No love here for Modesty Blaise? Monica Vitti (fresh from Antonioni’s modernist trio) as Modesty and Terrance Stamp as her sidekick. Mod stylings. Directed by Joseph Loesy in exile due to the blacklist, three years after the amazing The Servant and four before the amazing Go Betweens. It’s not either of those and was panned I believe. It’s very dated of course.
I’m not saying it’s a good movie, but it has charm and its targets are better than most spy movies, spoof or not.
Also I much prefer Michael Caine’s Harry Palmer movies to James Bond.
ETA
Forgot to mention Dirk Bogarde as the villain.
I think Modesty is fun, but I’m one of the rare few, I fear. I have to admit, that while the actors can be funny (and the script is wry in its way), I don’t get the impression that Losey has any flair for comedy.
One trope I very much dislike that is common in this genre is the conspiracy of evil scientists. For example, in Our Man Flint the bad guys are a cabal of scientists causing climate change. I’m surprised this isn’t on permanent rotation on FOX (and I wonder how many of the MAGA boomers saw this when young and somehow internalized the message).
I just clicked on most of his films on teh Wikis and it seems that he thought that himself: it’s his only comedy I think. He has a few excellent films though.
@jerwin I’ve only read later Laundry Files books. The early ones weren’t in my local library. I was also comparing the Harry Palmer films favourably to Bond. Not that that would be hard.
Bonus: I lived with a drummer who is a black belt, and we hung out w/one of his friends who is also a black belt and instructor. They simply don’t move like reg’lar folks. I didn’t even notice it consciously at first, it’s so subtle, but it’s there.
A band I was friends with had got a new drummer, and after he’d walked to and back from the bar at the 1st gig I saw him play, I had a question.
“How long have you been doing martial arts?”
He was so surprised he almost missed his chair when he sat down, and answered me with another question. “How did you know?!”
I grinned and explained.
You can’t hide the way you move. I can spot a great dancer a mile off, too, also. They don’t move like reg’lar folks, neither.
and, it co-starred Severin Darden from U of Chicago’s Compass Players precursor to Second City. His standup routines from those days are still hilarious to me.
when I was in grade school, before I knew who Dean Martin was, I caught that beginning scene with the bed that slides you into a pool on UHF TV. but then I had to go, so I never knew what movie it was until finding the whole series on a local station a few years ago. but as a kid, I was like “I need that!” of course, the implication was Helm was hung-over, but I was just naturally a bear to get out of bed.
the movies are great, but man, whenever he’s driving and he hits the buttons on his spy-car’s dashboard to reveal an automated bar, holy cow times have changed.
