So, how did that work out?
* * ¼ (out of four)
Seen 30 October 2025 in Jay's Living Room (off the shelf, Kino Lorber Blu-ray)
Where to stream it (when available), or buy the disc (used) at Amazon
One reason that I'm much more fond of the first Austin Powers movie than is sequels is that there's something more akin to a real movie under the silliness, and in fact it's probably got more going on than the movies it sends up, a list that includes Modesty Blaise. This is a thin little flick, which may or may not bear much resemblance to the adventure strip which inspired it - I've only occasionally flipped through collections at the comic shop - if only because it's full of Swinging Sixties color rather than the strip's strong black lines.
Its coolness may peak with its first scene, with Monica Zitti's Modesty at ease in her penthouse apartment, bantering idly with her Chinese butler. It's clearly her space rather than that of a mistress, as one might have assumed it to be at the time, and it says her flighty mien might be deceptive. Once she's out of that room and talking with various officials, accomplices, and villains, Vitti and the filmmakers are seldom able to imply or demonstrate that her breezy attitude comes from being so capable that she seldom has to break a sweat; people know who she is and prior adventures are name-checked, but she never feels formidable. Vitti is saying the lines but not adding subtext to them, and it's the sort of cliff-hanging adventure where escaping one scrape puts you in another as opposed to something where one sees Modesty's skills as a master thief even in "here's how the heist went down" retrospect.
Vitti's not bad, really, although it feels like the filmmakers are either reluctant to let her carry the movie or didn't have a completed script at filmmaking, because there is a whole mess of narration from older men explaining to each other what's going on. Dirk Bogarde doesn't quite land as arch-nemesis Gabriel; the take seems consciously unconventional, the super-villain who's kind of a pleasant guy without being an interesting villain. There's no spark between him and Rossella Falk as his dominatrix-adjacent lieutenant, and there seems to be some sort of friction over Bogarde's wig; in the same way Gene Hackman later wouldn't want to be bald throughout Superman: The Movie, Bogarde seemingly makes a point of showing that he hasn't gone gray by ripping it off. Terence Stamp could probably have absolutely walked off with the movie if he wanted to, but he politely hovers just below stealing scenes, like he recognizes that it would be unseemly to overshadow the title character.
It never quite comes together, though; the stakes seem oddly low-key for all this effort, and there's only one really nifty heist sequence. It's a gorgeous-looking movie, at least - you can't go very far wrong putting Monica Vitti in nice outfits, and for the most part, the colorful clothing, locations, and ambiance of the late 1960s looks fashionable - a fashion firmly in the past, but nice aesthetically - rather than garish, and there's much less "oh my, she's a woman but somehow competent!" than one might fear. It's just good enough to still get watched 60 years later, when a lot of things trying to ride the combined waves of James Bond and rock & roll have faded to justified obscurity, and not entirely because the folks in the cast stayed famous.
* * ½ (out of four)
Seen 1 November 2025 in Jay's Living Room (off the shelf, Kani Blu-ray)
Not currently streaming (buy the disc at Amazon)
I mention a little surprise at seeing the Shaw Brothers logo before this film in the introduction, while the credits had me raising my eyebrows because of few Hong Kong movies I've seen directed by women, especially in this period. Angie Chen On-Kei does not appear to have a particularly distinguished career as a writer-director during the 1980s, and there's a big hole in her career on IMDB and HKMDB that was apparently spent making commercials. Is she as unusual as she seems, or is this just an example of how there's good infrastructure for importing Hong Kong action, in part because there's not a whole lot else like it, but not so much romantic comedies or other pictures targeted at women? Kani's release of this film is one of the few of its ilk I've seen; is it among the best or just the most readily available?
It's a sort of screwball take on Rear Window, at least to start: 12-year-old "Marble" Shu Ker-Ying (Chui Hoh-Ying), handicapped at the hands of her ne'er-do-well father and now being raised by her grandmother (Mok Chui-Jan), keeps going to the police, claiming that she's seen a woman be murdered, although she proves to be mistaken. Not that there's not something going on, occasionally; what's a girl her age to think when she sees gwailo actor Martin (Ronnie) and his wife (Lau Siu-Pool) engaging in some kinky sex through her binoculars, for example? Up on the bluff, a rich man (Stuart Ong) has installed his mistress Rita (Cherie Chung Cho-Hung) in a nice house (which Marble's grandmother occasionally cleans), although his wife (Chan Sze-Kai) occasionally comes poking around. Postman Yau Ju (Kent Tong Chun-Yip) also takes an interest, although he's generally a playboy, also carrying on with Lin (Elaine Jin), the young wife of shopkeeper Wang (Ku Feng), who often seems frustrated and ready to return to the mainland.
There's potential in the screenplay; writer Lillian Lee Pik-Wah is a noted novelist whose name might be familiar from Farewell, My Concubine and Dumplings, and one can see that she's doing something interesting most of the time. Marble and Rita are both outsiders, the one ostracized by the other kids for her handicap and the other for trading on her body. They don't exactly become a found family with Yao Ju (who dreams of being an actor or stuntman, showing his kung fu moves off to the neighborhood kids), but the audience can see how they're in opposite ends of the same boat anyway. There's something really solid in how Marble, who grew up in an abusive household and is permanently scarred from it, has even more difficulty telling sex from violence than the average adolescent and is determined to watch out for it and sound the alarm.
It's a solid foundation to build on, but Chen's first feature is a bit rough; it's got a few very nice scenes but has a bit of trouble establishing a rhythm at times, and the eventual hard turn when it turns out Marble may have seen something after all is wobbly as heck. That's the problem with a lot of takes on Rear Window - it looks very simple in how methodical it is but that's because Hitchcock was a genius and most of the rest of the folks who try to cover the same ground aren't - and Chen doesn't quite land how the last act combines real danger and farce as the violence and willingness to kill this kid bump up against how she is right about the what but wrong about the how in screwball fashion. It's a fun mystery when it's untangled but the audience isn't quite in a place to enjoy that.
Chen doesn't necessarily have a whole lot to work with; there's something about it that seems short on resources, even beyond how it's very much not taking place in an upper-class neighborhood. Young Chui Hoh-Ying proves a very solid center to the movie, despite it being one of just two rules in the databases, but the ensemble around her is shaky, mostly folks who wouldn't have notable careers or whose acting style seems more fit to the studio's period martial arts films. The exception is obviously Cherie Chung, and both she and Chen seem to kind of know it - a scene where she silently but angrily sunbathes to the adults' consternation and adolescent boys' delight doesn't work unless she has movie-star charisma to match her figure, and the way Rita initially toys with Yau Ju or gets frustrated at the locals looking down on her is enhanced by her having that extra bit going on.
Chung and Chen make Maybe It's Love as notable as it is; it's the first Shaw Brothers film directed by a woman and Chung would become a big star who burned bright before retiring relatively young. One wonders what it could have been with just a little more going for it.
Dead heat!
Dale Evans: 20 stars
Centipede: 20 stars
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