Modesty Blaise, Joseph Losey, 1966
A popular British comic strip series served as inspiration for this lighthearted espionage adventure, which if nothing else certainly shows the marks of its origins in the mid1960s. A large departure for director Joseph Losey, better known for brooding interpretations of Harold Pinter works (The Servant, Accident), the film is emphatically bright and colorful, taking on at times a nearly psychedelic feel. The strangeness is emphasized by the unusual casting, including Italian star Monica Vitti in her first Englishspeaking role as the title character and Dirk Bogarde, playing against type as her archnemesis. Essentially everything is played for its camp value, including the rather convoluted, James Bondlike plot, which concerns the hijacking of a shipment of diamonds heading for the Middle East.
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