Main Cast: Monica Vitti, Terence Stamp, Dirk Bogarde, Harry Andrews, Michael Craig
Release Year: 1966
Country: UK
Run Time: 120 minutes
Plot
A popular British comic strip series served as inspiration for this light-hearted espionage adventure, which if nothing else certainly shows the marks of its origins in the mid-1960s. A large departure for director Joseph Losey, better known for brooding interpretations of Harold Pinter works (The Servant, Accident), the film is emphatically bright and colorful, taking on at times a nearly psychedelic feel. The strangeness is emphasized by the unusual casting, including Italian star Monica Vitti in her first English-speaking role as the title character and Dirk Bogarde, playing against type as her arch-nemesis. Essentially everything is played for its camp value, including the rather convoluted, James Bond-like plot, which concerns the hijacking of a shipment of diamonds heading for the Middle East. Like its mod-era sets and costumes, this unusual, inconsistent effort is certainly intriguing and attractive, but might seem rather dated to some. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
Review
Fans of 1960s camp and/or the Austin Powers movies will approach Modesty Blaise expecting to love it, but most viewers will come away a bit disappointed. Not totally disappointed, because it must be said that Blaise is one hell of a psychedelic ride, visually speaking. Production designers Richard Macdonald and Jack Shampan and costume designers Beatrice Dawson and Douglas Hayward have truly created a masterpiece of 1960s "mod," and the eye is constantly enraptured by the barrage of colors, textures and patterns that assault it. With 3-foot tall martini glasses (with goldfish in them), OpArt rooms that seem to have no ceiling or floor and clothes that simply shriek the time period, Blaise is a feast for those who cannot get enough of the swinging sixties. Unfortunately, this is all in the service of a screenplay that is a muddle. It's clearly intended to be a spoof, but it doesn't seem to really know enough about the genre it's spoofing. The satire is scattershot and often just plain silly. Director Joseph Losey does a very poor job of translating the material to the screen, taking things entirely too seriously; presumably he hoped this would approach would produce laughs, but he was quite wrong. And his attempts at playing for comedy are simply painful. Monica Vitti is miscast as the title character, lacking the physical energy required, as well as the essential "English-ness" of the character. Terence Stamp is fun as her very-cockney sidekick, but Dirk Bogarde is the one who really makes an impact, playing an outrageously swishy villain who provides all the best moments in the film. He can't make Blaise a good film, but he and the visuals are far and away the high points. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Scilla Gabel - Melina; Alexander Knox - Minister; Clive Revill - McWhirter; Rossella Falk - Mrs. Fothergill; Joe Melia - Crevier; Lex Schoorel - Walter; Sylvain - Pacco; Jon Bluming - Hans; Roberto Bisacco - Enrico; Saro Urzi - Basilio; Tina Aumont - Nicole; Michael Chow - Weng; John Karlsen - Oleg; Patrick Ludlow - Under Secretary; Oliver Macgreevy - Tattooed Man; John Stacy - Tyboria Captain; Robin Hunter - Pilot; Wolfgang Hillinger - Handsome; Denys Graham - Copilot; George Fisher
Credit
Beatrice Dawson - Costume Designer, Douglas Hayward - Costume Designer, Joseph Losey - Director, Reginald Beck - Editor, Johnny Dankworth - Composer (Music Score), Johnny Dankworth - Musical Direction/Supervision, Neville Smallwood - Makeup, Richard Macdonald - Production Designer, Jack Shampan - Production Designer, Jack Hildyard - Cinematographer, Joseph Janni - Producer, Evan Jones - Screenwriter, Stanley Dubens - Book Author, Peter O'Donnell - Book Author
The film was released at the height of two cinematic trends: the popularity of James Bond had spawned a number of similarly themed films, and many of these films rather than being serious spy adventures were instead created as parodies of Bond and his genre. Director Joseph Losey and the screenwriters chose to follow the latter approach, by making Modesty Blaise a campy, sometimes surrealistic comedy-adventure.
The film story sees former crime boss Modesty Blaise (played by Italian actress Monica Vitti) being recruited by a branch of British Intelligence to help prevent a diamond theft, which leads to Blaise getting into conflict with Gabriel (Dirk Bogarde), the head of the diamond theft ring who maintains a compound in the Mediterranean where his right-hand woman, the Amazonian Mrs. Fothergill, alleviates her boredom by killing people.
As the mission progresses, Blaise is united with her longtime assistant and confidant, the CockneyWillie Garvin (Terence Stamp), an expert knife-thrower and master of disguise, who owes Blaise a life debt from his earlier life as a criminal.
O'Donnell's original screenplay went through a large number of rewrites by other people, and he often later complained that the finished movie retained only one line of his original dialogue (O'Donnell states this in some of his introductions to reprints of his comic strip by Titan Books). As a result, although the basic plotline and characters coincide with the comic strip, many changes are made. Some are cosmetic—Vitti appears as a blonde for most of the film (except for one sequence in which she actually dresses up like a real-life version of the comic strip character). Likewise, Stamp initially appears in a blond wig and subsequently reverts to his natural dark hair colour. Other changes are more profound. For example, as the film progresses Willie and Modesty fall in love and decide to get married (proclaiming same during a sudden musical production number that erupts during a lull); this breaks a cardinal rule O'Donnell set out when he created the characters that they would never have a romantic relationship (the writer stayed true to this edict to the end of the comic strip in 2001).
There are sequences in the film that coincide with O'Donnell's original story, such as Willie killing a thug in an alley and a few other minor points. The film includes a metafictional element during one sequence where Blaise, while visiting a friend's apartment, comes across several newspapers with the Modesty Blaise comic strip which are shown in close-up (artist Jim Holdaway's work is prominently shown as is Peter O'Donnell's name). This is followed by the above-described sequence in which Vitti briefly dresses like the character. Supporters of the film suggest this indicates that the 1966 film is not intended to take place in the same "universe" as the comic strip.
Prior to the release of the film, O'Donnell novelised his version of the screenplay as a novel entitled Modesty Blaise. This book was a critical and sales success, resulting in O'Donnell alternating between writing novels and writing the comic strip for the next 30 years. O'Donnell's version of the screenplay was also used as the basis for a late-1990s Modesty Blaisegraphic novel published by DC Comics.
The film itself was a moderate success at the time, and today is generally considered a camp classic, although fans of the Modesty Blaise character remain divided on its merits. Two more serious attempts at adapting the comic strip for the screen occurred in 1982 with a made-for-television pilot film starring Ann Turkel as Blaise, and again in 2003 with My Name Is Modesty, a prequel starring Alexandra Staden (and omitting the Willie Garvin character entirely).
