Our Man Flint (1966)
Trivia
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Spoilers (4)
When Flint 'relaxes' (suspending his body supported only by 2 chairs: one under his head, & one under his heels - the rest, with no support), it was not a special effects shot; James Coburn was able to do so, and it was incorporated into the script.
The safe door locking bars, which Flint easily melts, were cast from "Woods metal", an alloy whose melting point is only about 200 degrees F, so low it can be melted in boiling water.
On the official studio soundtrack album, the song 'Galaxy a Go-Go' was written by a young Randy Newman, who is in fact the nephew of Lionel Newman, the head of "20th Century-Fox's" Music Department at that time.
James Brolin appears uncredited as a technician in the background on the villain's submarine. The first time is for just 7 seconds, only 50 seconds into the movie. He appears again at around 1 hour and 5 minutes.
Raquel Welch was originally considered for the role Gila Golan plays in the film.
The establishing shot - used to show where Derek Flint lives - is the San Remo apartments (145 and 146 Central Park West) in New York City.
When the girl is kidnapped from the shower, look to the left. Instead of "His" and "Hers" towels, there are two "Hers"
The odd, guitar melody played throughout the movie, which is used almost note for note 14 years later by an up and coming band, is a testament to the enduring quality of the composer's music. The band, Wall of Voodoo, best known for its early 1980s hit "Mexican Radio", uses that strange note progression in its updated remake of the Johnny Cash hit, "Ring of Fire." Their version, however, is a five-minute-long experiment in what would later be termed as techno music. Its mechanical programmed background rhythm and synth-heavy adaption paved the way for later bands. But its use of the riff from this film performed nearly musically verbatim, that makes their version so intriguing.
This film was released the same year as Star Trek: The Original Series (1966). While there is no known connection, at one point Flint uses a move identical to the Vulcan neck pinch to render an adversary unconscious.
When Flint travels to France, the overhead shot as the plane supposedly approaches is indeed Marseille, more specifically le Vieux-Port de Marseille (the Old Port of Marseille), seen from the east.
Hans Gruber drops his monocle into the bowl of bouillabaisse when Gila shows up at his table in the nightclub in Marseilles. It remains there for much of their conversation.
The organization "ZOWIE" (that chooses Flint for the mission) is an acronym for Zonal Organization World Intelligence Espionage. The full name is written on the main desk.
Agent 0008 has an intentional resemblance to Sean Connery / 007 and at one point uses Connery's mild Scottish accent. Naturally, being the superior agent, Flint kicks 0008's tail.
Look closely when Gruber shoots at Flint, you can see that Flint starts the fight by throwing powdered soap backwards at Gruber.
When the computers analyze the requirements for an agent to solve the crisis, the end result is simply a blank punched card that has Derek Flint's name typed on it but has no holes punched, rendering it useless for input or output. This one flaw mars a sequence that was otherwise remarkably un-dumbed down for a popular movie of the era. After Cramden asks the world representatives to write down their specifications for the perfect agent, it would not have been surprising to see him feeding a sheet of paper with their handwritten instructions into a slot in a prop "computer". Instead the film shows the information being punched onto cards with real keypunches, the cards put in stacks and loaded into real card hoppers (the origin of the phrase "loading data"), from which they are input and processed by the computer. This was state of the art data processing in 1965.
According to the map Flint finds in the safe, Galaxy Island is in the Mediterranean Sea, almost equidistant - 250 kilometers - from the island of Mallorca, the cities of Barcelona and Marseille, and the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. In real life there is no island at that location (see also Goofs).
The insignia on buildings on Galaxy island, as well as the patch on the henchmen or workers shirts, is the same emblem or insignia used on Spaceship Spindrift in the TV series "Land of the Giants (1968)." The captain and co-pilot have that same emblem on their uniforms. Also, some of the control panel props are seen in the "Land of the Giants (1968)."
The dock at Galaxy Island and the submarine deck are the same one used as the Nelson Institute in the TV show "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea".
Flynt's girl Anna is played by Sigrid Valdis, who is familiar to fans of "Hogan's Heroes (1965)" as the camp's secretary. She was also the real-life wife of Bob Crane.
Both Flint movies feature a member of Charlton Heston's Ill fated crew from Planet of the Apes: Robert Gunner in Our Man Flint and Jeff Burton in In Like Flint.
Spoilers
The dialogue "I noticed that these men were wearing Battle of the Bulge ribbons", "There is no ribbon for the Battle of the Bulge" may sound like nonsense at first; Flint should not be able to name a non-existent ribbon. There are however commemorative medals that are not issued by the government, and there is indeed at least one such medal for the Battle of the Bulge. Flint saw action in France in WWII (since he was awarded the Croix de Guerre), so maybe he even has such a medal himself. But since it is not an official medal, no serviceman would be allowed to wear the equivalent ribbon on their uniform. So when Flint recognizes a ribbon made from a non-government medal, he knows the person wearing it is an impostor.
The book that Gila is reading on the submarine is "The Adventures of '0008'" (a reference to James Bond). She dismisses it as nonsense, saying, "As if there could be a man like that."
Flint's code, which is based on a progression of 40, 23, and 38 - the measurements of a well-endowed woman. The taxi driver in Rome immediately guesses what they are for.
