Operation: 00-Oddballs :: Making Love and Kicking Ass in 47 Different Languages Never Looked So Cool!

Our latest fantastical feature opens with a montage of natural disasters in the scale of biblical proportions, pounding and plaguing almost every nation on Earth. We then move under the sea, to a stealthy black submarine, where three figures -- a stunning red-head, a bald-headed thug, and that guy from Knight Rider -- twist a few knobs on some hand-held cosmic doohickey, and then smugly watch the devastating results of their machinations through the periscope as more hurricanes rage, volcanoes erupt, and the Lydecker Dam crumbles, causing a valley of miniatures to be washed clean away.

Meanwhile, in Washington DC, at the headquarters of the international crime-fighting group known as Z.O.W.I.E. [Zonal Organization World Intelligence and Espionage -- or something like that], Lloyd C. Cramden (Cobb), Z.O.W.I.E.'s top banana, feverishly consults with his fellow agents and experts to try and figure out who is behind all of these unnatural weather disasters. Seems Cramden smells a dubious plot behind it all because whoever controls the weather controls the world. And so, he orders everyone to submit what qualifications are needed to root-out these no-goodniks, which will then be fed into a super-computer to determine the best man for the job. But when the answer is finally regurgitated, the boss is none to happy about the results. For the safety of the entire world relies on a man who never found an order or procedure he wouldn't follow, the original international man of mystery, lady-killer, and roguish scoundrel, Derek Flint!

When Dr. No debuted back in 1962, I'm sure producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were hoping the adventures of their suave super-spy, James Bond, would be a hit and make them some money; but I don't think even they could have predicted the magnitude of the world-wide phenomenon they had just hatched. And as their franchise quickly blew up, it wasn't long before people started to cash in with their own tales of spies and intrigue in almost every form of popular media. Some were good. Some were bad. And some of them were pretty darn funny.

And for the record: if the world was indeed in trouble, and it were up to me to decide who gets to save it? There's no question, in my mind. Forget 007, I'd be calling Derek Flint, too. This jet-setting playboy and doer of good deeds was a true Renaissance man and played beautifully by the seemingly miscast James Coburn. At first glance all spindly arms, long legs, catcher's mitt hands, huge clod-hoppers, and a face that's all teeth, well, looks can be deceiving. Smart, tough, and lethally effective, Coburn's Flint was also Hugh Hefner's wet dream. I've touched on this before, but, from the very beginning, the James Bond franchise was precariously teetering on the edge of self-parody already. And in 1966, producer Saul David convinced 20th Century Fox to push the Bond mythos over that inevitable edge with Our Man Flint, where our hero and his bevy of beauties ran totally amok through some truly eye-popping sets, where swank and the space-age met on the graph of such things. Just take a look:

Ably aided and abetted by Jerry Goldsmith's martini-buzz-fueled score, will our man Flint be able to stop these nefarious forces of evil and their diabolical blackmail scheme to change the world into a slightly bent utopia, where all women are turned into pleasure units to stock the Whiskey-A-Go-Go and the Dreamland Drive-in in the Reward Room of GALAXY? To answer that you can either give it a spin for yourself or you can get a full debriefing of Our Man Flint, part four of our Operation: 00-Oddballs Spy Spoof Retrospective, over at 3B Theater. 

Other Points of Interest: 

 

Full film review of Our Man Flint at 3B Theater.
 

Poster campaign for Our Man Flint at the Archive.
 

Newspaper ads for Our Man Flint at the Morgue.
 

Our Man Flint (1966) 20th Century Fox / P: Saul David / D: Daniel Mann / W: Hal Fimberg, Ben Starr / C: Daniel L. Fapp / E: William Reynolds / M: Jerry Goldsmith / S: James Coburn, Lee J. Cobb, Gila Golan, Edward Mulhare, Shelby Grant, Sigrid Valdis, Gianna Serra, Helen Funai

Giving Them What They Want :: A 20 Vid-Cap Look at George Roy Hill's Slap Shot (1977)

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"The fans are standing up to them! The security guards are standing up to them! The peanut vendors are standing up to them! And by golly, if I could get down there, I'd be standing up to them!"

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Mirroring the financially strapped city it calls home, a minor-league hockey team faces foreclosure and liquidation at the end of the current season. Knowing this is his last chance, the veteran coach (Newman) concocts a hair-brained scheme to increase ticket sales by urging his players to goon it up and bust some heads, penalty-box be damned, to save the team, his job and, hopefully, his marriage.

Like North Dallas Forty and Bull Durham that followed in its wake, Slap Shot is about a fifty-fifty split between the lives and antics of the underdog Charlestown Chiefs in the locker room and on the ice -- most notably those lords of slot cars, foil and chaos known as the Hanson brothers, and the pursuit of some nookie off of it; be it the act itself or the relationship troubles it causes.) 

Now, I don't think anybody would argue that Slap Shot isn't the greatest hockey movie ever made since I'm hard pressed to even name five other hockey movies at all (without including the sequels this spawned). But I also proudly belong to a very vocal minority who proclaim Slap Shot to be the greatest sports movie of all time, period; with The Bad News Bears finishing second and Eight Men Out a distant third. 

Hell, this even qualifies as my favorite Paul Newman flick, too; here, teaming up with his old buddy, George Roy Hill again (The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). I mean nobody, but NOBODY, else could pull of those leather pants and plaid leisure suits. And though people usually only associate him with dramatic or hard-boiled roles, Newman always shined when he flexed his funny-bone and he should have done it more, judging by the strong evidence found here. So head on down to old War Memorial Stadium, folks, plenty of premium seats still available, and give Slap Shot a whirl if you haven't had the pleasure -- or consider this some encouragement to revisit it again. C'mon. Drop the puck, already!!!

Other Points of Interest:

The newspaper ads for Slap Shot at the Morgue.
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Slap Shot (1977) Kings Road Entertainment :: Pan Arts Productions :: Universal Pictures / P: Stephen J. Friedman, Robert J. Wunsch / AP: Robert Crawford Jr. / D: George Roy Hill / W: Nancy Dowd / C: Vic Kemper / E: Dede Allen / M: Elmer Bernstein / S: Paul Newman, Michael Ontkean, Strother Martin, Jennifer Warren, Lindsay Crouse, The Hanson Brothers

Favorites :: Comic Book Covers :: Han and Chewie Ride Again!

As the rumor mill kicks into high gear over all the talk of the impending Star Wars sequels and spin-offs coming soon to a theater near you, it should come as a surprise to nobody that at least one of these films would focus on a certain, scruffy-looking Corellian and (hopefully) his boon companion with the tendency to pull people's arms off when he loses. And while most scuttlebutt says the film will focus on a young Solo, well, while we're wishing, here is the Han and Chewie story I wanna see adapted for the big screen:

That's right, I want Star Wars by way of Kurosawa (again) and Sturges, with a Tsuburaya chaser. E'yup, we got Han and Chewie pulling a Seven Samurai / Magnificent Seven, where they lead a group of alien mercenaries -- including a walking pin-cushion, a green space rabbit, and some old kook whose read too much Cervantes -- in battle against a horde of intergalactic bandits in defense of some peasants that culminates with all of them fighting a giant kaiju that can shoot laser-beams out its noggin. Of course I'm not making that up.

Movie Poster Spotlight :: Tieni D'occhio Il Cielo :: Photobustas for Howard Hawks' The Thing from Another World (1951)

 

As a shock to probably no one, but, when asked to name my all-time favorite movie there is no need for toiling or sweating or gut-checking over the answer. Hands down, Howard Hawks The Thing from Another World is still tops. Thus and so, I decided to mark the milestone of my 500th post at the Brewery by throwing a spotlight on the same with this batch of fantastic (if not slightly misleading) Italian photobustas for La Cosa Da Un Altro Mondo! Enjoy.

The Thing from Another World (1951) Winchester Pictures Corporation :: RKO Radio Pictures / P: Howard Hawks / AP: Edward Lasker / D: Christain Nyby, Howard Hawks / W: Charles Lederer, Howard Hawks, Ben Hecht, John W. Campbell Jr. (story) / C: Russell Harlan / E: Roland Gross / M: Dimitri Tiomkin / S: Kenneth Tobey, Margaret Sheridan, Robert Cornthwaite, Dewey Martin, Douglas Spencer, James Young, Robert Nichols, William Self, James Arness