MartinHafer Monica Vitti stars as the title character--an international girl of adventure. The UK hires her to help them with some problem--though no one is exactly sure who or what is the threat. Periodically, the camera cuts to Dirk Bogarde with a goofy white superman wig. You assume he's the baddie....but none of this seems to make much sense. As I sit here and watch "Modesty Blaise", I find my attention waning-- mostly because this seems like a film made without a script. I keep watching and hoping that it will all make sense but sadly it does not. Instead of a comprehensible plot, you're left with nice costumes, lots of color and not much else. An incomprehensible mess of a film I wanted to like. After all, a female James Bond-like character is an idea with a lot of promise. Unfortunately, it just doesn't deliver and looks more like a film made completely by fashion designers, not filmmakers.

christopher-underwood When I first saw this on its original release in the mid sixties, I remember being disappointed. I had been bewitched by Monica Vitti's performances with Antonioni and had much enjoyed Losey's earlier film with Dirk Bogarde, the 1963 film, The Servant. It seemed shallow and frivolous, completely lacking in any seriousness. And maybe my assessment still stands, it's just that now I love it. I love its crazy lurches, this way and that, the sinister, yet amusing Bogarde and his extraordinary drinking vessels. I love the successfully over the top performance from Terence Stamp and the glorious pop art set designs and costumerie, which I probably took for granted back in the day. But most of all, I love Monica Vitti. She can be beautifully moody and introverted for Antonioni but here she smoulders and glows with a knowingness that maybe puts her above Bardot. The scenes with Bogarde are alive, those with Stamp amusing but with Vitti on screen, it is hard to look at anything or anyone else. Worry not whether this is a spoof or not, just sit back and enjoy a very special cinematic experience that encapsulated a moment in time perfectly. Wonderful.

Bogmeister MASTER PLAN: Diamond theft - supposedly. Modesty is the female James Bond, for all intents and purposes, especially as portrayed in her original incarnation, in the comic strip and novels by Peter O'Donnell, though her background is much more shady - a former master of thieves - and she now lives in wealthy retirement until called upon by British Intelligence for special jobs. Her right-hand man is Willie Garvin; their relationship is platonic, if quite friendly. The preoccupation with Bond and his films in the sixties spawned other imitators during this period, notably the 'Flint' and 'Matt Helm' films, so Modesty was a natural selection for adaptation. Unfortunately, this is a good example of a great concept & property which was poorly made. I've read that the original writer's screenplay was completely re-written and am not surprised at the results. The filmmakers here followed the pattern of the "Casino Royale" spoof of the following year('67), in that most of the plot is nonsensical, with style over substance prevailing. If you're into this carefree, blasé approach, with many scenes wrapped in silliness, then you're in luck if you get the DVD. My problem with such an approach is that every action in such a story becomes meaningless: there's no sense of threat, no tension, no real danger - just that vague aura of fun, which does not appeal to fans of spy adventure thrillers. Frivolous was mentioned elsewhere, a good one-word description. This approach is well suited to a musical and the two main characters even break into song in one scene around the mid-point and there's some singing at the conclusion. It all bodes ill in the introductory scene of Modesty (usually blonde, unlike the real Modesty) awakening in her futuristic domicile (similar to the later "Barbarella"); her computer console spits some papers at her and she laughs for no reason - as if she's over-medicated.One good example of where the filmmakers stand occurs near the beginning, just after Modesty is recruited by the Brits for this latest mission. They project a film for her to impart some information and she sits with her back to the screen for most of it, looking rather bemused or smug. There's the message to us right there: this Modesty doesn't need the facts; she already knows them for some reason and will get through whatever peril is thrown her way without effort. Indeed, when we later see her and Garvin going through the motions - whether involved in a car chase or escaping a cell - they're literally giggling through the scenes, two buddies on a cheerful vacation. It's a more exaggerated version of the smirking that Roger Moore indulged in in his later, less-appreciated Bond films. But, even if one can abide such parody, a more serious fault is the deadly slow pace in the first two-thirds of the film. Many of the scenes focus on the laid back villain Gabriel (Bogarde) as he settles back at his Mediterranean island retreat with his psycho wife and annoying accountant (Revill). These are meant to be darkly amusing, with the accountant lecturing the villain on fiscal responsibility even in dastardly crime and the wife behaving like a, well, Amazonian psychotic. But, they just drag on too long. Besides the nice cinematography, capturing some choice European locations, there's not much to recommend in this one. I'm really not sure what director Losey and his partners in crime were aiming at, besides the obvious attraction to psychedelic wallpaper, although there is some suggestion of the decadence so prevalent in that decade (a sheik throws his knife at a pigeon; Modesty flings her ice cream from a moving car). In one shot, Modesty's hair magically changes (a jump-cut effect), so maybe the whole thing is a dream. The actress Vitti has a smoldering sexuality, but she only comes across like the real Modesty in one scene, dressed in the familiar black outfit. Stamp, as Garvin, plays second fiddle, Bogarde embraces the camp, and Craig & Andrews as Brit agents ham it up a bit. Revill hams it up a lot, as usual. They would not return. A TV Pilot popped up in the eighties and a low budget attempt in the nineties. Heroine:5 Villains:5 Male Fatales:5 Henchmen:4 Fights:3 Stunts/Chases:4 Gadgets:4 Auto:5 Locations:8 Pace:4 overall:4+

MARIO GAUCI Truth be told, I hated this movie on first viewing many years ago and, in fact, I only just now purchased the utterly bare-bones Fox DVD for three reasons: the disc is now out-of-print; I found it very cheaply (surprisingly) at a local retailer; and, most importantly perhaps, I was prepared to give it another chance thanks to my ongoing (and very rewarding) Losey-thon.To say that Joseph Losey was a strange choice to helm this picture would be a massive understatement. In his previous films, very rarely (if at all) had he shown that he had any sense of humor, much less the kind of campy, knowing and irreverent one essential for successful comic strip adaptations. As it happens, the film was not well-received and both leads - Monica Vitti (who apparently phoned Michelangelo Antonioni everyday during the shoot) and Terence Stamp - were unhappy making it; there are those who even go so far as to consider it not just Losey's nadir but quite simply one of the worst films ever made! Well, based on that first TV viewing of it, I probably would have endorsed such sentiments myself... However, my re-acquaintance with it proved something of a minor revelation: while still as uneven as I recalled, I couldn't now deny that there were some delightful elements which, on the whole, made the film palatable and, at times, even endearing: Evan Jones' script was occasionally quite witty, Losey's own trademark odd compositions (usually so overpowering in his melodramas) suited the "anything goes" mood of the material, Jack Hildyard's glossy cinematography of attractive Mediterranean locations, outrageous outfits and groovy production design was top-notch and Losey's frequent composer Johnny Dankworth provided an infectious score.And what about that cast? Monica Vitti (who would have guessed that she could ever be as attractive and sexy as this judging by her work for Antonioni?), Terence Stamp (gleefully throwing knives, bedding women and engaging in a charming, impromptu singing duet with Vitti while driving up a mountaintop and reprising it for the action-packed finale), Dirk Bogarde (ironically named Gabriel, he was never campier - or gayer - than as the silver-wigged, self-proclaimed "villain of the piece"), Michael Craig (as Vitti's ex-lover and pursuing British agent), Harry Andrews (as a top British Secret Service official firing away bullets from his umbrella), Alexander Knox (as a bumbling British MP forever mispronouncing names and giving out the wrong information), Clive Revill (for no apparent reason in a dual role: as Bogarde's right-hand man who keeps the accounts even on the field of battle and as Vitti's "father", an Arabian Sheik!), Rossella Falk (as the lethal Miss. Fothergill, Bogarde's manly assistant, who keeps a regiment of mostly aging men in shape through arduous physical exercise), Saro Urzi (as a lowly, opera-singing henchman of Bogarde's), Tina Aumont (as an ill-fated conquest/informer of Stamp's) and real-life magician Silvan (as a duplicitous circus performer).Ultimately, while the plot is too convoluted to follow at times and the film itself may not be in the same league as Mario Bava's DANGER: DIABOLIK (1968) or even Roger Vadim's BARBARELLA (1968), it's certainly an engaging spy spoof and far better than its reputation suggests.