A fashionable secret agent

Modesty Blaise (1966)

I know the comic but I have never really read it apart from a few strips long time ago, so can't judge how faithful this movie is to it. As a stand alone movie it's not bad at all. It has a fun, weird and light hearted mood to it and it looks great. So Modesty Blaise, played by Monica Vitti, is this ex cat burglar turned into a secret agent who gets hired by the British secret service to track down some diamonds and the villain Gabriel (Dirk Bogarde) who is trying to steal them. Modesty gets help from his agent buddy Willie Garvin (Terence Stamp) as she goes on this weird adventure. Can't really say much about the plot as I kind of lost interest in it as it didn't make much sense, so I just enjoyed the fun mood of the film. Can't judge whether Monica Vitti's character fit that of the comics or not, but I must say she didn't seem like much of an agent, unless you judge the skills of a secret agent by how fast she can get another dress on and switch her hair style. Terence Stamp and Dirk Bogarde kind of steal the show as their characters are so much wilder than the surprisingly one sided Modesty. There's plenty of comedy in this movie, intentional and unintentional, funnily enough the unintentional comedy turns out to be the better kind. Like those explaining dialogue scenes which probably were intended as those explanation texts of the comics. It's just hilarious how the government people seem to always know exactly what's happening, kind of defeats the purpose of hiring an agent in the first place. But anyway it's all fun and fits the weird mood of the film. And that mood is this movie's strongest point.
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