Powers Isn’t the Only ‘60s Superspy on the Prowl

Yeah, baby, yeah.

With the much-hyped “Austin Powers in Goldmember,” starring Mike Myers as the dentally challenged secret agent, due in theaters July 26, Fox Home Entertainment has released four groovy DVDs of popular espionage thrillers from the 1960s ($15 each): “Our Man Flint,” “In Like Flint,” “Fathom” and “Modesty Blaise.”

The best of the lot are the two “Flint” comedies. “Our Man Flint,” from 1965, was Hollywood’s answer to Ian Fleming’s James Bond. In his first starring role, James Coburn is Derek Flint, a U.S. secret agent who must battle a unique deadly weapon: the weather. Lee J. Cobb, in a rare comedic role, plays the president’s rather overtaxed right-hand man.

In 1967’s “In Like Flint,” the secret agent is pitted against a group of wealthy female tycoons who brainwash women through hair dryers.

“We had a lot of fun,” recalled Coburn, 74. “Flint was a lot of things I wanted to be.”

Coburn, who won a best supporting actor Oscar three years ago for “Affliction,” was a friend of the film’s producer, Saul David.

Raquel Welch stars in the silly but genial 1967 spoof “Fathom” as the curvy Fathom Harvill, a champion U.S. skydiver competing in Europe who is asked by a Scottish colonel working for a top-secret organization to find an important atomic device that is missing.Try to avoid at all costs “Modesty Blaise,” a dreadful 1966 spoof that is all style and no substance. Directed by the usually reliable Joseph Losey, the film stars Italian actress Monica Vitti, struggling with her English, as a sexy secret agent who is hired by the British as a decoy in an elaborate diamond heist. Terence Stamp and Dirk Bogarde are wasted in support.

All four DVDs feature wide-screen editions of the films and the original trailers.

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One of the biggest foreign film hits in recent years is “Amelie,” Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s sweet, clever romantic fable. Pixyish French actress Audrey Tautou shines as a shy young Parisian waitress who discovers immense happiness when she performs random acts of kindness. Nominated for five Academy Awards, including best foreign-language film and original screenplay, “Amelie” also stars Mathieu Kassovitz and Rufus.

Miramax’s lovely two-disc DVD ($30) of the French comedy includes amusing commentary with director Jeunet available in French and English. Though the director keeps saying he doesn’t speak English very well, he’s quite understandable and has a wry and charming sense of humor.

There is also storyboard-to-film comparison, an “intimate chat” with Jeunet in French with English subtitles, a terrific look at the making of the film that is produced in the style of a home movie.

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New from Criterion is the two-disc DVD of Wes Anderson’s quirky, whimsical comedy “The Royal Tenenbaums” ($30). Gene Hackman stars as the eccentric patriarch of a dysfunctional family, along with Anjelica Huston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, Bill Murray, Danny Glover and Owen Wilson (who also co-wrote the film with Anderson).

Anderson’s brother, Eric, who supplied the pastel drawings seen in the film, created the box art for the DVD as well as the amusing menus.

The DVD includes an episode of the Independent Film Channel documentary “With the Filmmaker: Portraits by Albert Maysles,” about Anderson and the making of the film. The DVD also features interviews and behind-the- scenes footage; a fascinating examination of the movie’s art direction and production design; two rather undistinguished deleted scenes; trailers; a talk-show spoof, “The Peter Bradley Show,” which features interviews with minor cast members of the film; and commentary from Anderson.

Among the interesting tidbits Anderson offers: The opening of the film, which is a narrated montage of the Tenenbaums’ early years, is a tribute to Orson Welles’ “The Magnificent Ambersons,” and the title sequence, in which each character is introduced, is based on the opening of the 1934 fantasy “Death Takes a Holiday.”

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Some of Hollywood’s best-loved actresses of yesteryear--including Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine and Mary Boland--headline “The Women,” a sassy 1939 adaptation of the Clare Boothe Luce play that recently made its DVD debut this week (Warner, $20).

Though the story is badly dated, the dialogue crackles and the performances--especially Crawford’s and Russell’s--are a joy to watch. George Cukor directed. The DVD features two MGM shorts previewing the studio’s coming attractions for 1939 and 1940, and alternative footage to the Technicolor fashion sequence.

Also new from Warner is the underrated 1987 sci-fi comedy “Innerspace” ($20). Dennis Quaid plays a test pilot who is miniaturized for a medical experiment.

Directed by Joe Dante, the film won an Oscar for its then-cutting-edge special effects. The disc features a new digital transfer of the film and entertaining commentary from Dante among others.

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Though the jokes often miss, there are some wonderful moments in the 1984 comedy “Top Secret!” (Paramount, $25), written and directed by those wild and crazy “Airplane!” guys, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker. Val Kilmer, who is prettier than any of the actresses in the movie, made his film debut in this sendup of spy flicks.