User reviews

This French film (English subtitles)is curiously lacking in depth, but I didn't hate it. Anthony Perkins is amusing, Brigitte Bardot is sweet and beautiful (as always) as the slightly simple-minded girl of Perkins' dreams.

Strangely paced with varying acting styles, this mid-60's spy romp rolls along with no real purpose.

A 5 out of 10. Best performance = Anthony Perkins. Even many of the words in the subtitles are spelled wrong. I haven't seen that too many times. Hard to REALLY recommend this, but if you're a BB fan or enjoy watching Perkins play a befuddled young man, you'll find something in this flick.

I bought Une Ravissante Idiote to get a chance to see Anthony Perkins speak French - while his accent sounds fairly Anglo-American, it's not too noticeable. Perkins is Harry Compton, a spy set out on a mission to steal some confidential papers from Sir Reginald Dumfrey. Harry's in love with Penelope Lightfeather, whom is coincidentally the seamstress for Dumfrey's wife. Penelope is the inspiration for the title The Ravishing Idiot, as she is not exactly bright. At all.

Brigitte Bardot does a good job as Penelope, as she perfectly captures her aloofness and naiveté. However, she has this terribly strange laugh. That aside it's plain to see why Harry Compton is simply head over heels for Penelope, she's gorgeous and sweet - despite her lack of intelligence. He thinks to himself "She is an idiot, but you love her. You always wanted an English family. She is not English..."

The humor in this film is odd, and just plain silly. But Anthony Perkins is absolutely delightful and charismatic, and the situations in this film are interesting. A nice film to see if you are fans of Bardot and Perkins who work well together (albeit not getting along off-screen), but otherwise I'm reluctant to recommend it to the latter.

It was Tony Perkins 'second film with a French director :the first one was André Cayatte 's "le glaive et la balance"("two are guilty") , an unfairly trashed thriller;René Clément had previously directed him in 1958 ,but it was an American production in which he was dubbed for the French version;by 1964 ,his French had vastly improved ,he was fluent in Victor Hugo's language which he spoke with a very light accent .

With the exception of "the matchmaker' it was also his first comedy : although anodyne ,it was certainly an act of self-renewal ,although the ghost of Norman Bates would follow him till his last breath (his last role " a demon in my view" is revealing)

In the comedy field ,against all odds, Perkins reveals himself a very gifted actor ,and his perfect command of French helps .His pairing with France 's most famous sex symbol of all time proved successfull. BB was peerless when it came to playing naive bimbos, (apparently) dumb bubblehead girls (see also " Babette S'En Va-t-En Guerre" ,"Viva Maria" ) It's sometimes useful to pass for a ravishing idiot,particularly when your car carries a Russian spy dead body and you are subject to egregious gaffes.

The screenplay is a spy thriller spoof ,with a far-fetched plot-though a warning reads :" this is based on a true story" ,before the cast and credits - ,it's sometimes hard to decipher the cock and bull screenplay (and the way BB sees it is riotously funny. As for Perkins,he is overtaken by events all the time ) .But I dare you to guess the final unexpected twist of this "avalanche project affair".

Another stand-out is Helene Dieudonné's mamie, a granny who never loses her British upper lip -although ,like her granddaughter ,she's not British at all- even when her life is at stake !

"Une Ravissante Idiote" is the third comedy directed by Edouard Molinaro, who first directed shorts, then excellent Films Noirs. And for this comedy, Molinaro gets a great cast with Bardot and Perkins, it must have been a new experience, also shooting some scenes in London. Bardot and Perkins is nice couple, they work well together. But the script is not enough well written, some scenes are poor and some are brilliant, thanks to the speedy way of shooting by Molinaro, mostly in the slapstick scenes. It's a fine comedy, but should have been much better.

A charming espionage story, Anthony Perkins and Brigitte Bardot, Gregoire Aslan and Helene Dieudonne and the breeze of Cold War. Difficult to understand the nuances for the new generations but , in french recipe for comedy rules, a great chain of confusions, short tension moments, masks and apparences, naivety and some fights.

A good slice from a lost world and the irony as tool against pressure of politic.

It needs to be said right off the bat that this is less than perfect, and while its faults are less prominent as the length draws on, they are the first facets of the picture to catch one's attention. Early exposition is rather inelegant, and I think the plot is genuinely more complicated than it needs to be; the extra layer of orchestration to the protagonist's mission makes the story a tad unwieldy. As if to emphasize the point, I read the premise for the film in a few different places and had a hard time making sense of what the contributor was trying to communicate, but it turns out it's not so much a problem with any user's literacy but a basic matter of trying to elucidate a needlessly overdone plot. Speaking of overdone, there's a lot of rather tawdry embellishment here at various points, be it footage that's sped up, cartoonish sound effects or music cues, exaggerated laughter (at least some instances of the latter being inserted in post-production), transitions or camerawork with an overly playful flourish, or a few gags that are absurd beyond the tone this otherwise carries itself with. This is a bit inconsistent generally where tone is concerned, adopting earnest, serious thriller airs at select times, significantly clashing with what is otherwise a frivolous, lighthearted romp. Setting aside the indelicacy of the outdated ableist language in the name of the feature, the character to whom that name refers is written a little inconsistently, too. And, dovetailing back into the construction of the narrative - even with all the cleverness that the movie can rightly claim through to the end, this feels longer than it is. Surely some of the writing could have been trimmed without meaningfully losing anything.

All this is the bad news, or at least those issues that place distinct upper limits on how enjoyable this might be. The good news is that more than not 'Une ravissante idiote,' also known as 'Agent 38-24-36,' is sufficiently smart and entertaining that its value well outweighs its disadvantages; it's imperfect, but ultimately I definitely like it. In fairness, those notable convolutions of the writing are intentional, somewhat spoofing spy flicks; that this goes a smidgen overboard, well, that's the risk of such material. Broadly speaking the story is fun and engaging, and sharp scene writing carries most of the weight not just in communicating that story but more importantly, in providing the comedy. There's no single stroke of brilliance here, and the end result is more lightly amusing than robustly funny, but still the sight gags, situational humor, and witty dialogue are more than suitable to give us a good time. The cast sure seem to be having a ball with the silliness of the scenario, not least Grégoire Aslan, Hélène Dieudonné, and chief star Anthony Perkins; given more license to ham it up on account of how Penelope is written, Brigitte Bardot stands out even more. Elsewhere, even if I disagree with the choices that were made or pointedly think they detract from the whole, everyone behind the scenes turned in good work. Édouard Molinaro deftly manages a film with so many moving parts in his direction; Andréas Winding's cinematography is more shrewd and mindful than not. The costume design, hair, makeup, and sets are pretty fantastic, and though more sparing in this instance, any stunts and effects come off well.

That 'Une ravissante idiote' is saddled with so many troubles is unfortunate, because they do serve to diminish the viewing experience in some measure. Be that as it may, it only wants its audience to have enjoy themselves, and though flawed, this is more than strong enough to achieve that goal. The plot could have been simplified a bit and impulses reined in, yet even as we see it the picture is a minor delight, and plentifully satisfying. I don't think there's any need to go out of your way for it, but if you do have the opportunity to watch, it's a decent way to spend a couple hours.

The films of Brigitte Bardot are, for the most part, a study in what might have been. What I mean is that although she was a gorgeous woman, she rarely was given much in the way of material in her films. Mostly, her films were like a steady diet of meringue--very sweet but not very satisfying if this is all you have to eat! It's a real shame, as she had a magnetic screen presence. Perhaps her having been given so many fluff roles is why she chose to retire so young--at only 39--and still an incredibly beautiful woman.

"Agent 38-24-36" is bad even by the standards of a lot of these fluff films. It makes little sense, has VERY broad acting and writing and makes the least of its talented stars. Although the film is clearly filmed in Paris, the film is supposed to be about British spies in the UK. So what British actors did they pick to play in this film? None. Instead, the main British leading man is...Anthony Perkins! He seems about as British as John Wayne or Nipsy Russell. And the rest of the 'Brits' are all French men and women!

This silly casting, however, is not the major problem with this dopey spy farce. The writing is pretty awful and some scenes make you cringe at their dopiness. Try watching Perkins in slapstick scenes like when he's chasing the dog in the restaurant or chasing a runaway vacuum (uggh--it's bad)! Dreadful is the word for this.

The plot, if you care, is about a British attempt to pass off fake secrets to the Russians. But, Perkins and his girlfriend (Bardot) are just too stupid to get that right. None of it is the least bit interesting or engaging and the director did nothing to make anything out of the material--using stupid gags like speeding up the film (ha, ha) and having the characters behave as if they'd recently been lobotomized. Dull and a complete waste of talents.

Looking for a comedy to improve my mood, I came across a gem of the genre - 'Une ravissante idiote', the 1964 film by Édouard Molinaro. Many of the French comedies of that period are among my favorites, and now I am adding one more. 40 years before the films of the 'Legally Blonde' series, Édouard Molinaro offers us a parody of spy films with a blonde that gathers in her all the stereotypes of jokes about blondes and adds a few more. If this movie were made today, pretty much everything would work perfectly, except maybe the original title that wouldn't pass the filters of political correctness. But then, in 1964, the role of the blonde was played by Brigitte Bardot.

The story takes place at a time when the cold war was in full swing and spies were prowling the streets of London, where the action happens. Harry Compton is a freshly fired bank clerk who is head over heels in love with the beautiful Penelope "Penny" Lightfeather. However, Harry is also the son of a couple of Soviet spies, and when he expresses his desire to emigrate to the Land of the Soviets, he is entrusted with a special mission - the theft of NATO naval plans in the event of a war. Back then such secrets were kept in real paper files with the code name of the plans on the cover! Penny also turns out to be a communist with a party card and as a seamstress she is well placed to break into the house of the high-ranking officer who keeps the plans in the safe box in his working room. The two lovers will soon have on their trail the agents and killers of the Soviet intelligence services, the police and agents of several British counterintelligence services. Their incompetence as amateurs and lovers will prove a formidable weapon. Their only weapon.

I liked the movie. The script emphasizes the comic scenes and highlights the two protagonists. Brigitte Bardot - BB - is in fantastic form, and Anthony Perkins demonstrates the nice guy qualities that made him one of the highest-rated film actors on the international stage at the time. The pairing of the two works well on screen - both comically and romantically. Around them swarm a lot of characters played by lesser-known actors, but all of them well chosen. Édouard Molinaro films with inventivity, playing with the camera, occasionally inserting freeze-frames or speed-ups. Everything at the right time and in good taste. The movie gave viewers of yesterday and today almost two hours of quality blonde entertainment.

There is not only an idiot in this film - I mean Penelope 'Penny' Lightfeather, the character played by Brigitte Bardot - there is also an idiot, Harry Compton, alias Nicolas Sergheevich Miloukin, the character played by Anthony Perkins, much more idiotic than Penelope. All the other characters, absolutely all of them, are idiots. The film itself is idiotic, hard to follow, because nothing else happens, everything is related to a file, "Avalanche", locked in a safe. It is neither a spy movie nor a comedy, it is just a failure of huge proportions. The only attractive thing in the film is Brigitte Bardot, who, at 30 years old, looks super sexy. All the other actors, especially Anthony Perkins, are embarrassing. Returning to the ravishing woman in the film, Brigitte Bardot, as beautiful as she was young, as unfortunate she was in the roles she had in her films, most of them idiotic, both, the roles and the films. That's probably why she retired from the film industry so early, while she was still young and beautiful. One star only, for her beauty.

This is a bit of everything, a serious crime story about a dossier that needs to be stolen, a minor part of a love story between the hero and the heroine, a slight tad of crime, and a good amount of comedy.

Perkins speaking French, fluently, the only thing he's able to achieve in his role in this movie. Bardot with a fortunate role, fortunate, because she can do a bit more than just being a sexy puppet.

The cast is great, the script, however, lackadaisical. Some really funny scenes intertwined, like when police cars try to stop their car, with a cadaver on the back seat. The old lady lying on the carpet, with her feet erect, like in "The Trouble with Harry".

Unfortunately, some of the 'funny' scenes are unfunny. Like Perkins chased by an aspirator, very silly laughing of Bardot (played in from tape), and some more, like the 1920s slapstick with Perkins and the fight with dog and shoe. This is the problem of the script, though. They tried to put everything and anything into this movie.

When I watched it for a second time, I saw it much differently, since I knew the complete plot, including the ending. Bardot is pretty good at doing what her role is demanding from her in the light of the complete plot.

Imagine yourself back in the cold war-period of half a century ago. Add to it your liking of the dry, tongue-in-cheek English humor, a little slapstick, and 'Une ravissante idiote' will entertain you well.

Its story is about a Soviet spy circle in London, trying to steal a file with valuable military information from a vault. A paper file, to be precise, as personal computers do not exist back in 1964. Anthony Perkins is the spy circle's main tool to obtain it, Brigitte Bardot acting as his more than willing helper .... sorry folks, don't get any ideas: there is no nudity involved in this movie.

All in all, 'Une ravissante idiote' gives us a well-built, consistent story, and fine acting from everbody involved. Both Perkins and Bardot do well in this light comedy.

The unique teaming of Bardot and Perkins had great potential. But the two of them had no chemistry. That can't be faked. Perkins showed some comedic talent and spoke French, unusual for a Yank actor. Somehow, the end result was a tedious, unfunny bore. As for Bibi, she would have fared better in a more action oriented spy flick along the lines of Our Man in Instanbul (Horst Bulcholz/Sylva Koscina). Perkins and Sophia Loren had some chemistry in the noirish Ten Miles To Midnight.

Arguably the worst Tony Perkins' film that he did prior to the 1980s, this "comedy" in which he plays a bumbling spy trying to retrieve a file for the Russians concerning NATO military tactics, with the help of Bardot, is neither funny nor interesting. Don't bother with it.