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Modesty Blaise

Modesty Blaise

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: enjoyable hotch-potch of [stuff]
Review: MODESTY BLAISE is an enjoyable, campy little gem that is quite fun. High in style and low in plot, the cast obviously had a ball working on this great film.

Based on the popular long-running comic strip character, the story concerns high-class jewel and art thief Modesty Blaise (played bewitchingly by Monica Vitti) who is called upon to investigate the actions of reclusive millionaire and criminal Gabriel (Dirk Bogarde) who lives on a foreboding island.

Modesty enlists the help of her associate and some-time lover Willie Garvin (Terence Stamp) and soon Modesty is up to her neck in psychedelic espionage and sexy costumes! However, there is always Gabriel's assistant to contend with: the man-eating, sadistic Mrs Fothergill (Rosella Falk)...

The plot is as wafer-thin as Modesty's silken dresses; between the time that Modesty is recruited to the final showdown on Gabriel's island, there is about 90 minutes of plot that I cannot even fathom. Dirk Bogarde relishes his role as the decadent Gabriel, wearing a John Inman-esque fright wig and drinking out of impossibly-sized glasses. Another hilaious scene is where Mrs Fothergill is holding "diving lessons". During the climactic battle, Modesty and Willie have a time-out to sing a rather annoying love song, and somehow Arabs on stallions are mysteriously transported to the island to assist Modesty in her showdown with Gabriel!!...Totally unbelievable and only possible in the 60's.

Nontheless, MODESTY BLAISE is a charming piece of fluffy eye-candy and should be savored as the harmless schlock that it was meant to be.

Highly recommended. (Single-sided, single-layer disc).

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: enjoyable hotch-potch of [stuff]
Review: MODESTY BLAISE is an enjoyable, campy little gem that is quite fun. High in style and low in plot, the cast obviously had a ball working on this great film.

Based on the popular long-running comic strip character, the story concerns high-class jewel and art thief Modesty Blaise (played bewitchingly by Monica Vitti) who is called upon to investigate the actions of reclusive millionaire and criminal Gabriel (Dirk Bogarde) who lives on a foreboding island.

Modesty enlists the help of her associate and some-time lover Willie Garvin (Terence Stamp) and soon Modesty is up to her neck in psychedelic espionage and sexy costumes! However, there is always Gabriel's assistant to contend with: the man-eating, sadistic Mrs Fothergill (Rosella Falk)...

The plot is as wafer-thin as Modesty's silken dresses; between the time that Modesty is recruited to the final showdown on Gabriel's island, there is about 90 minutes of plot that I cannot even fathom. Dirk Bogarde relishes his role as the decadent Gabriel, wearing a John Inman-esque fright wig and drinking out of impossibly-sized glasses. Another hilaious scene is where Mrs Fothergill is holding "diving lessons". During the climactic battle, Modesty and Willie have a time-out to sing a rather annoying love song, and somehow Arabs on stallions are mysteriously transported to the island to assist Modesty in her showdown with Gabriel!!...Totally unbelievable and only possible in the 60's.

Nontheless, MODESTY BLAISE is a charming piece of fluffy eye-candy and should be savored as the harmless schlock that it was meant to be.

Highly recommended. (Single-sided, single-layer disc).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best spy spoof ever!
Review: Modesty Blaise is the best spy spoot ever!! You folks who don't like it need to get a life. Relax, on your plush sofa. Roll a doobie and enjoy Ms Blaise. I dig her the most, baaby!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Feast of Camp Psychedelia
Review: Probably no film screams "swinging sixties" at you as much as Modesty Blaise does with its bright colours and pop art and op art designs, a musical score that is a blend of jazz and pop, a script that seems determined not to make sense, a campy collection of character actors, and direction that seems to have everything but direction. And yet despite all of this - or more probably because of it - the film remains oddly entertaining. And it is definitely a reflection of the era in which it was made. Some of us may watch it with twinges of nostalgia mixed with embarrassment. To say the style of the film is dated is to state the blindingly obvious. But that's part of its charm.

If you are willing to dispense with logic and enter into the spirit of the film, the experience can be quite good fun. Based on a popular comic strip and released at a time when every other film was about spies, Modesty Blaise refuses to take itself, or anything else, seriously. Monica Vitti - always a strange choice for the role - is seldom made up to look like the character she is portraying. Terence Stamp, as her sidekick Willie Garvin, seems to be having a great time. Other British stalwarts such as Clive Revill and Harry Andrews happily do their bits. But it falls to Dirk Bogarde and Rosella Falk to go as far over the top as the film's mood and style requires. Falk in particular seems to have realised exactly what was called for by director Joseph Losey.

But it is Dirk Bogarde who carries things along and whose performance will be most remembered. It is a performance for which the word "camp" might have been invented. With hair, makeup, costume and body language suitably outlandish, he wisely counterpoints them by dryly delivering his dialogue with his trademark underplaying. Only Bogarde could be staked out in a desert and desperately call out: "Champagne...champagne..."

In the end, you almost wonder why Bogarde and Losey made this film, which is such a distinct change of pace from their earlier collaborations. Some of the sequences are brilliantly shot, especially the more realistic Amsterdam scenes early in the film. But having Vitti and Stamp bursting into song was a huge mistake.

Like most cult films, Modesty Blaise is an acquired taste and will not appeal to everyone. Fans of sixties excess will love it and admirers of Dirk Bogarde will be amazed by it. Anyone watching it for the first time are advised to keep an open mind.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: BLAZING SPIES.....
Review: There's a great moment here where Rosella Falk strangles a mime to death with her knees--and that's about it. Monica Vitti smiles charmingly and looks great in the various odd costumes she's asked to wear, and Dirk Bogarde and Terrence Stamp saunter through as if they haven't a care in the world and are not only going to forget this film after they're done, but might very well be forgetting it as they go along. Joseph Losey added to the list of films he really needed to apologize to the general public for . . .

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Huh?
Review: There's a great moment here where Rosella Falk strangles a mime to death with her knees--and that's about it. Monica Vitti smiles charmingly and looks great in the various odd costumes she's asked to wear, and Dirk Bogarde and Terrence Stamp saunter through as if they haven't a care in the world and are not only going to forget this film after they're done, but might very well be forgetting it as they go along. Joseph Losey added to the list of film he really needed to apologize to the general public for . . .

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Modestly Bad!!!!
Review: This film is HORRID!!! why?? because it NEVER seems to pick up! It is neither Stylish, or Campy, just plain Boring with a touch of "b-movie" thrown in to Be a B movie ,which doesn't work by the way! This film Could have been a GREAT film! It seems that the writer and the director of this film must have thought starting a new trend would work , sorry ,"boring" isn't a trend fellas!
I picked it up thinking it would spoof the avengers, bond,or in like flint, nope, El Wrongo there!!! I was duped, so in turn, Don't be! this one isn't even worth a rent.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Shakespear this ain't!!!!!! But a funny funny movie!!!!
Review: This movie is nearly ruined by the two leaden performances by its lead stars (Stamp almost seems embarrassed to be in the movie!!). What save this and turns it into a glorious romp are the performances by Dirk Bogarde (yes, heavy drama Dirk!! with white blonde hair!!!!!) and Clive Revill doing camp in high style. Their to-the-wall campy characters are alone worth every penny of this. They are a riot as the mad menancing boss and his competitive right hand. Bogarde and Revill have a fine grasp of what camp should be, unlike the two leads that seem alternatively to take it serious (big mistake) or seem rather ashamed to be caught in this off-the-wall, odd ball film. Heavily weighed down by mod 60's culture (which Austin Powers now makes a fortune with), it obviously was ahead of its time!!!!

So pop some popcorn and ice the pepsi, and maybe buy you a big box of JuJu fruit, click back and enjoy. People that enjoy Austin Powers series of films, will go for this BABY!!!!!!!!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the better Bond spoofs...
Review: This movie is so CHIC, I haven't got the exact words to describe it. The cast is sort of chi-chi: Monica Vitti, Terence Stamp, Harry Andrews, Dirk Boarde and Clive Revill, with Jospeh Losey directing, (Joseph Losey??) A hoi-polloi audience was almost assured! I saw this film in 1966 when it came out and was immediately struck by how different it was from the other Bond spoofs, such as "Our Man Flint" and those awful Matt Helm movies. "Modesty" is avant garde in that notoriously sanitized, late sixties style that made psychedelia palatable for the masses, with op art wallpaper everywhere and decadence celebrated by way of the villains portrayed by Bogarde and "Mrs. Fathergill".

The jazzy score is very reminiscent of the one for "The Tenth Victim", though the lyricked theme song used in the opening credits should do WITHOUT the words, since they're just a WEE bit too arch! The instrumental side, however, is done beautifully, and adds to the "chic" feel of the movie.

The fact that Monica Vitti has an accent so thick, you could choke on it, only adds to this flavor, as does Terence Stamp's prophetic "Alex the Droog" portrayal of her sidekick, Willie Garvin. The casual use of Ferraris, Rolls Royces, Citroens and multi-colored cigarettes make this a fashion-mongerer's wet dream.

It's been stated that this film had no plot....oh, it's got a plot, alright, but there's so much OTHER business going on while it's unraveling, you can miss it! Modesty and Willie's briefs are to make sure fifty million pounds of foreign aid, in the form of diamonds, are delivered to an arab sheikh without the inimitable Gabriel, (Bogarde,) getting his superciliously foppish hands on them. Revill plays his fawning sidekick, accountant and condifante, McWhorter.

Everybody involved seems to be having the time of their lives being in this flick, especially Stamp and Vitti.

Chic, funny, and unique, a DEFINITE change of pace for the classic Hollywood director who helmed it, (if he indeed ever existed)....this movie joins "Help!", "Lord Love A Duck" and a few other zany flicks as icons of sixties aesthetics and cinematic philosophy.

A museum piece of late sixties culture....

(Why ...does she have to be called "Modesty Blaise"?? How about "Modesty Ace" or "Modesty Aqua"?)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Highly Intellectual Spoof
Review: This spoof reminds me of the Mrs. Peel black and white Avengers episodes. There is no sex. The women have modestly shaped bodies and wear full coverage, baggy clothes. What little violence is of the cartoon variety. The villains are eccentric. The plot is preposterous. British upper class government ministers are lampooned mercilessly. It takes several viewings to really appreciate it.


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