Billy is king of the bungle; THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO LITTLE (12).

Bill Murray is a laugh as the naive, stupid American abroad in The Man Who Knew Too Little.

He's over here because it's his birthday and he's decided to surprise - shock, more like - his more sophisticated, successful brother (Peter Gallagher).

Since Gallagher is entertaining important business guests at home, he has to get rid of his gauche big brother.

So he books him a night on an experimental `live' theatre show, where Murray is to be part of the action.

That's when our hapless hero, thinking it's all play- acting, wanders smack into the middle of some old-fashioned cloak and dagger intrigue.

Hit men, femme fatale, scheming spy masters and a time bomb ... it has the lot.

This is the sort of mistaken identity comedy that they used to make, with Danny Kaye in the middle of all the confusion.

And right from his opening scene, where he's close to driving a Customs official at Heathrow suicidal, Murray shows that he's well cast as the bunglingly innocent and unlikely hero.

Joanne Whalley is less convincing as the femme- fatale, but there are neat cameos from Richard Wilson, as the tetchy spy boss, and Alfred Molina as Boris the

Butcher, an assassin who earned the nickname because he wants to quit killing for a contented life at the sausage, steak and chops counter. The film which - thankfully in a period when so many movies are far too long - is a tight 90 minutes or so.

And into that are packed some nicely judged comedy routines, like the superb comic choreography as Murray joins a high-kicking Russian folk dance group.

Or the high-speed car chase when Murray sends dozens of traffic cones flying by clipping one after the other and the pursuing cops confess that they'd always wanted to do that.

Then there are interesting oddball ideas, like two Russian agents playing a game of Ker- plunk! while waiting for the arrival of torturer Geraldine James.

Best of all is that Bill Murray's character never discovers that what he's imagined to be pretend is real secret agent stuff. That really makes the joke.

It's all very silly, but - thanks mainly to the timing of Bill Murray - fun.

RATING 7