Reviews

OK, we know it's a spoof, and some of us have a sense of humour.

Our biggest problem with this movie is that it destroyed the franchise. If the first James Bond film had been the David Niven version of Casino Royale, there would never have been a second film in the series.

Peter O'Donnell, who created the character and wrote the first screenplay, said thinking about the film made his nose bleed, but that's not what makes fans really angry.

What we hate about the movie, above all, is that it bombed at the box office. Peter O'Donnell is arguably a better writer than Ian Fleming (he certainly produced a much bigger body of work, and his writing is more consistent than Fleming's). If the first Modesty Blaise film had been done straight, and reasonably competently, then there's a very good chance that a whole series would have been made. O'Donnell would have received the fame and money he deserved, and perhaps other directors could have produced spoofs and made money (after all, some of the Roger Moore Bond films come across as something close to spoofs).

I saw an interview with someone involved in making the first Superman movie, who said that the big problem was persuading scriptwriters to do the story straight. Pity that Losey wasn't that smart.

Think about it: can you think of a screen adaptation of any book, play or cartoon strip made in any country and any language that STARTED OFF with a spoof, and was turned into a series?

Maybe Quentin Tarantino will produce a decent re-make. Maybe. "My Name is Modesty" and the sloppy plotting of "Kill Bill" suggests that he won't.

So, if you find yourself enjoying the frivolity and the psychedelic visual excesses of this film, remember that you're looking at a movie that killed its heroine.