In Like Flint (1967)

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. In this case, he doesn't show up until 15 minutes in, to save the bacon of his former boss (Cobb), who has been discredited and embarrassed in a scheme perpetrated by traitors within the U.S. government. All of this sounds kind of serious and some of it is, especially in the final act, where-in straightforward action goes against the grain of the overall satirical tone. A lot of it is still silly, of course, especially the scenes of Coburn imitating dolphin sounds (I can't believe Coburn was talked into these). The pace is a bit slower than the first film, mostly with all the stuff revolving around Cobb's character getting bamboozled in the early going. It takes awhile for the action to get going. The main femme fatale (Hale) lacks some spark, sort of playing the role as if this was a dull daytime soap opera. The actress Craig, known for her Batgirl role, pops up briefly as another femme fatale, Russian in her case. No sign of Adam West, who would've fit in well here.
The premise proposed by the villains, as in the first film, is that the world needs to be run better; in this case, they feel the planet needs a more feminine touch - a new matriarchy. Though there's the expected glitz and camp of sixties psychedelia, the femme fatales (and there are many of them) are not a total joke; they're pretty well organized and make some valid points, though even Flint appears to sneer at their goals. This is ironic since he, at one point, says he doesn't compete with women, the inferred downside of most men. This foreshadows the reveal of the actual threat, a rogue military - male, of course. The main traitor turns out to be a general (played by actor Ihnat, who would soon be seen as the crazed Garth in the Star Trek episode "Whom Gods Destroy" with actress Craig). None of this is a surprise - the general looked suspicious in his first scene.

The President of the U.S., who kept calling on a red phone in the previous pic, is now revealed (Duggan), but is quickly replaced by a double early in the story. Some of this also recalls the Seven Days in May thriller done up as comedy. 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 ending is awkward, unlike the explosive conclusion in the first one: the filmmakers had to figure out a way to get Flint into outer space and it's done clumsily. 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 as another incarnation in a TV Movie in the seventies.
BoG's Scores: Hero:7 Villains:6 Femme Fatales:6 Henchmen:5 Fights:7 Stunts/Chases:7 Gadgets:6 Auto:4 Locations:6 Pace:6 overall:6