Directed by Joseph Losey. Story by Stanley Dubens; screenplay by Evan Jones; based on the comic strip by Peter O'Donnell & Jim Holdaway. Starring Monica Vitti, Terence Stamp, Dirk Bogarde, Harry Andrews, Rosella Falk.
119 minutes.
Modesty Blaise is a much-underrated spy movie from the swingin' 60s, made by a director best known for working with Dirk Bogarde on much different projects, usually written by Harold Pinter. This time he made a psychedelic piece of weirdness that's strangely of a piece with his other, more subdued work.
The plot involves... um... well it involves super-thief Modesty Blaise (Monica Vitti) and her sidekick Willie Garvin (Terence Stamp) outsmarting both evil genius Gabriel (Dirk Bogarde) and the British Secret Service. It also involves a billionaire oil sheik, a woman called Mrs. Fothergill who likes strangling mimes between her thighs, lightning-fast costume and makeup changes, and... some other stuff...
I have a hard time keeping Modesty Blaise straight in my head. I remember some individual moments, but I can't piece them together, and I've watched it several times. Admittedly I have been (surprise!) stoned every time, but even so, this is quite a disorienting movie.
I have noticed that it's been almost unanimously critically slammed. This is a pity, as I think it is an excellent piece of '60s pop-art psychedelia. It's consistently visually interesting, with the expected slant on bright blocks of primary colours. Both Terence Stamp and Dirk Bogarde are superb, though Monica Vitti is not so great. Rosella Falk makes a great, sexy villain.
Maybe you have to watch it on drugs to appreciate it. No problem!
I give it eight out of ten. I might give it slightly higher if I could remember it better...
© 2002 Joey Narcotic.