Airy Adventure

By J .C .

TOUCH AND GO

Directed by PHILIPPE DE BROCA Screenplay by JEAN-LOUP DABADIE

Lighter than helium and just about as dense, this adventure farce is a pleas ant enough way to pass a little time. Di rector Philippe de Broca (That Man from Rio, Cartouche) has a blithe liking for unlikely situations and hapless heroics.

Here, a French gunrunner (Michel Piccoli) and a British officer (Michael York) dash about North Africa during the early days of World War II, trying to avoid the Germans and get back to safety. Our boys do fairly well for themselves, but the stresses of escape and pursuit weigh heavily. "Let's surrender," suggests the Englishman after a particularly grueling day. "Why?" asks his French ally. "Because,' says the Englishman with invincible and poignant common sense, "I'm hungry."

Adding edge to quite another type of appetite is their third companion, the wife of the Swiss ambassador (Marlene Jobert). She gives the men asylum and a ride past the German checkpoint, where things do not go well. The Germans are suspicious, and the wife tears off into the desert like an ace getaway driver. The bullets fly, and it is all great fun. Jobert also takes a shine to her two anxious soldiers of fortune, although which one she truly loves becomes a source of good-humored competition.

Touch and Go remains casual about matters of plot, however, and gets lazy in its joking. There are too many Italian-army gags, for example, all having to do with stupidity or cowardice. Even more drastic, the film has an insinuating cuteness, like De Broca's much-cherished King of Hearts. De Broca works hard at being likable, and makes it, finally, alto gether too easy.

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