In 1965,
Mim Scala of the
Scala Browne Agency saw O'Donnell's strip and acquired the film rights to the character. Scala had the idea of casting
Barbara Steele as Modesty with
Michael Caine as Willie and
Sidney Gilliat directing, but he sold the production rights to
Joseph Janni, who had
Monica Vitti and
Joseph Losey as his clients. Caine would ultimately star in
Alfie, a role intended for his friend and former flatmate
Terence Stamp, who wound up playing Willie.
Modesty Blaise was released at the height of a cinematic trend: the popularity of
James Bond had spawned a number of similarly themed films. Some were intended as serious spy adventures, others as parodies or pastiches of Bond and his genre. Director
Joseph Losey and the screenwriters chose to follow the latter approach, by making
Modesty Blaise a campy, sometimes surrealistic comedy-adventure. Playwright
Harold Pinter made uncredited contributions to the final script. The film was shot on location in
London,
Amsterdam, and
Naples. Interiors were filmed at
Shepperton Studios. Gabriel's island fortress was filmed at
Castello di Sant'Alessio Siculo in
Sicily.
Joseph Losey found it difficult to work with Monica Vitti, as she would invariably be accompanied on the set by director
Michelangelo Antonioni, in whose movies she had become famous. Antonioni would often whisper suggestions to her, and she would take direction from him rather than Losey. Eventually, Losey asked Antonioni, whom he greatly admired, to keep away from the studios during filming. Antonioni complied.
Dirk Bogarde likewise disliked working with her, saying in a radio interview years later that she was the only one of his leading ladies whom he had actively disliked.
Modesty Blaise includes a
metafictional element during one sequence where Blaise, while visiting a friend's apartment, comes across several newspapers with the
Modesty Blaise comic strip, which are shown in close-up; artist
Jim Holdaway's work is prominently shown, as is Peter O'Donnell's name. During the sequence, Vitti briefly dons a brunette wig and dresses up in a close approximation of how Holdaway depicted Modesty in the comic strips (images from this scene are often used to represent the film, including the cover of the first
Pan Books paperback edition of O'Donnell's novelisation). Supporters of the film suggest this indicates that the film is not intended to take place in the same "universe" as the comic strip.
Comparison to source material O'Donnell's original screenplay went through a large number of rewrites by other people, and he often later complained that the finished movie retained only one line of his original dialogue. O'Donnell states this in some of his introductions to reprints of his comic strip by
Titan Books. As a result, although the basic plotline and characters are based on the comic strip, such as Willie killing a thug in an alley, many changes were made. Some are cosmetic — Vitti appears as a blonde for most of the film, except for one sequence in which, as noted above, she actually dresses up like a real-life version of the comic strip character. The film also prominently focuses on a large leg tattoo the film version of the character sports; no such tattoo is ever referenced in the comic strip or later novels. Also, while the comic strip established early on that Modesty considered herself to be English, her actual ethnic background was left ambiguous beyond her being vaguely from the
Middle East region; no attempt was made to disguise Vitti's strong Italian accent, making it apparent that her version of Blaise was from Italy. Likewise, Stamp initially appears in a blond wig (giving him a similar appearance to the comic strip character) and subsequently reverts to his natural dark hair; in the film Modesty and Willie acknowledge the hair color change with each other. Other changes are more profound. For example, as the film progresses, Willie and Modesty fall in love and decide to get married, proclaiming the same during a sudden musical production number that pops up during a lull in the action. Even though the comic strip was only a few years old at this time and no novels had yet been published, this plot point nonetheless breaks a cardinal rule set out by O'Donnell when he created the characters: They would never have a romantic relationship in the traditional sense; the writer stayed true to this right up to the end of the comic strip in 2001. The character of Sheikh Abu Tahir fills the function of Lob, Modesty's adoptee father and mentor, who gives her the name "Modesty Blaise". The Sheikh is otherwise an original character with no equivalent character in the source material. Other original characters include Paul Hagen, Mrs. Fothergill, McWhirter and Nicole, though O'Donnell would incorporate all of them into the novelisation of the film. ==Novelisation==