Fractional Thriller

Aaent 8 3/4%. To make a contemporary spy thriller without sneaking in a nod to James Bond would apparently be an unthinkable breach of custom. In Agent 83A, the amenities are ticked off with ease when Robert Morley, as an epicene intelligence chief, routes Bond's records into a file drawer marked "Deceased." That takes care of 007, but leaves 8 3/4% with only fractional assets.

Needing a dupe to carry out a delicate mission in Prague, Morley hires an unpublished writer (Dirk Bogarde). "I'd be a lot happier if he'd been to a decent school," says Morley's aide in dour appraisal of the new man. Bogarde believes that he is a trade representative sent to pick up a message from a Czechoslovakian glass factory. Instead he picks up the Communist intelligence chief's voluptuous daughter (Sylva Koscina), one of those girls to whom defection and seduction are practically synonymous. Of course, the two fall in love and run into difficulties that lead them from bed to glassworks to a public swimming pool, and other colorful local settings.

Though some of their adventures stir excitement, 8 3/4% never quite makes up its mind whether to be a spoof or a spine-tingler. But just before the giddy lovers emplane for England, Morley offers a verdict about the plot. He assures everyone that the sought-after secret document was only a scrap of paper, and the whole business just a routine bit of counterespionage. Precisely.

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