In Like Flint (1967)
Trivia
The W.P. Lear Sr. listed in the credits (his character co-pilots Flint's Lear jet) is William Powell Lear; the founder/inventor of the Lear Jet.
According to the audio commentary on the DVD, Fox wanted to do another "Flint" movie but James Coburn turned them down.
This was the final film that "Twentieth Century Fox" produced in its CinemaScope process. Later productions shot in anamorphic widescreen would use Panavision or other optics.
Near the end of the movie, the President shouts "For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground / And tell sad stories of the death of kings" and "Once more unto the breach, dear friends". These are both quotations from plays by William Shakespeare: the first from "Richard II" (Act 3, Scene 2); the other from "Henry V" (Act 3, Scene 1).
According to an interview James Coburn did over twenty years after this film's release, Twentieth Century Fox commissioned this film almost as soon as its predecessor, "Our Man Flint", opened, early in 1966 (to big box-office success). However, Coburn said, the studio showed little interest in the sequel thereafter and rather threw it together, with director Gordon Douglas also showing little interest. Coburn claimed that he and stunt arranger Buzz Henry (credited as second-unit director) had between them directed a great deal of the finished film.
In a shot during the opening credits, Lisa takes away a movie magazine from a one of the women under a hair dryer at Fabulous Face. The cover of the movie magazine shows the 1966 20th Century Fox movie "Fantastic Voyage," also produced by In Like Flint's producer, Saul David.
While aboard the Cuba-bound plane filled with passengers dressed like Castro, Flint breaks into a rousing version of "The Internationale," a famous Communist anthem, in the Mitch Miller, "follow the bouncing ball" style. Though he sings only "da da da," the onscreen lyrics are in Cyrillic and are mostly Russian words, with a few others thrown in. It translates roughly as, "Get up, damn it, damn me The whole world of naked and slaves! Pete, our mind is worried and in the death battle of the weight of a ready-to-go. The whole world is on - strong we once - dig to....and beyond (or) until...but...and beyond. Sing along!"
The title of the movie was taken from a popular saying "in like Flynn", referring to the actor Errol Flynn's womanizing. Thus, "in like Flynn," refers to a man's quickly successful sexual escapades.
At one point Flint says "An actor? As President?" When this film came out, actor Ronald Reagan - who would in fact later become President - had just been elected Governor of California, and actor George Murphy was two years into his term as a US Senator from California. So actors seeking high political office were very much a topic of the day.
When Elizabeth (Anna Lee) first meets Flint, around the 79 minute mark, she calls him 'Mr Flynn', then corrects herself. It is unclear whether it was a deliberate in-joke, as the film's title derives from the saying 'In like Flynn' (referring to Errol Flynn), or a Freudian slip, or just a simple mistake.
Roger Ebert said, "The sexiest thing in the new Derek Flint misadventure, 'In Like Flint', is Flint's cigarette lighter, which is supposed to know eighty-two tricks, but actually delivers only five, of which one is the not extraordinary ability to clip Lee J. Cobb's mustache"
As the villain prepares to undertake his final act, a repeatedly ascending musical note can be heard, driving the tension. Rather than using an early synthesizer (which had become common in many films of the day) they did it on the cheap, using a plucked upright bass.
Steve Ihnat (General Carter) and Yvonne Craig (Natasha, the Ballerina) appeared together two years later on Star Trek, "Whom Gods Destroy". Inhat played the mentally ill villain Garth of Elgar, and Craig played the green Orion, Marta; Garth's mentally ill follower. Craig is best known as Batgirl from the 1960's Batman) TV show.
As the fake President begins to crack up and rave, he shouts the warning, "Don't let them fluoridate your water!" This is probably a nod to the ravings of the mad General Jack D. Ripper in "Dr. Strangelove" and his warning about fluoridated water being a communist plot; however, several far-right organizations in the US in the 1950s and 1960s, notably the John Birch Society, did genuinely promote this false idea .
A comment is made "What the hell is this? Sadie Hawkins day?". Sadie Hawkins Day is an annual event that occurs in the fiction world of Li'l Abner (and which was a popular theme for school dances in the sixties and seventies), the comic character written by Al Capp. In the comics, it is the day on which a footrace is held in the hillbilly town of Dogpatch between the community's eligible women and all the eligible bachelors. If a woman catches a man, he has to marry her. In popular culture, a Sadie Hawkins dance is a "backward" dance where the girl does everything from asking the boy to the dance to picking him up and taking him home.
Flint's previous four woman friends referred to by Cramden were named Sakito, Gina, Leslie, and Anna.
Nora Benson says she was a teacher at John C. Calhoun High School in Roanoke Virginia. John C. Calhoun (1782 - 1850) represented South Carolina as both a member of the House of Representatives and a Senator, and was also the seventh Vice President of the United States (1825 to 1832). He is noted for defending slavery.
Sonar audio effect from Voyage to the bottom of sea, Seaview, and every WWII movie which included a destroyer seeking a submarine.
The "television broadcast" of the launch of the space platform was literally rear-projected with a film projector placing an image just large enough to fill the "screen". When the screen goes dark (the "broadcast" footage is given a dissolve to black), the curtains behind the "screen" close. After the curtains are closed the "screen" is raised up out of sight. At this point, if the curtains had been opened you would have been able to see the projector behind it.
Jean Hale refused to pose for Playboy wearing men's pajama tops to promote the film, even though there would be no nudity, because she was against the magazine flaunting naked women for their sexuality. She also refused roles with nudity later for the same reason.
The ringtone of the red telephone that Lee J. Cobb answers during the television broadcast was later used in the Austin Powers series of films.
Deanna Lund turned down the part of one of Flint's girls because she said she didn't want to get trapped in "bikini roles."
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.
