Modesty Blaise

Modesty Blaise (1966)

Nothing can faze Modesty Blaise, the world's deadliest and most dazzlingly female agent!

Modesty Blaise, a secret agent whose hair color, hair style, and mod clothing change at a snap of her fingers is being used by the British government as a decoy in an effort to thwart a diamond heist. She is being set up by the feds but is wise to the plot and calls in sidekick Willie Garvin and a few other friends to outsmart them. Meanwhile, at his island hideaway, Gabriel, the diamond thief has his own plans for Blaise and Garvin.

Date of release
1966-05-01
TMDB
5.3 / 10 (75)
Runtime
2h 0m
Genres
Comedy, Crime, Action, Thriller
Director
Joseph Losey
Collection
The Modesty Blaise Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Budget: £1M
  • Based on: Modesty Blaise
  • Filmed in: Amsterdam

Modesty Blaise is a 1966 British spy comedy film directed by Joseph Losey and produced by Joseph Janni, based on the comic strip of the same name by Peter O'Donnell and Jim Holdaway. It stars Monica Vitti as the titular heroine, opposite Terence Stamp as Willie Garvin and Dirk Bogarde as her nemesis Gabriel. The cast also includes Harry Andrews, Clive Revill, Michael Craig, Alexander Knox, Rossella Falk and Tina Aumont. The screenplay by Evan Jones and an uncredited Harold Pinter was based upon a story by O'Donnell and Stanley Dubens. The film's music was composed by Johnny Dankworth and the theme song, "Modesty", sung by pop duo David and Jonathan.

Production

In 1965, Mim Scala of the Scala Browne Agency saw O'Donnell's strip and acquired the film rights to the character. Scala had the idea of casting Barbara Steele as Modesty with Michael Caine as Willie and Sidney Gilliat directing, but he sold the production rights to Joseph Janni, who had Monica Vitti and Joseph Losey as his clients.

Modesty Blaise was released at the height of a cinematic trend: the popularity of James Bond had spawned a number of similarly themed films. Some were intended as serious spy adventures, others as parodies or pastiches of Bond and his genre. Director Joseph Losey and the screenwriters chose to follow the latter approach, by making Modesty Blaise a campy, sometimes surrealistic comedy-adventure.

The film was shot on location in London, Amsterdam, and Naples. Interiors were filmed at Shepperton Studios. Gabriel's island fortress was filmed at Castello di Sant'Alessio Siculo in Sicily.

Joseph Losey found it difficult to work with Monica Vitti, as she would invariably be accompanied on the set by director Michelangelo Antonioni, in whose movies she had become famous. Antonioni would often whisper suggestions to her, and she would take direction from him rather than Losey. Eventually, Losey asked Antonioni, whom he greatly admired, to keep away from the studios during filming. Antonioni complied.

Modesty Blaise includes a metafictional element during one sequence where Blaise, while visiting a friend's apartment, comes across several newspapers with the Modesty Blaise comic strip, which are shown in close-up; artist Jim Holdaway's work is prominently shown, as is Peter O'Donnell's name.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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