SPACE CAMP: IN LIKE FLINT

It's Space Camp week on Spy Vibe! As I busy myself with end-of-term grading and holiday plans, I thought it would be fun to look at quick and campy snapshots of some of the classic space-age moments in 1960s entertainment. A brief nod this rainy Saturday to In Like Flint (1967), starring James Coburn. In this sequel to Our Man Flint (1966), Flint discovers a plot involving two lady cosmonauts. How does he know they are ladies? He read the cardiographs from the Space Station, of course. From the script:

Eighty heartbeats per minute.
Must be Russian cosmonauts.

It would appear that male cosmonauts have a different heart rate-
you have know these things when you're a super spy! In like Flint,
like most space films, had the obligatory weightless scenes aboard
a rocket- scored beautifully with early electronic and keyboard sounds
by Jerry Goldsmith. This added to an already stylish send-up of James
Bond makes it a must-see, iconic film from the space age- available
on DVD with commentary by Cinema Retro's Lee Pfeiffer here. Spy Vibe
began Space Camp week with David Bowie, and a brief mention of his
son's (Duncan Jones) recent feature Sci Fi film, Moon (2009). Duncan
was actually born Duncan "Zowie" Jones in 1971, making an interesting
link to today's post- Coburn's Flint character worked for ZOWIE
(Zonal Organization World Intelligence Espionage). David Bowie was
recording the Deram songs, including Laughing Gnome, Rubber Band, and 
Love You Till Tuesday, when the Flint films came out. Maybe if Flint had
blasted into the early 70s with a third film, his silver style spacesuit
of the Mercury and Gemini era would have been replaced with designs by
Kansai Yamamoto? See the evolution of the space suit here. Review of the
upcoming archive-book about Bowie's early years, Any Day Now, here.