After watching a number of British films from the 1940s all filmed in a more classical style and mostly shot in black and white I wanted something more stylish, more colorful, more ’60s! Modesty Blaise scores highly on all of those charts. Unfortunately, it is also a rather big mess.

Loosely based on a series of comics and clearly trying to cash in on the James Bond craze, Modesty Blaise stars Monica Vitti as Modesty Blaise a criminal mastermind who is nevertheless hired by the British Secret Service to protect a shipment of diamonds headed to the Middle East.

Terence Stamp is her sexy cohort, Willie Garvin and Dirk Bogarde is camp personified as Gabrielle the super-villain.

This is another one of those movies where even though I watched it only a couple of weeks ago I’ve completely forgotten the vast majority of the plot.

It is decked out in those bright, candy-flavored colors certain movies of the 1960s loved. The costumes are amazing and Modesty seems to change clothes every few minutes, even if she’s right in the middle of a scene. The film has a lot of fun with that, actually, allowing her to find a new costume and change in a millisecond even though there is no conceivable way in which this could actually happen.

The music is wild and the plot (what I remember of it) has that early James Bond silliness to it. Part of the reason why I can’t remember the plot is that most of it makes very little sense. It feels very much like they just threw a bunch of stuff together, hoping it would come out really fun in the end. Wikipedia notes that some of this was intentional as they were trying to create a more avant-garde-style film. Whatever the case, it comes out more confusing and obnoxious than interesting and fun.

It is very bright, and camp, and the music is a real treat. I just wish it was a little more coherent. But I’d say it is worth watching if you are a fan of 1960s cinema in the style of James Bond or Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In.