Book Review: Our Man Flint by Jack Pearl
When the utopian organization Galaxy gains the ability to control the weather and threatens to take over the world, only one man has the necessary skills to take them down. Derek Flint, soldier of fortune, doctor, ballet dancer, lawyer, five time Olympic champion, master of the martial arts, cunning linguist and all around described as “what a man!” Too bad he’s a maverick who works alone and has no interest in returning to government service.
This is a novelization of the 1965 film of the same name, based on an early version of the script, so there are some changed scenes. It’s a deadpan parody of James Bond, and generally of all omnicompetent men’s adventure heroes. Flint speaks 42 languages (but the author fails basic Japanese), can identify which city a soup was made in by smell, personally designed a cigarette lighter with 47 functions (“48, if you count lighting cigarettes”), has devised a code more unbreakable than anything the U.S. Intelligence community has, and the list goes on and on. Women want him (he’s got a four-person harem) and men want to be him. His only flaw is being congenitally unable to take orders. This is the one reason why his ex-commanding officer and current Chief of American Intelligence Bruce Cramden can’t stand the guy and only agrees to reach out on direct orders from the president.
Flint has no interest in taking the case, and makes Cramden squirm until it becomes obvious that Galaxy is pre-emptively targeting him on the assumption he’ll take the case, and the assassination attempts become tiresome.
The rest of the story is Flint surviving murder attempts, gleaning clues and heading off to the next location until he manages to get himself taken to Galaxy headquarters so he can sabotage their weather control device and take down the organization.
As deadpan comedy, this book is good. It does require some familiarity with other men’s adventure writing, particularly Ian Fleming.
However, it’s very much of its time. Of course Galaxy’s top female agent Gila will eventually be seduced by Flint’s masculine magnetism and turn to his side. Her assistant Rodney is a sexist pig who sees this coming a mile away, but his reaction of constantly undercutting Gila in front of the bosses makes her eventual betrayal even more inevitable.
On the other hand, we do have a black woman depicted as a skilled cryptoanalyst who Flint trusts with his personal secret code.
Content note: Mind control rape. As part of its utopian plan for society, Galaxy brainwashes most of its female members into working for the Pleasure Unit to keep the male agents happy. Gila and Flint’s harem are exposed to this brainwashing, though they target Flint exclusively.
Overall: Dated, but still fun if you’re in the right mood.
