Rating: **
Alternate Title: Marie-Chantal contre Dr. Kha
Review Date: 4/28/24
Cast: Marie Laforêt, Stéphane Audran
Marie-Chantal (Marie Laforêt) and her idiot cousin Hubert are vacationing in the Swiss Alps when a mysterious man passes a blue panther pendant to her and begs her to keep it safe. For the rest of the movie, her life is in danger from a group of international spies who want the pendant, but they never outright take it from her. Through her wits and shear dumb luck, she manages to outsmart all of her adversaries and even defeats the sinister and power-mad Dr. Kha, who is supposedly the smartest scientist in the entire world.
Obviously inspired by the spy film craze of the 1960s, the movie leans into all of the familiar tropes, but can't decide if it's serious or not. Much like Marie herself, the film is quirky and aloof, and you're never quite sure what to make of it. The beautiful Marie Laforêt is charming throughout, and has a lot more going on than her air-headed demeanor suggests. She's also very athletic and does a marvelous job of running in heels. The only adversary who presents any real threat is Olga (Stéphane Audran), who nearly steals the show with her sexy schemes. The male characters are incompetent and mostly played for laughs, and the evil Dr. Kha is a ridiculous bald man who resembles Mike Myers's Dr. Evil and inexplicably speaks with an echo. The pacing is sluggish, the action scenes are pathetic, and the fight scenes are downright embarrassing, but the film is attractive and overall well-made.