movie mixed scissors scenes

Modesty Blaise


STARRING:Monica Vitti Rosella Falk Dirk Bogarde

ACCESS:video/also shows up on the late late movie once a year or so. i saw it
on ABC twice.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:taken from a comic strip, Modesty is a female super hero
spy who is kind of a "free agent" but she usually winds up fighting evil. she
battles a criminal genius who's main assassin is a woman known as Mrs.
Fothergill. aside from the two mixed scissors scenes there is a terrific fight
to the death between Ms. Fothergill (Rosella Falk) and Modesty (Monica Vitti)
late in the movie.

SCISSORS SCENES: (1) Ms. Fothergill is dressed in a long robe watching some
hench men take a mime off of a boat and lead him up the steps to the cliffside
courtyard where she awaits. she takes the robe off, revealing a bikini he had
betrayed them, and she had earlier demanded that the boss (Dirk Bogarde) let
her deal with him personally. he is watching from a distant balcony sipping a
drink as the mime grovels before her begging for mercy. she toys with him,
flipping him to the ground, making hm crawl on all fours lke a dog. she stands
with her legs spread apart and when he foolishly crawls in between she
suddenly tightens them around his neck and strangles him, smiling at her dying
victim as he slowly chokes out. Dirk becomes extremely excited and practically
jumps out of his chair. she then picks the lifeless body up over her head and
tosses him off of the cliff to the rocks below. she then turns back to the
distant balcony and raises one hand over her head in a ballerina like salute.
Dirk raises his glass and toasts her in return.

(2) Modesty is in an apartment and a male spy enters. she has nylon stockings,
a black one piece bathng suit on and turns out the light so he can't easily
find her. he calls her name but she doesn't answer. suddenly they come upon
each other in the dark and he tries to wrestle her down and pin her. as he's
trying to pin her arms she bites one of his hands and she rolls him over. they
roll over again and he is on top but now she has him in a headscissors. for a
few seconds he squirms between her nylon clad legs and we see a teasing smile
on her face as she enjoys his predicament. suddenly she releases him and
disappears into the darker part of the room.

POSITIVES:both scenes have great setups and good but not great execution. when
Ms. Fothergill murders the mime (by the way, a mime is a terrible thing to
waste) it's a rough, violent scene whereas Modesty's scissors is almost
playful. you just knew she wasn't going to kill the guy.

NEGATIVES:more would have been better, but it's hard to complain with two in
one movie.

OVERALL RATING:***