Dean Martin (1917-1995), a lover not a fighter

Hey pallies, likes we continue to take the deepest of deep Dino-delight in sharin' more and more Centennial Celebration posts accentin' The Day That Coolness Came To Earth....our most beloved Dino's descent to our planet on June 7, 1917.  Today, on this last day of our stellar special month of Dino-remembrance, we are proudly pleased to return to the swankest of swank spy blog, "The Spy Command," where we have shared a number of potent posts awesomely accentin' our Dino as swingin' spyster Matt Helm.

Today's Dino-devotion is an excellent example of the stellar scope of our Dino's career and how so so many truly diverse bloggers have lovin'ly lifted up the life and times of our Dino on his 100th anniversary of his beautiful birth.  We deeply deeply digs how the pallie who scribes at "The Spy Command" tags our Dino as we have noted in the title of this post, "Dean Martin (1917-1995), a lover not a fighter" and notin' his "fondness" for our Dino as Matt Helm and neatly notin' that ".... today is a day of celebration. Bottoms up, Dino."

We sez our thoughtful thanks to the swell scriber at "The Spy Command" for coolly celebratin' with our most beloved Dino on this most special of special Dino-days.  To checks this out in it's original source, likes simply clicks on the tag of this here Dino-message.  And, likes knows that more 'n more marvelous Dino-remembrances will be spillin' over into the Dino-days, weeks, and months ahead!

We remain,

Yours in Dino,

Dino Martin Peters

Happy 100th birthday, Dino

Posted on June 7, 2017 by The Spy Commander

Dean Martin (1917-1995), a lover not a fighter in The Ambushers (1967).

Today, June 7, is the 100th anniversary of the birthday of Dean Martin. Dino, in his day, was the epitome of cool and charm. For many, he still is.

His contribution to spy entertainment was starring in the four-film Matt Helm series produced by Irving Allen, former partner of Eon Productions co-founder Albert R. Broccoli.

To entice Dino, Allen made the actor his partner. As a result, Martin enjoyed a bigger pay day for the first Helm film, The Silencers, than Sean Connery got for Thunderball. Connery noticed and wanted to be a partner in the Bond franchise..

The Helm series doesn’t get respect in the 21st century. Many who like the movies refer to their affection as a “guilty pleasure.”

The Helm movies, rather than doing straight adaptations of Donald Hamilton’s serious novels, incorporated Dino’s “lovable lush” act.

One of the movies, Murderers’ Row, even had a plot point where Matt gives his boss Mac (James Gregory) a clue by deliberately misstating his alcohol preference. (“Matt Helm never drank a glass of bourbon in his life!” Mac says as he tries to figure out the traitor in his organization.)

For the record, this blog would greatly appreciate a new Helm movie that faithfully adapted the Hamilton novels. At the same time, the Spy Commander discovered the novels *because* of the Dean Martin films. Speaking strictly for myself, I’m very fond of both, despite the flaws of the movies.

Regardless, today is a day of celebration. Bottoms up, Dino.