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Hi Allan,
Congratulations on reaching 50 issues of Infinity with another cracking issue and a great mixture of features. I really enjoyed the interview with Mike Hodges and have a special interest in Get Carter, as much of it was filmed in Gateshead, where I have lived all my life. In fact, on my way to work every day, I pass the street where Jack Carter’s “lodging house” was situated, and where he scandalised the neighbours by emerging from the front door wearing nothing but a shotgun!
However, the highlight of the issue was Barry Forshaw’s article on Modesty Blaise and her creator Peter O’Donnell. Ever since I stumbled across the MB books in the early 70s, I’ve been a huge fan of the character, her loyal companions and of O’Donnell’s writing skills. He had a huge flair for description, for the telling phrase, for creating memorably twisted and nasty villains, and for crafting memorable action sequences.
At around the two thirds mark of every Modesty novel, she and Willie find themselves captured, heavily outnumbered, stripped of all their weapons and apparently helpless. How they manage to turn the tables on their captors each time is a delight, and a tribute to O’Donnell’s ingenuity as a storyteller. He was also a master of the set-piece fight sequence, perhaps most notably at the end of “The Silver Mistress”, in which a naked Modesty (covered in grease!) battles Mr Sexton (“the best combat man in the world”) in an eerie cave deep beneath the Pyrenees.I share O’Donnell’s distaste for the 1966 Monica Vitti film which is so keen to be “cool” and “swinging” that it eliminates any vestige of drama or suspense. It’s strange that, at a time when we are seeing so many female-led action films (like Atomic Blonde), nobody has yet come up with a Modesty Blaise film that is true to the character and O’Donnell’s vision. John Bourn, Gateshead To quote the great Michael Caine, the only reaction to the Modesty Blaise film has to be: “Stroll on!” You got it right there for sure, though I do have a liking for the music and the scenery. I’m ashamed to admit I’ve never read any of the Modesty novels but I feel like I should give them a try now. If I ever get up to Gateshead we’ll share a beer. In a thin glass, mind. I wonder how many Get Carter fans know that villains always chose thin glasses because they work best for glassing your opponent in a fight?