Modesty Blaise (1966)

Obviously this was intended as an over-the-top spoof of extravagant 1960's crime and spy thrillers. As some reviewers have noted, if you watch it in isolation and forget the excellent source material it can be enjoyed on that level. Even so, a spoof does not have to be one long joke. There was room for some genuine suspense here, particularly at the climax, where Modesty and Willie escape from their cells and set out to foil arch-villain Gabriel. This would have given the film a sharp edge after all the camp hamming that went before.One of the problems seems to have been that (according to Terence Stamp's autobiography) Monica Vitti was totally lacking in physical co-ordination and just could not handle action scenes. This makes what should be her climactic confrontation with Mrs Fothergill a really limp effort - shot from above to allow a stunt double to do the work with awkward close-up inserts of Vitti and no true physical contact at all.Still, I always relish the sight of Dirk Bogarde pegged out in the desert calling out for "Champagne!" and squealing as the loyal McWhirter comes to the rescue: "I thought you were mother!" Good fun, but it could and should have been better

Mediocre adaptation based on character of Modesty Blaise who was created in 1963 by Peter O'Donnell , realized in 60 pop-arty style and far from original image . A two-fisted babe spy (embodied by attractive Monica Vitti in his first English language role) , the world's most lethal female secret agent , and her colleague , the dark-haired , brawn Willie Garvin (the British Terence Stamp) confront a dangerous international delinquent usually wielding his endless collection of parasols and perfumed wig named Gabriel (Dick Bogarde) and aided by his right-hand (Clive Revill as twitching Scots helper) . The tough secret agent is watching out for a diamond shipment , which is the target of her arch-rival enemy . Colorful but failed rendition , not taking any situation seriously ; being based on famous strip-cartoon thriller by Peter O'Donnell who retired himself and Modesty Blaise in 2001 . However , Peter O'Donnell complained that of his original screenplay, only one line remains . This very campy picture contains thrills , action , phantasmagoria , tongue-in-cheek , absurd situations , but being badly developed . The main and support cast -with everyone having fun- is frankly good , but is really wasted . Monica Vitti as tough British spy, the world's deadliest and most dazzlingly female agent, is miscast and is hardly ideal actress in the title character . Joseph Losey found it difficult to work with Monica Vitti, as she would invariably be accompanied onto the set by director Michelangelo Antonioni, in whose films she had become famous ; Antonioni would often whisper suggestions to her, and she would take direction from him rather than Losey. The best of the interpretations results to be Dick Bogarde as a cunning villain , including some enjoyable moments as when he is staked out in the desert and he croaks : I'm thirsty , Champagne . Furthermore , a sympathetic Clive Revill and Rosselle Falk as as a villainess who cruelly murders his victims . And special appearance of notorious British secondaries such as Harry Andrews , Alexander Knox and James Craig . This movie was one of four 20th Century Fox pictures featuring female spies that were released during 1966-1967 , the movies were Fathom (1967), Caprice (1967) and Come Spy with Me (1967)There is another version about this character titled ¨My Name Is Modesty: A Modesty Blaise Adventure¨ , 2004 , by Scott Spiegel with Alexandra Staden as Modesty Blaise , Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau and Raymond Cruz ; it was produced as a prequel to the popular spy comic strip, plans call for this film to be followed by more Blaise movies taking place during the timeframe of the comic strip . In addition , a TV version : Modesty Blaise (1982) by Reza Badiyi with Ann Turkel as Modesty Blaise and Lewis Van Bergen as Willie Garvin .Atmospheric original music by John Dankworth including a catching leitmotif . Gliimmer as well as glamorous cinematography by Jack Hildyard . The motion picture was middling directed by Joseph Losey . Director Losey was originally compelled to release movies under pseudonym Victor Hansbury because he had blacklisted by Hollywood where he shot The boy with the green hair , Prowler, Sleeping tiger, among others , during the 50s red scare . Losey exiled England where directed good films as The servant , King and Country , Accident , Romantic Englishwoman and other European countries as France where filmed Mr Klein at his best .

Joseph LOSEY directed MODESTY BLAISE, not John Schlesinger.This is to correct Alan Mount's following comment. Mr. Mount is entitled to dislike the film but it's fair to ask that he get the director correct.Mr. Mount wrote:"Director John Schlesinger seemed to use the movie totally as a showcase for his friend Dirk Bogarde whose performance is irritating in the extreme. If Modesty Blaise is to be resurrected as a movie heroine in the future a director with a genuine flair for action is required.This was not Schlesinger's forte at all."Given his comment, Mr. Mount seems to consider Modesty Blaise an "action film." I don't completely agree with that, but I might if he would be so kind as to elaborate on what he found lacking in the action in the film or how it was handled. Or better yet, why he considers it in main an "action" film? Since he would have preferred a director with a "genuine flair for action," what then should such a director have done with the film? Thanks.

There's an art to making a psychedelic film. Some possess it, like Losey, and some don't, like Terry Gilliam ( drugs totally make the room spin around, man! ) Modesty Blaise may disappoint people looking for stoned 60's hijinks in the same way that a book like Maldoror disappoints those who say they want extreme, dangerous literature when all they really want is pornography. Maybe the world hasn't realized yet that nothing is dangerous except genuine spiritual expression hiding beneath unlikely -- frivolous, disgusting, or two-faced -- forms. This film constitutes one of the best examples of DANGER in cinema history.Modesty Blaise is angry. Not the character, but the film. It's hard to say how or why this is achieved, but I've never seen a movie that radiates such a clenched, suppressed fury from every frame. It's fitting that Joseph Losey ended his career ( if you don't count Steaming, and who does? ) with an Isabelle Huppert film -- her deadpan manner of expressing unappeasable, borderline serial-killer rage fits perfectly with Losey's style. The characters, with the exception of the God-like Dirk Bogarde, live in the most stomach-churning delirium, with no concept of who they are or what they're doing, but their plight is rendered more poignant by their attempts to make other people think that they're fashionably 60's, liberated and mythically hip. Images like this must run through any aging flower child's mind as, after becoming Republican and hoarding his pennies and thinking that he's left all of that idealistic stuff behind, he lays on his deathbed in a morphine-induced fever.Plot? What plot? To say that Modesty Blaise is one of the purest expressions of aesthetics for its own sake is a cliché, but true. This film carries you along on the inexhaustible fertility of Losey's mise-en-scene and cutting. Influences as diverse as Tati, Godard and Antonioni crop up in unexpected ways, all revitalized by the allure of Pop-Art, which this film continually promises but never delivers. Losey uses the pop-cultural trappings merely in order to avoid mausoleum pretension and to keep dumb critics whose approval is worse than death off his scent. Imagine a two-hour expansion of the end of Playtime, the cubistic ballet of balloons, buses and children ( who only LOOK more grown up in this film ), then add a thousand liters of vitriol, and you have Modesty Blaise. Maybe we'd like to send those aliens a film like 2001 to show what we're capable of, but Modesty Blaise is one of the most precise depictions of what we really were.