Or rather OUR MAN FLINT, DEAD ON TARGET.
In the 60's, James Coburn played Derek Flint, maybe the greatest of all the multitude of super spies influenced by the success of James Bond. As I'm sure we all know, Flint appeared in two superior (if light-hearted) spy epics: OUR MAN FLINT, and IN LIKE FLINT (although I admit I seem to be in the minority here for actually enjoying the sequel even more than the first film). Like fellow 60's super-spy Matt Helm, plans were made to bring Flint back for the small screen in the mid 70's.
Replacing Dean Martin, Tony Franciosa does an incredible job recalling the mannerisms and look of the movie Helm for the 1975 pilot MATT HELM, which was followed by a brief regular series. Although Helm is now an LA detective, having left "the machine" of spy-biz for a quieter pace. MATT HELM works because the production took obvious measures to appeal to the fans of the 60's films, as well as produce a slick, if modest, TV detective show.
On the other hand is [b]OUR MAN FLINT, DEAD ON TARGET[/b], which has to be the absolute worst pilot movie I have ever seen. Counting on Flint's name more than quality, this is the cheapest affair I think I've ever seen, and in an era when TV movies were reliably well-constructed! The plot is practically non-existent, the 'action' minimal in the extreme, and the entire affair listless and crude. There is what feels like countless hours of padding showing Flint drive around town, sometimes with dialog laid over when the scene would have been two people just sitting and talking back and forth! The big action element is a bomb hidden in a file cabinet, which issues forth a fireball that MIGHT, at worst, singe your eyebrows.
Like Helm, Flint is now a private detective, although this time there isn't even a pretense of being connected to the films of yesteryear. Seemingly a good casting choice, Ray Danton had played a Flint-like character in a pair of 60's spy films titled SECRET AGENT SUPER DRAGON and CODE NAME: JAGUAR. In the former, he even copies Flint's infamous ability to stop his heart and fake death. But while Tony Franciosa was made to look as much like Martin as possible, the producers of OUR MAN FLINT, DEAD ON TARGET weren't as committed to recalling the earlier franchise. With his weirdly puffy features and greasy black hair, Danton doesn't resemble James Coburn so much as he does Harvey Lembeck!
It was terrible, the movie hurt, and I think Ken should review it. As a fellow Flint fan, I'm sure he'd be just as appalled as I was. Plus, I think it might fit the Jabootu requirements, because it was terrible in about every way it could be. It was cheap, it was boring, and it seemed to be designed to insult the very audience that would have been the most likely to tune in!
The pilot bombed big time, as it was seemingly designed to do, and that was the end of Derek Flint's newer adventures. (At least it was for a long time, as I understand Moonstone Comics currently has a Flint title called That Man Flint!)
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Review suggestion: DEAD ON TARGET
