Film Forum’s remarkably comprehensive “Vintage 007” retrospective has been programmed to run alongside a “60s Spies A-Go-Go” line-up that pretty much speaks for itself: Entries in the genre sans James Bond that were released when the superstar agent was in his prime create a fascinating dialogue with the natural appeal of spy movies. Hollywood’s most perseverant heroic bad boy receives some serious cross-examination.

Blaring trumpets, underscoring the indifference of suave gentlemen in the face of cartoonish villainy, form the ultimate male fantasy. While Bond played into that immediate appeal, other releases at the time unabashedly exploited it. The pre-Austin Powers goofiness of the daft 1966 adventure, Our Man Flint (May 3), finds James Coburn dodging babes and bullets to stop a ludicrous scheme to erupt the world’s volcanoes. Coburn’s Flint is a devil-may-care creation who only exists as a parody, and to that end, he’s consistently amusing. Director Daniel Mann boils the appeal of the 007 movies down to their minimal components, and it’s no surprise that the end result is sheer bubblegum delight.

Now take that bubblegum, douse it with sugar and stuff it full of Aderol: The result is The Silencers (also May 3, on a double bill with Flint), a deliriously stylized spoof that provides Dean Martin a lavish conduit for self-indulgence.

Surrounded by a steamy Elmer Bernstein score and dazzling Technicolor that deserves big screen appreciation, Martin plays swinging sleuth Matt Helm in the first of several titles centered on the character. Bad guys pop up out of nowhere as one hectic and incredulous shoot-out leads to its complementary rapid dialogue. And, since it’s Dean Martin, we also get plenty of extensive singing inexplicably worked into the plot. “Has it occurred to you that I might want to know what’s going on?” Martin casually asks a female companion. What—and spoil the fun?

Yet for all the candy-filled delights of Flint and Silencers, the real gem of the program is Martin Ritt’s brilliant thriller, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (May 7). Essentially related to the Bond franchise in title only, the movie takes its cue from John Le Carre’s novel about a British Intelligence officer forced to go undercover in East Germany to help orchestrate a communist takedown. Intricately paced with an eye toward the authentically chilling Cold War politics of 1963, Cold provides a chilling reprimand to intelligence tactics in the face of high stakes, which remains potent to this day. Ritt, who mined career-topping performances from the likes of Woody Allen and Paul Newman (in The Front and Hud, respectively), displays an eye for detail that makes you wish he were still around to witness the recent Valerie Plame leakage. Since the White House famously screened The Battle of Algiers to understand terrorist mentality, it’s a wonder why they haven’t hired veteran Film Forum programmer Bruce Goldstein to keep Homeland Security readily informed. Meaning: Shaken, not stirred.