His partnership with
Albert R. Broccoli was strained by their disagreement
bringing to the screen the "James Bond" series. Broccoli was
interested, Allen was not. The pair met with Bond author
Ian Fleming in
1957, but Allen proclaimed (according to various accounts, including
documentaries on Bond movie DVDs) that Fleming's novels weren't "good
enough for television." Some years later Allen, with egg on his face,
cast about for his own spy series. He acquired the rights to
Donald Hamilton's
"Matt Helm" series. Allen's Helm series had one major effect on
Broccoli's Bond movies (produced at the time in partnership with
Harry Saltzman). To get
Dean Martin on board as Matt Helm, Allen had to make the
actor a partner in the enterprise. Martin ended up making more money on
Matt Helm, agent très spécial (1966) than
Sean Connery made on
Opération Tonnerre (1965), a fact that did not go unnoticed
by Connery.
