Modesty Blaze (1966) – Review

In the 1960s United Artists was making truckloads of money with their James Bond films so every other studio worth its salt were looking for their own secret agent to milk the spy craze with, which led to such offerings as Dean Martin’s Matt Helm and James Coburn’s Derek Flint, but today we will be looking at a somewhat forgotten entry in the spy genre, a little film called Modesty Blaise.

Based on a popular comic strip by Peter O’Donnell, the film follows the adventures of Modesty Blaise (Monica Vitti), a beautiful and world-renowned master thief who is called out of retirement by Sir Gerald Tarrant (Harry Andrews) of the British government and is tasked with the safeguarding a shipment of diamonds that are en route to Abu Tahir (Clive Revill), the Sheikh of a small Middle Eastern kingdom. The main threat comes from another criminal mastermind, Gabriel (Dirk Bogarde), who many consider to be Modesty’s equal, but I’d say that their only area of equality is in their love of mod architecture.  His criminal organization is staffed with your typical Bond-like characters who our heroine will encounter at her leisure.

“I heard both Odd Job and Jaws refused to work with Gabriel.”

In her travels, Modesty is aided by her loyal Cockney sidekick Willie Gavin (Terrence Stamp) and their “will they or won’t they” relationship and friendly banter is a highlight of the film – seeing Terrence Stamp in such a fun and goofy role will be a bit of a shock to those who mostly know him as General Zod from the Christopher Reeve Superman movies – but it’s not all fun quips and double entendres as Modesty quickly finds herself entangled in numerous assassination attempts and is forced to cross paths with former lovers and allies of even more dubious nature.

The most notable attribute of Modesty Blaise would be in its stylish visuals, especially if you are a fan of the 1960s aesthetic, but when it comes to proper filmic storytelling it falls rather short of its potential. The plot is convoluted and confusing at times, and the dialogue is often overly theatrical and melodramatic, and while that does have some charm it is made all the worse by the film trying to be both a comedy and a thriller, struggling to strike the right balance between the two genres and failing.

The Spies Who Loved Each Other.

Stray Observations:

• Actors Terence Stamp and Harry Andrews would later appear in another comic book adaptation as residents of the doomed planet Krypton in Superman: The Movie.
• A year after this film was released, cinematographer Jack Hildyard would take on another spy spoof in the lampoonist Casino Royale.
• This film’s cool 60s spy aesthetic makes it a nice double bill with Mario Bava’s Danger: Diabolik as they both have such great designs concerning the hero/heroin’s lairs.
• Gabriel has a mime killed because the man betrayed him, but as I’m pretty sure killing a mime is legal in several countries this really shouldn’t be held against him.
• After dictating a terse telegram to a minion, Gabriel states, “He’ll understand, he reads the comic strip” which is a nice meta-reference to the source material.

I hope fans of the original strip got a chuckle out of that.

Monica Vitti gives a strong performance as Modesty Blaise but the character is let down by a script that fails to fully flesh out her motivations and backstory.  And while I’m sure if I was well versed in the original comic strip this may not have been as big an issue but where the film really fails in the over-complicated plot and the script’s insistence at tossing in so many weird and eccentric characters that you almost need playbill handy just to keep track of who is who. Dirk Bogarde, who plays the villainous Gabriel, delivers a suitably campy performance that is entertaining to watch but even fun characters like him and his psychopathic assassin/bodyguard Mrs. Fothergill (Rossella Falk), seems to kill more out of a sense of boredom than anything else.  There is a desperate need of a story with some forward momentum and that is where Modesty Blaise fails miserably with each scene lumbering into the next with no sense of urgency or connectivity, so when we do finally reach the film’s epic climax it’s hard to care what happens, no matter how cool or stylish it is presented.

Mind you, it does look really cool.

Despite these defects, Modesty Blaise is not without its charms, Vitti just oozes sexual charisma and the film is a visually stunning piece of work with its vivid colours, striking set designs and stylish costumes. The action sequences were also well-choreographed and exciting, replete with all the spy gadgets a fan of James Bond could want, making Modesty Blaise a flawed but enjoyable film, one that is worth watching for its unique style and Monica Vitti’s captivating performance. It may not be a classic of the spy thriller genre but it is a fun and entertaining romp that is sure to please fans of 1960s cinema.