Fey Fun

Modesty Blaise, based loosely on the adventures of a British comic-strip heroine, presumably intends to poke fun at the James Bond school of chic, sexy savagery. The damage done to the chosen target is negligible, but this parroty parody adds up to a near disaster. Assuming a knowing superiority over its prototypes, Modesty is less a spoof than a limp-wristed kind of fairy tale, witlessly cluttered up with homosexual malice, artsy gift-shop decor, and the same old gaggy gadgetry on which the Bondsmen have patents pending.

Apparently baffled or bemused by her first English-speaking role, Italy's Monica Vitti plays Modesty as haute couture: black jump suit for tussling with a would-be lover; slinky silk for all-out assaults; a peekaboo cape for evenings of casual intrigue. Ostensibly, Modesty is a retired criminal genius hired by the British government to save a shipment of diamonds en route to an oil-rich Middle Eastern sheikdom.

The diamonds are neglected, though, while Director Joseph Losey (The Servant) and Scenarist Evan Jones improvise humorous asides that savor of sick sex and smartness. As Modesty's aide-de-camp and partner in song (this is the anything-goes brand of moviemaking), Terence Stamp plays a knife-wielding thug who first appears abed with a dark-skinned trollop, throws a shiv after her as she dresses and steals away. Modesty's archfoe is Gabriel (Dirk Bogarde), a faggoty Edwardian fop who flounces around an op-art seaside castle that looks rather like marzipan. Under a lavender parasol, he sips bluish liquids from a huge goblet with a goldfish swimming in its depths, keeps languorous boys and a sadistic lady psychopath on the premises. "I am the villain of the piece, and I have to condemn you to death," he purrs to Modesty. To which she purrs back": "But I am the heroine. Don't I get away?"

Before an army of Arabs rides to the rescue by horse and hydrofoil, Modesty unreels a few reasonably sturdy gags in the midst of its chichi nonsense. The zaniest occurs early on when Bogarde's henchmen torture Monica with a piece of mobile sculpture. In a movie so given to self-conscious giggles, even the fine art of manhandling takes a peculiar turn.

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