Modesty Blaise

I remember watching this when it premiered on tv. It was the pilot for a potential series, adapting the Modesty Blaise comic strips. At that point, I had read about the Modesty Blaise strips, but hadn't seen any full stories and was aware of the campy 60's film. Thankfully, I was able to eventually read the comic strips and novels and erase the poor taste this film left in my mouth.

I only saw the film once, but I mainly remember a scene, early on, where Ann Turkel rips off part of her skirt to fight a thug. She had great legs, so no problem there; and, it was something Modesty did quite often in the strips. My only other memories are of the low budget look and rather lackluster story. I can't even recall the details, but it seems like it revolved around a criminal attempting to blackmail the government (I don't even think it was the British government, like the comics).

Turkel may have been a great model, but she wasn't much of an actress. Keene Curtis was seen in numerous tv shows of the period, usually as authority figures. He was a good, workman-like actor. Lewis Van Bergin was especially miscast as Willie Garvin, as he didn't come across as particularly tough. Van Bergin would later star in another short-lived attempt at adapting a comic series, Sable, based on Mike Grell's Jon Sable, Freelance. He always seemed to deliver his dialogue out of the side of his mouth.

All I can say is that I hope the third time is the charm. Modesty Blaise was a great series with terrific characters. It deserves better than this.