Modesty Blaise
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Movie Reviews of Modesty Blaise
Movie Review: "What's that? Looks like a fish!" Modesty will live forever, despite the best efforts of Gabriel and Joseph Losey
Summary: 1 Stars
Monica Vitti as Modesty Blaise has such a thick Italian accent and such minimal acting skills you're never sure if she's inviting you to her bed or telling you she wants another helping of spaghetti. Joseph Losey, the director, has attempted a comedy thriller along the lines of a Jane Bond knock off. All he and his screenwriter, Evan Jones, have managed to wring out of such a stale idea, stale even in 1966, is lead-foot comedy dialogue, mannered characters which must have embarrassed the actors who played them, and an awkward, ham-handed, swinging style. Not only is what are supposed to be amusing send-ups not, the pace of the movie is as flaccid as a month-old cucumber
Thank goodness Modesty Blaise, as Peter O'Donnell gave her to us, first in his comic strip and then in his novels, is indestructible. She don't need no Joseph Losey or Monica Vitti to bring her to life...just O'Donnell's words and our own imagination.
O'Donnell was asked to write a screenplay based on his popular comic strip character. He did, turned it over to Losey, and watched while the script was re-written, changed, neutered and nudged until he, and just about everyone else, conceded that the caricature of Modesty in the film had almost no resemblance to the smart, shrewd, tough, resourceful woman O'Donnell created. The movie was made and flopped. O'Donnell took his original script, rewrote it as a novel titled Modesty Blaise and the novel was a big success.
Here we have Modesty in awful Sixties styles (and with an awful Sixties soundtrack) hired by British intelligence to foil a plot by the criminal mastermind, Gabriel (Dirk Bogarde, in a performance he probably regretted for the rest of his life). A huge sum in diamonds is in play to secure a middle-east oil deal. Gabriel plans to heist the ice. It will be Modesty and her faithful friend, Willie Garvin (Terence Stamp), against the swish, effete Gabriel and his band of vicious exaggerations, ranging from a mad accountant to a collection of pretty young men. Keep an eye out for Mrs. Fothergill, played by Rosella Falk. She's another lush plate of lasagna, one with thighs of steel and the habits of a psychopathic dominatrix. That's a lotta pasta. Gabriel rather cares for her.
If you're as fond of Modesty as I am, watch this movie to see for yourself the depths to which some creative types fall while confusing their talent with talent. Losey even has Modesty and Willie sing a jaunty partnership song. Vitti and Stamp are not dubbed. They are stunningly awkward. So's the song. The movie is a misbegotten product from the casting to the writing to the direction. I'm giving this movie one star, not because I'm fond of the real Modesty, but because Losey and Jones, with their screenplay and direction, made such a long (nearly two hours), confused, unconvincing and joyless film.
All will not be in vain, however, if you are intrigued by Peter O'Donnell's erotic, original and often violent creation. Start your love affair with Modesty by reading his first novel, Modesty Blaise. You'd have to be a dried, stale old prune not to want Modesty to come to your aid and comfort, with Willie Garvin, her knife-wielding platonic best friend, as back-up for the aid part.
Movie Review: Skip the film, GET THE BOOKS!
Summary: 1 Stars
I actually saw this film when it came out in the theaters, way WAY back when. I must have been perhaps 11 years old. Terrible movie, totally confusing, and a script that was most likely contrived over numerous doses of LSD. However, I was quite taken by two things: (1) Terence Stamp and (2) the scene where Modesty peels the false skin off Willie Garvin's back to reveal all those tools and gadgets. When I discovered there was actually a book to read that might explain all I had seen, I jumped on it. The book, unlike the film, was wonderful, and Peter O'Donnell's stories only improved from the first novel right up until the final Modesty Blaise book was published 6 or 7 years ago. I cannot recommend this movie but I can and do urge you to go to your library (the most likely place you will find a Modesty Blaise book) and get the books, particularly the ones called "I, Lucifer" and "A Taste for Death." Great fun reading, the Modesty of the books quite outdoes James Bond for sheer interest.Movie Review: A new standard of awfulness
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this DVD knowing it was bad, but I was interested in the psychedelic aspects of it. I thought maybe it would have a campy "Batman" feel to it, being made in the same great year of '66. I was not prepared for how terrible it really is. It's so abysmal that I couldn't finish it. The acting is nauseatingly bad, the script is pathetic, and the actor's voices appear to have been dubbed (badly). I found no kitsch or camp value in it whatsoever - it's just plain awful. In fact, the back cover of the DVD pretty much admits that: the only positive thing they can say is that the movie has "psychedelic wallpaper". Yes, it sure does, some very groovy designs indeed, but I need more than wallpaper in a movie to keep me interested. This is one of the worst movies I ever tried to watch. It was put on DVD purely because of the then-current Austin Powers/60's fad. Although I love the sixties, I think all copies of this movie should be burned, and the DVDs made into coasters.Movie Review: Modesty Bad!
Summary: 1 Stars
About a long while ago I saw on my digital cable that "Modesty Blaise" was going to be on the Fox Movie Channel so I taped it since that I was going to see another movie. When I watched the film later on, I couldn't believe how bad it was. For those that are thinking about buying this movie on DVD, DON'T! It is as of now the worst 60's movie that I have ever seen and there are enough holes to fill swiss cheese. The thing that really kills me is that Monica Vitti (an Italian actress who-hello!-is playing a British spy) changes her hair from black to blond and back again; as if we have two Modesty Blaises. Also of note I couldn't see most of the opening credits as it surrounded by a pop title song! (that seems to be modeled later by "Barbarella" which was based on a comic book like this one) The movie may be 119 minutes long but it drags on and on. In conclusion, this is one that you shouldn't bother.Movie Review: A bad film in a disappointing genera: really no stars
Summary: 1 Stars
It's too bad that spoofs of the James Bond films tend to be so very bad. Both print and television have done quite well making hip fun of Bond and his imitators, but movies made with the same idea consistantly come up short. Some of them are a lot of fun, even if they don't hold together. Some are completely unwatchable. Modesty Blaise comes somewhere in the middle. It isn't actually revolting, but it's nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is.Fans of the Modesty Blaise comic strip and novels should avoid this film like the plague. This isn't Modesty, or Willie, any more than the Matt Helm films are adaptations of the Matt Helm books. People unfamilliar with the other Modesty material may find this film mildly enjoyable, but would be better off with the Flint movies, which come as close as anything ever done to making a success of this idea.