Director Joseph Losey makes no pretence at reality in his colourful adaptation of Peter O'Donnell's famous strip-cartoon thriller. Fantasy, or perhaps phantasmagoria, is the keynote of the proceedings. Monica Vitti is hardly ideal casting in the title role, and far from O'Donnell's (and Jim Holdaway's) original image. Terence Stamp is a dark-haired brawny Willie Garvin. But the best of the characters is Dirk Bogarde's cool villain, with his endless collection of parasols - a man who only sheds his perfumed wig when the going gets hot. The best individual moment also belongs to Bogarde: staked out in the desert, he croaks `Champagne, champagne... ' Also good are Clive Revill, as his twitching Scots assistant, and Rossella Falk as a villainess who kills her victims on the stoat and rabbit principle. The action is punctuated with op-art effects - there's even an op-art cell for Modesty when she's captured by the enemy. And there are many comic asides and interludes for song parodies.


©ipc tx. Film content from TVTimes