THE PRESIDENT'S ANALYST is Coming to Blu-ray!

A few weeks ago, Paramount announced a remake of The President's Analyst was in the works. Now comes even better news.... The 1967 original, starring James Coburn, Godfrey Cambridge, and Severn Darden, is at long last coming to Blu-ray! Australian label Via Vision will release the title via its Imprint imprint (yes, you read that right: two "via's" and two "imprint's") on May 26. It' can be imported from the Via Vision site, and is available to pre-order from American outlets like Amazon (from which this site receives a kickback) and DeepDiscount. Imprint Blu-rays are region-free. The 1080p HD presentation of the film with LPCM 2.0 mono audio comes with brand new special features including an audio commentary by the great Tim Lucas (who recently provided the company with an updated audio commentary for their release of Danger: Diabolik to supplement his classic original DVD commentary with John Philip Law) and an appreciation of the film from Kim Newman, as well as the original theatrical trailer and optional English subtitles. The first 1500 copies will come in a limited edition slipcase. The President's Analyst is one of the all-time great spy comedies, and remains as timely as ever. If you love it as much as I do, you'll already have pre-ordered. If you've never seen it... now's your chance!

Tradecraft: Paramount Remakes THE PRESIDENT'S ANALYST with Trevor Noah

Theodore J. Flicker's 1967 James Coburn satire The President's Analyst is one of my very favorite spy movies. (It's also Coburn's best spy movie... Sorry, Derek Flint.) When describing it to people, I always say that the comedy holds up surprisingly well today... sadly. America is still facing many of the same social  issues Flicker sent up over fifty years ago (from institutional racism to monolithic Big Tech), and it's easy to imagine a remake. Now, Paramount is imagining one... with The Daily Show host Trevor Noah on board to produce and potentially star. According to The Hollywood Reporter, former Obama White House staffer Pat Cunnane will write the script. The premise, about a psychotherapist burdened with all of the President's top secret stresses, will obviously be familiar ground for him! According to his publisher, Cunnane served as "President Barack Obama’s senior writer and deputy director of messaging at the White House, where he worked for six years in many roles."

Per the trade, "Details for the new take are being kept under the couch but it is described as a re-examining the 1967 satire through the lens of the contemporary political landscape." You really wouldn't have to change too much. I do hope the new film retains the original's almost Pink Panther-esque slapstick tone though. It's not too often you see slapstick and satire married together, but Flicker's film did it perfectly. Severn Darden and Godfrey Cambridge co-starred in the original.

Paul Gulacy Paints Flint Tribute with Nick Fury, Black Widow and Shang-Chi

Paul Gulacy, a comic book artist instantly synonymous with spies thanks to his stellar work on titles like James Bond 007: Serpents Tooth and Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, has revealed a new piece on his website that will be of particular interest to fans of the genre. The commission recreates Bob Peak's famous poster art for In Like Flint with Marvel spy heroes like Nick Fury, Black Widow (a la Maud Adams), Shang-Chi, Clive Reston and Leiko Wu. I particularly love seeing Fury in the Flint pose, as James Coburn would have certainly made an excellent Nick Fury at one time! (His role in Hudson Hawk, though not patched, actually feels of a piece to some degree with the Fake Nick Furies that populated filmdom prior to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, like Charlton Heston in True Lies, Angelina Jolie in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and a pre-Fury Sam Jackson in xXx.) Interestingly, Gulacy drew a spot-on Coburn as the hero of a horror comic that ran in Eerie Magazine in 1979. His epic espionage saga Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu (written by frequent collaborator Doug Moench) is currently (finally!) being reprinted by Marvel in massive hardcover Omnibus editions, which are worth every penny of their somewhat steep price tag. Here's the iconic original poster that inspired this awesome painting:

Lots of Los Angeles Sixties Spy Screenings Coming Up in August

There are a lot of very stylish Sixties spies playing on the big screen in Los Angeles this month.

First up, on August 7 and 8 (a Sunday and a Monday), Quentin Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema will screen the fourth and final Matt Helm movie, The Wrecking Crew (1968) on a Sharon Tate double fill with Roman Polanski's wonderful Hammer spoof The Fearless Vampire Killers. Besides Tate, The Wrecking Crew stars Dean Martin (The Silencers, Murderers' Row), Nancy Kwan (Wonder Women), Tina Louise (Fanfare for a Death Scene), Nigel Green (The Ipcress File, Deadlier Than the Male) and my own very favorite Sixties Spy Girl, the stunning Elke Sommer (Deadlier Than the Male, The Prize). Sure, the silly, spoofy Helm movies are very poor representations of Donald Hamilton's terrific, hard-hitting, and very serious novels, and sure, they're not very, er, good (in the conventional sense), but they are certainly entertaining! It's rare to see any of them play the revival circuit, and when one does it's usually one of the first two. I don't think I've ever seen The Wrecking Crew playing in a theater during the 16 years I've lived in L.A. The Wrecking Crew will screen in 35mm. Tickets are just $8.00 for both films, available at the box office or online.

Then, on Sunday, August 21, the American Cinematheque's Aero Theatre in Santa Monica will present a double feature of two particularly pop art spy movies, Our Man Flint and Modesty Blaise (both 1966) as part of their series "The Groovy Movies of 1966.") The first of the Derek Flint spy spoofs stars the inimitable James Coburn as the suave, know-it-all superspy, along with Lee J. Cobb, Gila Golan and Charlie Chan regular Benson Fong. But the film belongs, 100%, to Coburn. It simply wouldn't work without him, and because of him it's a must-see.

Joseph Losey's Modesty Blaise has about as much to do with Peter O'Donnell's series of novels and comic strips as the Dino Matt Helm films do with those books... and also like the Helm movies, it can't really be called good. But it's still an eye-popping miasma of glorious Sixties design excess with a wonderfully infectious score by Johnny Dankworth (The Avengers). In fact, it boasts by far the best production design of any of these three films, and would be well worth seeing on the big screen for that reason alone... except that there is another reason. And that reason is Dirk Bogarde (Hot Enough for June) as Gabriel--positively the greatest Sixties spy villain trapped in one of the decade's otherwise weaker mainstream genre entries. Bogarde is an absolute treat in this film. Every line delivery is exquisite, and surely this role ranks among the all-time great camp performances. Terrence Stamp (Chessgame), Harry Andrews (The Deadly Affair, Danger Route), Clive Revill (Fathom) and a hopelessly miscast Monica Vitti in the title role also star. These films will be shown on DCP. Tickets to the double feature (which kicks off at 7:30pm) are $11.00 for the general public and may be purchased online or at the theater box office.

L.A. spy fans, don't miss the rare opportunity to see any of these campy Sixties spy spoofs on the big screen!

Upcoming Spy Music: The President's Analyst Finally Gets a Soundtrack Release

Quartet Records recently announced the first ever official soundtrack release of Lalo Schifrin's score for Theodore J. Flicker's peerless James Coburn spy satire The President's Analyst—one of my very favorite spy movies. (One day I'll get back to doing that series of reviews of My Favorite Spy Movies, and The President's Analyst and Otley will probably be next.) It's paired with Schifrin's score for the Cliff Robertson suspense drama Man on a Swing. (I've never seen that one.) The President's Analyst follows Coburn as a psychoanalyst selected by the heads of the thinly disguised CEA (Central Enquiry Agency) and FBR (Federal Bureau of Regulation) to be the President's personal analyst. But soon the pressures of the job become too much to bear, and the man with all of the nation's secrets in his head goes on the run, making himself a target for spies of all nations (including Russia and Canada) and, worse than the KGB, the omnipresent Phone Company. It's a hilarious film that deftly treads the line between Pink Panther-style absurdity and smart, prescient satire. Its prescience, in fact, is somewhat scary, as the film neatly predicted our current surveillance culture and willing surrender of our privacy in exchange for the latest communications gizmos. Rather unfortunately, it remains as relevant today as it was when it was made in 1967. Per Quartet's copy, "the terrific Schifrin score, one of his most imaginative from the period (and one of the most desired by his fans), is a kaleidoscope of parodic patriotic music, throbbing spy/suspense sound, pop, jazz, Christmas songs and a catchy 'paranoid' theme." Sadly, the soundtrack appears to be missing the folk epic "Inner Manipulations" by "Eve of Destruction" singer Barry McGuire that scores the movie's best setpiece, as well as The Clear Light's "She's Ready to Be Free." (The latter at least is available elsewhere, but the movie version of the former is the piece of music from this film I, frustratingly, most want to own!)

Rock songs aside, though, Schifrin's score is also terrific and I've long desired it as well, and am very happy I'll finally be able to own it! Quartet does offer connoisseurs a word of warning about their source material, however: "Sadly, the only available source for The President’s Analyst was the mono music stems, but we have made a big effort to restore them as much as possible. We have evened out the up-and-down shifts in volume and minimized the small bits of dialogue that bled into the audio masters. We think the end result is satisfactory—and the music is well worth the effort!" I'm sure it is. I've always been quite happy with Quartet's releases, including their epic, 2-disc, as near-definitive-as-possible version of Burt Bacharach's score for the 1967 Casino Royale. And if that release, which went out of print, started commanding astronomical prices, and eventually earned a rare second printing due to popular demand, is any indication, you may want to get your hands on The President's Analyst sooner rather than later. Like the first printing of Casino Royale, it's limited to just 1,000 copies. And without the juggernaut affiliation of James Bond, I suspect that in this case, when they're gone, they're gone. And if you need one more reason to pull the trigger, the record company promises that "the lavish package includes a 20-page booklet with in-depth liner notes from film music writer Jeff Bond." Man on a Swing/The President's Analyst is available for pre-order from Screen Archives Entertainment for $19.95. You can listen to samples from it on Quartet's website. Here's the complete track list:

MAN ON A SWING

1. Maggie’s Theme (0:23)
2. Source Muzak #2 (1:06)
3. Source Muzak #1 (0:34)
4. Maggie’s Theme (0:56)
5. Evelyn Story (1:42)
6. Source Muzak #3 (0:41)
7. Wills’ Trance (5:56)
8. Source Muzak #5 (1:21)
9. Source Muzak #6 (1:41)
10. Source Muzak #7 (0:35)
11. Rosehaven Motel (1:54)
12. Maggie Retraced (1:49)
13. Source Muzak #9 (1:20)
14. Choked Up (1:48)
15. Juke Box Source (1:25)
16. Radio Source (1:39)
17. Dialatone / Empty Porch / Mailman / Phone Voice / A Wet Nothing (3:25)
18. Penultima Trance (4:11)
19. Wills’ Last Trance (1:14)
20. Forest Finale (0:21)
21. End Credits (1:17)

THE PRESIDENT'S ANALYST

22. Paramount Seal and Opening / Main Title (4:46)
23. Hey Me (2:24)
24. The Long Walk (1:02)
25. The Nest (1:27)
26. On Call (1:58)
27. Lonely Hours (1:29)
28. Paranoid Starts / Cocktail Lounge (3:14)
29. Spies Paranoid / Dream Paranoid / Suspicious Paranoid (0:43)
30. Sidney Plans Escape (1:30)
31. Car Radio / More Car Radio (2:12)
32. Total Sound (1:15)
33. Stinger #1-2-3 / Cooler and Sweater Number (1:10)
34. Sidney’s Flight (2:02)
35. Fast Boat to Moscow (1:40)
36. Telephone Trap (1:09)
37. T. P. C. / Cerebrum Communicator (1:47)
38. End Title (3:05)

A Great Sale on Flint Blu-rays Ends Today

Twilight Time titles rarely go on sale. In fact, they never have before. But to celebrate the boutique label's third anniversary, exclusive distributor Screen Archives Entertainment is offering $10 off a selection of their titles, including several spy releases! And since Twilight Time discs tend to be quite expensive, that discount might make all the difference if you've been holding off on buying these because they cost too much. The good news is that the sale includes the terrific, special features-laden Blu-ray releases of the James Coburn spy classics Our Man Flint and In Like Flint (discs featuring yours truly as a "talking head" expert in the new documentaries, hubris requires me to add!), and Twilight Time's very first offering, the only ever DVD release of John Huston's The Kremlin Letter. The Flint titles, normally a possibly prohibitive $29.95 apiece, are on sale for a more than reasonable $19.95 each, and The Kremlin Letter is just $9.95! The bad news is that I have been remiss as a dutiful spy blogger (damn that hubris, always coming back to bite me in the ass!), and have waited until the very final day of the sale to let you know. Which means that you only have until 4:00pm Eastern Time, or 1:00pm Pacific, to snag these amazing deals. To repeat, the sale ends today at 4pm Eastern! So act quickly. And while I may have blown all credibility as an impartial reviewer by admitting that I'm part of the documentaries on the Flint discs, I want to make it clear that I'm not just hawking these titles because of my involvement. It's more because they're truly fantastic releases of seminal Sixties spy spoofs. The new documentaries, exclusive to this release, are produced by John Cork, who co-produced all those excellent documentaries on the James Bond Special Edition DVDs and Blu-rays. And even though I'm in them, I have to admit I also learned a lot from each piece. On top of those new features, the discs also contain all the original special features previously available on DVD. (They don't, however, included the TV movie Our Man Flint: Dead on Target, which came with the DVDs.) These are truly essential spy Blu-rays.

Read more about the special features on Our Man Flint here.
Read more about the special features on In Like Flint here.
Read more about The Kremlin Letter here.

Order Our Man Flint here.
Order In Like Flint here.
Order The Kremlin Letter here.

Secret Agent Spoofs on TCM Tonight

Set your DVRs: Turner Classic Movies has a great lineup of Sixties spy movies tonight! Spy spoofs to be exact. The fun starts at 8PM with James Coburn in Our Man Flint, followed by a pair of Matt Helm flicks, The Silencers and Murderers' Row (the latter being best of that series, in my opinion), Carry On Spying, and the two Vincent Price parodies, Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine and Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs. So it's a very silly night of spying. In my opinion, every one of those movies are worth watching, though the actual quality varies quite a bit. Girl Bombs, in particular, is rather horrible, even though it's directed by one of the all-time masters of the craft, Mario Bava. The U.S. cut airing on TCM, however, is not very representative of Bava's work, as it differs considerably from his Italian cut, which actually served as a sequel to an entirely different movie. (Read more about that here.) But the first Dr. Goldfoot film is really quite enjoyable! The only downside is that there are no real rarities in this batch; all of these titles are available on DVD. But despite owning them all, I have a feeling I'm going to find myself sucked into this marathon tonight nonetheless! It serves as a terrific primer to the sillier side of the genre. For more information, check TCM's excellent website, which has incredibly in-depth and informative write-ups on each individual title.

Pre-Order In Like Flint on Blu-Ray Today!

Following up on this month's release of Our Man Flint on Blu-ray, specialty label Twilight Time is releasing the 1967 sequel, In Like Flint, on February 12. And pre-orders for this limited edition begin today, exclusively through Screen Archives Entertainment! Like Our Man Flint, the In Like Flint Blu-ray (which is region-free) comes loaded with special features. And like on the first release, I'm on some of them, discussing (under my actual name, Matthew Bradford) the impact of the Flint movies and their star, James Coburn! Bonus material on In Like Flint includes an audio track featuring Jerry Goldsmith's complete isolated score, an audio commentary with Cinema Retro's Lee Pfeiffer and film historian Eddy Friedfeld, trailers, a rare screen test, and the featurettes "Derek Flint: The Secret Files," "James Coburn: The Man Beyond the Spy," "Designing Flint," "Flint vs Zanuck: The Missing 3 Minutes," "Take it Off," "Puerto Rico Premiere," "Future Perfect," "Feminine Wiles," "Spy School," "Musician's Magician," and "Spy Vogue." Some of these are retained from the previous DVD edition, but some are brand-new documentaries created exclusively for the Blu-ray release by John Cork, co-producer of those wonderful documentaries on the James Bond Special Editions. Sadly what's missing from the DVD release (apparently) is the attempted Seventies TV revival of the character, Our Man Flint: Dead On Target, starring Eurospy leading man Ray Danton as the irrepressible Derek Flint. It's true that the TV movie is far from essential (in fact it bears little resemblance to the Sixties films, and Flint himself is a mere private eye, not an international playboy superspy) and poor Danton (who was excellent in some of his Eurospy work) struggles to fill Coburn's large shoes, but as a spy completist I still want to own it. That means I'll have to hang onto my DVD set despite buying these new Blu-rays. Oh well. The new special features on Twilight Time's edition certainly make this Blu-ray a must-buy for Sixties spy fans even without the TV movie! (And even despite the steep $29.95 price tag.) Like all of the label's releases, In Like Flint is a limited edition of just 3,000 units. These titles sell out, so order soon! Luckily, the first movie hasn't sold out yet and is still available to order through the site.

Limited Edition Our Man Flint Blu-ray Now Available to Pre-Order

The Our Man Flint Blu-ray from specialty label Twilight Time is now available to pre-order from Screen Archives Entertainment! And pre-ordering might be a good idea; Twilight Time's releases are all limited editions, and they frequently sell out. Our Man Flint is strictly limited to 3000 copies, so ensure yourself a copy by ordering today. This is a very exciting release, because unlike a lot of Twilight Time titles, it boasts a plethora of special features, many of them newly created for the Blu-ray. (And some of those extras involve me, so, you know, I've got to admit, I find that kind of cool.) This disc will include an audio track with Jerry Goldsmith's complete isolated score, an audio commentary with Cinema Retro's Lee Pfeiffer and Eddie Friedfeld, the original theatrical trailer, the featurettes from The Ultimate Flint Collection DVDs "Spy Style" (6:46), "Spy-er-ama" (9:13), "Perfect Bouillabaisse" (1:28), "A Gentleman's Game" (4:15), screen tests with James Coburn and Gila Golan (4:36) and Coburn and Raquel Welch (1:53), three storyboard sequences ("Escape from Galaxy Island," "Control Room Battle" and "Escape from Armageddon"), and the all-new documentaries "Derek Flint: A Spy is Born" (24:54), "Directing Flint: Daniel Mann" (11:14) and "Flint vs Kael" (6:11). Those docs were produced by John Cork, one of the guys responsible for the amazing behind-the-scenes documentaries on the James Bond special editions, so they're bound to be good. (And I'd be saying that even if I hadn't been interviewed for them!) This spy spoof classic starring the inimitable James Coburn (surely the suavest of all the 007 wannabes) will be available exclusively from the online retailer Screen Archives Entertainment for $29.95, and is availble to pre-order now. The disc will ship on January 15. An In Like Flint Blu-ray (which I hope will also boast new extras) follows on February 12. That's a great way to start the new year for Sixties spy fans!

Details on the Flint Blu-rays: New Extras!

In October, we learned that specialty label Twilight Time would be releasing the two Flint films on Blu-ray in early 2013, which was very exciting news already. Now we know more, and now these releases are even more exciting. Our Man Flint (1966) will boast all-new special features! Twilight Time has released a list of extras on their Facebook page (along with cover art), and it's pretty impressive. The disc will include an audio track with Jerry Goldsmith's complete isolated score, an audio commentary with Cinema Retro's Lee Pfeiffer and Eddie Friedfeld, the original theatrical trailer, the featurettes from The Ultimate Flint Collection DVDs "Spy Style" (6:46), "Spy-er-ama" (9:13), "Perfect Bouillabaisse" (1:28), "A Gentleman's Game" (4:15), screen tests with James Coburn and Gila Golan (4:36) and Coburn and Raquel Welch (1:53), three storyboard sequences ("Escape from Galaxy Island," "Control Room Battle" and "Escape from Armageddon"), and the all-new documentaries "Derek Flint: A Spy is Born" (24:54), "Directing Flint: Daniel Mann" (11:14) and "Flint vs Kael" (6:11). Those docs were produced by John Cork, one of the guys responsible for the amazing behind-the-scenes documentaries on the James Bond special editions, so they're bound to be good. Additionally, one of the so-called experts interviewed is a certain spy blogger well known to readers around here, so if you're dying to see what I look like in high-def, then don't hesitate to buy this release! Pre-orders for this limited edition Blu-ray of Our Man Flint begin December 19 at 4PM from exclusive vendor Screen Archive Entertainment. The disc will be out on January 15, followed by In Like Flint (which I hope will also boast new extras) on February 12. That's a great way to start the year for Sixties spy fans!

Upcoming Spy Blu-Rays: Flint in High-Def

Specialty label Twilight Time, who release 20th Century Fox catalog titles in limited editions of 3,000 (and began their run with a spy release, The Kremlin Letter), unveiled their first titles of 2013 on their Facebook page yesterday... and among them are two eagerly awaited Blu-ray spy titles! Our Man Flint (1966) makes its high-definition debut on January 15, and its 1967 sequel In Like Flint follows a month later on February 12. Both star the inimitable James Coburn as the flawless superspy Derek Flint. No details are available yet, but Twilight Time Blu-rays tend to retail for $34.95 and the most common extra is an isolated score track. (Jerry Goldsmith composed the wonderful Flint music.) I happen to know for a fact that there was a documentary about the Flint films produced several years ago for a cancelled Fox Blu-ray release. I really, really hope that turns up on one of these Twilight Time discs! Twilight Time titles are sold exclusively by Screen Archives Entertainment.

Upcoming Spy DVDs: More Spies and Spy Stars on MGM MOD

According to pre-order listings on Screen Archives Entertainment, MGM's next wave of MOD titles will include the spy movies The Fearmakers (1958) and The Ambassador (1984), along with the 1973 James Coburn pick-pocket movie Harry In Your Pocket (the only feature from Mission: Impossible mastermind Bruce Geller) and the rare 1962 horror film Burn, Witch, Burn!, one of the few theatrical star vehicles for eccentric TV spy hero Peter Wyngarde (Jason King).

Robert Mitchum, Ellen Burstyn and Rock Hudson (in his final role) star in The Ambassador, in which "an American ambassador, his wife, and her Arab lover are caught up in a dangerous game of intrigue, extortion, and murder, in the explosive Middle East." Jacques Tourneur's The Fearmakers prefigures The Manchurian Candidate, with Dana Andrews starring as a Korean War veteran who may have been brainwashed ostensibly helping the government ferret out Communist subversives. These made-to-order DVD-Rs should all be available around May 3. The last batch of MGM Limited Edition Collection titles, meanwhile (including The Destructors and Cloudburst), is now available for purchase on Amazon as well as SAE. No doubt these ones will be, too, come mid-May.

Derek Flint Returns... In Comics

This is cool! Moonstone, the comic book company specializing in licensed characters from a bygone era, has added Derek Flint to a roster that already includes Honey West and The Saint, among many others.  That Man Flint #0, a 16-page color comic book by Gary Phillips and Kevin Jones, will introduce a new generation of comics readers to the superspy and Jack-of-all-trades originated by James Coburn in the movies Our Man Flint and In Like Flint.  ICv2 reports that the cover price on this special preview issue is just $1.99, with a retailer incentive for ordering four copies.  Make sure you ask your local comic shop to order you a copy.  (Hey, while you're at it you should also ask them to order you a copy of my comic, Night and Fog, which finally came out in trade paperback in January. I just realized that I'm pimping someone else's book on my blog more than my own simply because it's not a spy comic, and that ain't right, so I decided to insert this awkward and unrelated plug. You can also order the Night and Fog trade paperback on Amazon. Ahem. Back to the business at hand.) Here's Moonstone's description of That Man Flint:

Mods, mini-skirts and Vietnam. Paisley shirts and satellites. Afros and lasers. The Cold War is hot and the Red Chinese aren’t the only ones doing the brainwashing. Love is in the air, but everyone isn’t groovy.

Derek Flint, inventor, ballet instructor, editor and contributor of <sic> the revised Kama Sutra, transcendentalist and translator of an ancient Mayan cookbook, seeker of the third eye and freelance spy, is the one M.A.C.E. (Mandated Actions for Covert Enforcement) calls on to tackle their most perilous assignments.

From crazed Nazi scientists hatching dastardly plans, sultry Russian spies with killer bodies and kung fu grips, super strength cyborg assassins, to fiendish henchmen and quixotic masterminds, these are examples of adversaries mystery writer Gary Phillips (Operator 5 and Decimator Smith) will throw at the cool, collected Mr. Flint. With his gadgets and skills, aided by his quartet of brainy glamour gals, That Man Flint is a retro revisionist series capturing the fun, feel and excitement of halcyon espionage fare such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Bond in Goldfinger, and Steranko’s Nick Fury for today’s audience.

M.A.C.E., huh?  So I guess they were able to secure the rights to the character, but somehow not his original organization, Z.O.W.I.E.?  That's kind of weird.  And did they get the rights to Flint's signature gadget, a cigarette lighter with eighty-two different functions ("Eighty-three if you want to light a cigar!")? I can't help but notice that it's no longer part of this revised Flint logo, and the copy mentions "gadgets" when the original Flint always relied on just this one. 

Even without the actor, hopefully this endeavor will channel James Coburn's Flint, because he simply is Derek Flint, as proven when Eurospy star Ray Danton ill-advisedly attempted to pick up the mantle for the TV movie Our Man Flint: Dead On Target. Mark Maddox's cover artwork definitely captures the energy and spirit of the Flint movies (it's a very nice Flint touch that he's kicking a uniformed authority figure in the top image, as the movies always figured out ways for Flint, who was sort of the counterculture's spy hero, to attack people in uniforms) except for one crucial detail: I feel like Derek Flint should be smiling.  James Coburn had a famous smile and always gave the impression that he was having a good time, however bad the situation he was in.  Bob Peak's classic Sixties poster images always captured that, so it's weird for me to see a grim, scowling Flint on these covers. That said, I do love the second image as spy art, despite the character's expression. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this project shapes up!

New Spy DVDs Out This Week

Well, the biggest spy DVD release this week (and certainly the biggest spy DVD release of the year so far–and, frankly, not likely to be surpassed in that capacity) comes from England, where Network unleashes the surviving episodes of the first two seasons of Callan–for the first time ever on home video.  Callan: The Monochrome Years marks the first time that these early, black and white episodes of this seminal spy series have been legitimately available to see since the Sixties.  I've talked a lot about how great the later, color seasons of this Edward Woodward espionage drama are, and these earlier episodes are no different.  They're every bit as good and every bit as gritty as the subsequent seasons.  That grittiness must have been a jolt when Callan first aired on British television in the late Sixties amidst must more fantastical spy fare like The Avengers, The Saint and Department S. Now, don't get me wrong; I love those shows too.  But I want to illustrate what a radical departure Callan must have been when it debuted!  While James Bond and his escapist cronies like Derek Flint and Matt Helm (and all the Euroguys, of course) had grittier, more down-to-earth competition on cinema screens from the likes if The Ipcress File and The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, there simply weren't many realistic alternatives on TV.  Danger Man and Man in a Suitcase were both serious spy dramas, but still ITC adventure series first and foremost.  Callan alone positively thrived on the seedier side of spying.  While it's a huge shame that so many episodes from these early seasons are lost, it's an even huger bit of luck that so many actually survive–and a gift to spy fans everywhere that Network has released them.  The company even secured the rights to include the show's de facto pilot, an episode of Armchair Theatre called "A Magnum For Schneider."  This is truly great television preserved on truly great DVDs from one of the best companies in the business.  Every time I mention Callan, I also mention "essential," and I promise you it's not an exaggeration.  These DVDs are essential.  And, luckily, they're also currently available at nearly half price on Network's website.  If you have the capability to play Region 2 PAL discs, get them! 

Here in America, we get another long-awaited spy drama on DVD: The Internecine Project, starring James Coburn as a decidedly un-Flint-like secret agent.  This has been available in England for a while, but not in a new, high-definition animorphic widescreen transfer, and not with extras like a half-hour interview with writer Jonathan Lynn, an audio interview with James Coburn's daughter and the film's original theatrical trailer.  The Internecine Project was first announced by Code Red way back in 2008; now almost a year and a half later it finally materializes courtesy of Scorpion Releasing, who I believe are somehow affiliated with Code Red.  Surprisingly, this extremely dark and brutal suspense thriller comes from Ken Hughes, one of the many directors on the 1967 version of Casino Royale.

Also out today on DVD and Blu-ray is one of the best of the surprisingly few spy movies released in 2009, Steven Soderbergh's industrial espionage comedy The Informant!, in which Matt Damon plays a spy as unlike Jason Bourne as imaginable.  He's Mark Whitacre, a delusional corn executive turned at times unwilling and always incompetent undercover man for the FBI.  (He asks to be called 0014, boasting that he's "twice as smart as James Bond.")  There's actually less spying and less comedy on display here than the trailers would have you believe, but the resulting film is nonetheless excellent.  I found Soderbergh's intentionally underlit (was it natural lighting?) cinematography annoying at times, but the clever script by Scott Burns and perfectly-utilized Seventies spy score by former Bond composer Marvin Hamlisch (not to mention a stellar performance from Damon) more than make up for that.  As is so often the case with Warner Bros. releases, DVD buyers get screwed out of an extra feature. The standard DVD features only deleted scenes; the Blu-ray features those and a commentary track with Soderbergh and Burns. 

Finally, I must mention an item crucially overlooked last week: another one of the best spy movies of 2009 (in fact, it might well have been my surprise top pick of the year had I ever gotten around to my best of list), the hilarious blaxploitation comedy Black Dynamite.  Michael Jai White plays a former CIA agent pulled back in by the Agency to investigate the murder of his brother at the hands of drug dealers on the streets of Los Angeles.  What is the CIA's interest in a drug murder?  You'll have to watch the movie to find out, as I wouldn't dare spoil the absolutely hilarious directions the conspiracy leads our hero.  Just as the new OSS 117 movies are to the Eurospy genre of the Sixties, Black Dynamite is in equal measures a parody of and a loving tribute to the Seventies blaxploitation genre, fetishistically recreating the period and the style of filmmaking, right down to intentionally visible boom mikes in a few shots.  While it's not a traditional, straight-up spy movie, anyone who appreciates the blaxploitation genre or good comedy in general should definitely check out Black Dynamite, which came out last week on DVD and Blu-ray from Sony.

Reminder: The President's Analyst Screens Tonight And Tomorrow In LA

The New Beverly Cinema will screen one of the all-time comedic spy masterpieces, The President's Analyst (1967) in Los Angeles tonight and tomorrow night (August 11 and 12). The James Coburn classic is paired with a non-spy satire, Cold Turkey. Tuesday night's screening will be introduced by series curator Joe Dante. On Thursday night the theater will play a John Barry double feature. For full details on these screenings, click here.

Upcoming Los Angeles Spy Screenings: The President's Analyst And John Barry

Popular revival house The New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles is currently running a film festival curated by director Joe Dante. Dante (who directed Patrick Macnee in The Howling) has hand-picked some of his favorite films to screen, and he will be introducing certain nights in person. One of my own very favorite spy movies, James Coburn's post-Flint satire The President's Analyst, will play on a double bill with Cold Turkey on August 11 and 12; Dante will be there to introduce the films on Tuesday, August 11. Theodore Flicker's 1967 film casts Coburn as a shrink selected to be the President's personal analyst, but having all those secrets suddenly in his head (and being on constant call) starts to make Coburn a tad paranoid. Of course, it's easy to be paranoid when spies from all the world's intelligence services (even Canada's) really are out to get you! The film is a brilliant mixture of smart satire and expertly-orchestrated slapstick–the same blend that makes the OSS 117 parodies so successful today. Even though the movie is firmly rooted in the 1960s counterculture, its satire–for better or for worse–is just as applicable today. Coburn is brilliant in the very best role of his career, and Godfrey Cambridge and Severn Darden both turn in standout supporting performances.

On Thursday, August 12, Dante will host another screening of interest to spy fans. The movies aren't spy movies, but they are a tribute to one of the key personnel behind James Bond's screen success. It's a John Barry double feature of The Last Valley (1970, starring Michael Caine) and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972, starring future Bond Girl Fiona Fullerton and featuring Peter Sellers as the March Hare). "The composer has written many more celebrated music scores than these," writes Dante in his description on the New Beverly's webpage, "but to my mind these haven't received the attention they deserve, probably because both were major boxoffice flops." While James Clavell's The Last Valley is available on DVD from MGM (though not anamophically), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is only available in a poor-quality, pan-and-scan public domain version. Dante promises a rare opportunity to see the movie in its original 2.35:1 aspect ration–if in a slightly faded scope print. Frequent James Bond lyricist Don Black collaborated with Barry on this musical version of Lewis Carroll's classic story.

Dante discusses the festival an a lengthy and awesome interview at the blog Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule. The New Beverly does not sell advance tickets, so you'll need to line up early to be assured a seat.