I'd heard about this 1982 American TV pilot for a possible Modesty Blaise TV series many times, but hadn't felt much desire to see it. But finally, after the disappointment of "My Name is Modesty", curiosity got the better of me and I ordered it on DVD from a place called "Video Search of Miami".I should have saved my money.This review, and the measly 4 out of 10 rating, are for the movie itself, not for the technical quality of the DVD I received. If I were rating that I'd be giving zero stars. I've never seen such poor video quality - it looks like a 10th generation VHS tape copy that was then digitized with way too much compression. The colors and noise and digitization artifacts are such that it is often difficult to see what is going on! But now I'll try to ignore the poor video quality and spend the rest of this review talking about the program.The movie lasts 50 minutes. After a very James Bond-inspired title sequence we are introduced to Modesty (played by Ann Turkel), Willie (Lewis Van Bergen), Weng (Sab Shimono) and Tarrant (Keene Curtis). Modesty and Willie rescue a damsel in distress, they go up against the bad guys at Tarrant's instigation, they get captured and locked up, they break out, and they foil the dastardly villains' nefarious plans. So far, so good.But from here on it's almost all negative.There is one major overriding problem: This is not really Modesty Blaise at all. The names of the major characters and a few story elements are correct, but it's otherwise totally wrong.To start with, this is an action comedy! Modesty and Willie are constantly making with the wisecracks, and nothing is taken seriously. We are supposed to think this is a very funny movie, but even neglecting the displeasure felt by a loyal Modesty fan, the story and the situations are way too dumb to be funny.The plot is so dumb it hardly rates as being called a plot. The bad guys are silly instead of scary. Tarrant (who is bald!) acts like an idiot. Weng gets drunk and is unable to drive Modesty home. The damsel in distress (purportedly a genius) acts like a high school chickypoo. Etc., etc.Another problem for me is the Americanization of just about everything. To me it is important that Willie and Tarrant are English and that London is "home" for the Modesty adventures.In this movie it's all been moved to California. Willie and Tarrant are Americans, Modesty lives in a house in the Hollywood hills and Willie's Treadmill is a nightclub in Los Angeles. It just isn't the same.Ann Turkel doesn't really fit the role of being Modesty in my opinion. She has a nice friendly open face with no trace of anything exotic or exciting. And to make it worse she has long curly hair.I'll finally mention that the production is obviously very low budget. The bad guys' lair, which is supposed to be in Mexico, almost looks like it was filmed in somebody's back yard.So all in all I have to say that this production is the worst of the three efforts so far to bring Modesty to the screen. I was close to giving an even lower rating, but there are a few redeeming features. They did base the movie to a small extent on the real Modesty, and the casting of Willie, and the way he tells of his past, wasn't too bad. There's also a plus point for having Willie surprise us all when he draws a third throwing knife.Rennie Petersen

I remember watching this when it premiered on tv. It was the pilot for a potential series, adapting the Modesty Blaise comic strips. At that point, I had read about the Modesty Blaise strips, but hadn't seen any full stories and was aware of the campy 60's film. Thankfully, I was able to eventually read the comic strips and novels and erase the poor taste this film left in my mouth.I only saw the film once, but I mainly remember a scene, early on, where Ann Turkel rips off part of her skirt to fight a thug. She had great legs, so no problem there; and, it was something Modesty did quite often in the strips. My only other memories are of the low budget look and rather lackluster story. I can't even recall the details, but it seems like it revolved around a criminal attempting to blackmail the government (I don't even think it was the British government, like the comics).Turkel may have been a great model, but she wasn't much of an actress. Keene Curtis was seen in numerous tv shows of the period, usually as authority figures. He was a good, workman-like actor. Lewis Van Bergin was especially miscast as Willie Garvin, as he didn't come across as particularly tough. Van Bergin would later star in another short-lived attempt at adapting a comic series, Sable, based on Mike Grell's Jon Sable, Freelance. He always seemed to deliver his dialogue out of the side of his mouth.All I can say is that I hope the third time is the charm. Modesty Blaise was a great series with terrific characters. It deserves better than this.