GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #67

MODESTY BLAISE

"Modesty Blaise" was a British comic strip created by author Peter O'Donnell and artist Jim Holdaway in 1963.  The backstory begins in 1945 when a nameless girl escapes from a displaced persons camp in Greece.  She remembers nothing of her past and wanders through the post-war Mediterranean, Middle East, and North Africa where she learns to survive.  She befriends another wandering refugee, a Jewish Hungarian scholar from Budapest who educates her and gives her a first name - Modesty.  Sometime later she chooses the last name of Blaise.  In 1953 she takes control of a criminal gang in Tangier and expands it into an international organization called the Network.  During this time period she meets Willie Garvin who becomes her right-hand man.  Theirs is a strictly platonic relationship based on mutual respect.  Willie always calls her "Princess".  Having made enough money, Modesty and Willie retire to England.  Bored with their life as part of the idle rich they accept a request to assist the British Secret Service.  The adventures of Modesty and Willie take them to exotic locales to fight eccentric villains.  They are masters of unarmed combat.  Modesty's weapon of choice is a "kongo", a handheld, dumbbell-shaped weight used as a bludgeon.  Willie prefers throwing knives, though they are both firearms experts.

COMICS

The comic strip debuted on May 13, 1963, in the London Evening Standard which syndicated the strip to papers in America, India, Malaysia, India, Australia, South Africa, and Scotland.  Artist Jim Holdaway died suddenly in 1970 and the art was taken over by Enrique Romero.  The strips circulation in the U.S. was erratic because of occasional nudity in the strip (the Brits were less hung-up about such things.  Modesty used a tactic in which she appeared topless to distract the villains long enough for Willie to incapacitate them).  The last strip appeared on April 11, 2001, but had become such a tradition to British readers that newspapers began reprinting the older stories from the beginning.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Peter O'Donnell was invited to write a novelization of the 1966 film.  The resultant novel was published a year before the movie was released.  Over the years O'Donnell wrote a total of 11 Modesty Blaise novels and two collections of short stories.  Several of the short stories were either adapted from the comic strip, or were adapted to the comic series.  The final book, in 1996, was intended by O'Donnell as a literary finale, with the last story depicting the deaths of Modesty and Willie.  But O'Donnell continued to write the comic strip until 2001, and the strip ended on a happier note, not with the death of the characters.

1965 "Modesty Blaise"/  1966 "Sabre-Tooth"/  1967 "I, Lucifer"/  1969 "A Taste for Death"/  1971 "The Impossible Virgin"/  1972 "Pieces of Modesty" (s.s.)/  1973 "The Silver Mistress"/  1976 "Last Day in Limbo"/  1978 "Dragon's Claw"/  1981 "The Xanadu Talisman"/  1982 "The Night of Morningstar"/  1985 "Dead Man's Handle"/  1996 "Cobra Trap" (s.s.)

FILMS

"Modesty Blaise" 20th Century Fox, 1966.  Monica Vitti (Modesty), Terence Stamp (Willie), Dirk Bogarde, Harry Andrews, Clive Revill.  Director: Joseph Losey.  Stylish ex-con Modesty and her partner Willie Garvin are tasked by the British Secret Service with preventing her rival Gabriel from stealing diamonds that are to be delivered to her adoptive father, a Sheik.  Losey wanted to create a "pop-art" inspired spoof of the spy-movie craze, while writer and creator O'Donnell wanted the film to be seriously grounded in the source material.  The resultant film is...strange.

"My Name is Modesty" Miramax, 2004.  Alexandra Stoden (Modesty), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Raymond Cruz.  Director: Scott Spiegel.  When her surrogate father, who owns a casino in Tangier where she works, is murdered, Modesty takes on those that killed him.  It turns out that she is more than just a modest croupier.  The startling aspect of this film is the elimination of Willie Garvin, her constant companion of almost 40 years.

RADIO

Over the years the BBC has adapted several of the comic strip stories as radio dramas, beginning in 1978 and continuing through 2017.

TELEVISION

"Modesty Blaise" ABC, 1982.  Ann Turkel (Modesty), Lewis Van Bergen (Willie), Keene Curtis, Sab Shimono, Carolyn Seymour.  Director: Reza Badigi.  Set in LA, Modesty and Willie prevent the kidnapping of a young girl who turns out to be a computer genius.  The movie was a pilot for a proposed series. Though the airing had positive reviews, no series resulted.