch and talking about how things are going according to plan although nothing has been actually said that could give you even a hint about the plot and that is something that I hate in movies, because there is a big difference between throwing in a couple of stuff to make people interested and anxious to understand what's going on and simply not giving anything at all!
But, OK, not all movies have Hitchcock-like intro's so I forget this "little" mistake and carry on with watching the film since I am sure that things will start becoming better as we move on right?After a couple of scenes, we get to meet our protagonist, the spy-man himself, Flint.
In Like Flint is a boring and plot-less spy film and a worthless attempt at a funny movie.
I wonder why Austin Powers likes it so muchFINAL VERDICT: Can't even tell if this was supposed to be funny (3/10)Also Check: Austin Powers (1997) – Our Man Flint (1966) – Top Secret (1984).
Derek Flint (James Coburn) agrees to take the case.
Cramden is tricked into a scandal by operative Lisa Norton (Jean Hale) and the fake President sidelines him.James Coburn continues not to be funny.
Sequel to 1966's "Our Man Flint" has James Coburn returning to role as agent Derek Flint, here thwarting secret society of beautiful women plotting world domination.
The production is classy, Coburn's Flint is wiry and smart, but the film just doesn't have the exciting pacing of a James Bond addition--nor does it have the humor.
The character made a return in the 1976 TV movie "Our Man Flint: Dead on Target".
To a 13 or 14 year old seeing a bunch of women in two piece swimsuits was pretty exciting and super spy Derek Flint was cool.
This time hip, clever, and dashing freelance spy and playboy extraordinaire Derek Flint (James Coburn in splendidly wry and laid-back assured form) must thwart a dastardly plot by a gang of lovely, yet formidable ladies who have developed a method of brainwashing so they can put arrogant and domineering men in their place and thus take over the planet.
Moreover, this movie in some ways was uncannily ahead of its time: The cabal of angry women Flint opposes neatly foretells the 70's feminist movement while the premise of an actor as President offers a frighteningly accurate prediction of Reagan getting elected into office as Chief Executive a mere decade or so down the line.
With 'Our Man Flint' ( 1966 ), it seemed as though Twentieth Century Fox had themselves a spy franchise to potentially rival that of James Bond.
A group of beautiful and powerful women - headed by 'Miss Elisabeth' ( Anna Lee ) - watch through telescopes as America puts the world's first space platform into orbit.
Derek Flint reappears with four more lovelies on another mission to save the world.Again, the strong point of this film is the interchange between James Coburn and Lee J Cobb.
Again it's more realistic than it first appears - especially since I myself have said to someone about a book: "no, I haven't read it: I wrote it!" Other features to watch out for are Coburn talking to dolphins, suddenly appearing in Castro garb on a Cuban plane and the delectable Yvonne Craig as the ballerina.Obviously, the sequel squeezes the last drops of humour out of Lee J Cobb's reaction to Flint's universal talents.
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).
114 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Derek Flint (James Coburn) is back in some adventures more exciting than those he went through in "Our Man Flint".
Only the semi-retired secret agent named "Derek Flint" (James Coburn) can stop them.
Anyway, rather than reveal the entire plot and spoil the film for those who haven't see it, I will just say that this is a pretty good sequel to "Our Man Flint" produced a year earlier.
Good performances are turned in by James Coburn, Lee J.
I swear, at times Jean Hale and her clones (not actually clones in the film) either look like dolls or animated corpses.
Oh yeah, Coburn's Flint is great  but he runs like a girl!.