1966: Fred Flintstone’s entry in the spy craze

By 1966, everyone wanted to get a piece of the spy craze and cartoon producers/directors William Hanna and Joseph Barbera were no different. So H-B did a movie featuring The Flintstones becoming involved in a spy adventure. And in 1966, there wasn’t going to be a new James Bond movies so it was a good [...]

OSS 117: Rio Doesn’t Answer Anymore

Kevin Collette, a French James Bond specialist and movie critic (who also reads this blog), passes on the following:
Back at the height of the James Bond mania of the ’60s, each and every civilized country of the world started producing 007 clones like crazy. The Italians had 077, James Tont, and the infamous (Operation ) [...]

Matt Helm movie update

The News In Film Web site reports that Gary Ross is close to being named to direct a new Matt Helm movie.
An excerpt:
According to The Playlist, George Clooney and Jon Hamm were considered for the title character, but eliminated for separate reasons. Bradley Cooper (The Hangover, The A-Team) is the front runner for the [...]

The adventures of 00Bama

Some months ago, we noted how Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” ran a segment comparing U.S. President Barack Obama to James Bond.
Now, you can view videos featuring 00Bama, along with his cohorts Joey B, Hill and Rahm. It’s on Atom.com, a Web site that’s part of Viacom Inc.’s MTV Networks unit, that includes Comedy [...]

William Safire, one-time spy novelist, dies

Most of the obituaries for William Safire, who died Sept. 27 of pancreatic cancer chronicle how the one-time speech writer for Richard Nixon became a columnist for The New York Times, won a Pulitizer Prize and was an expert on language.
What they probably won’t discuss in detail was how the 79-year-old pundit took a turn [...]

The ultimate weird (and sad) Man From U.N.C.L.E. cameo

Here’s a postscript to a previous post about cameos involving The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Our previous examples were when the show’s popularity was strong and were part of other MGM productions. This one aired one week after the show was canceled in January 1968 and was part of its replacement:

That’s of [...]

James Bond Vs. Matt Helm: a study

We found an academic paper online that compares the literary James Bond and the literary Matt Helm (each with significant differences than their movie counterparts).
Among the comparisons made by the author, Joseph Allegretti of Siena College, about the novels Casino Royale and Death Of a Citizen:
Both Bond and Helm are professionals who find their [...]

Salute to Lalo Schifrin

You don’t hear a lot about Lalo Schifrin these days, and that’s too bad because he’s a tremendously talented composer. So, we thought we’d remedy that and remind readers about his contributions to spy entertainment.
One of his early contributions came during the second season (1965-66) of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. He scored only one episode [...]

HMSS nominations for top composers for 1960s spy entertainment

In a previous post, we touched upon this subject. The more we thought about it, the more we thought we had an excuse to make another post. So, without further ado:
1) John Barry: arranger, The James Bond Theme, in Dr. No; composer, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty’s [...]

Salute to Jerry Goldsmith

It doesn’t seem possible, but it has been five years since the death of film and television composer Jerry Goldsmith, who would have celebrated his 80th birthday in February if he were still with us. Arguably, Goldsmith is second only to John Barry in musical influence of 1960s spy entertainment. (Lalo Schifrin would also be [...]