THE TRYGON FACTOR is an odd little addition to the German cycle of krimi movies, aka Edgar Wallace adaptations, that were made throughout the 1960s. This one is more of a UK production although it's still listed as a UK-West German collaboration. Certainly the setting and cast are all British so this feels like a low budget British thriller and despite the odd appearance of a black-clad murderer in a creepy mask it doesn't really feel like a Wallace movie at all.
In fact, I'm not really sure what it does feel like. THE TRYGON FACTOR is a film with a bit of everything including a surprisingly lightness of touch that makes it feel like a comedy in places. In essence a cast of British notables go through their paces in a wacky story about the mysterious goings-on at a nunnery, of all places. An aristocratic family are implicated in a recent crime spree so a Scotland Yard detective is sent to investigate.
This low budget movie is directed by Cyril Frankel, who had recently made NEVER TAKE SWEETS FROM A STRANGER and THE WITCHES for Hammer. It's better than THE WITCHES, I'll give it that. Stewart Granger headlines the cast and does his best Cary Grant impersonation. Allan Cuthbertson is present in the arresting opening sequence as an investigating detective. Hammer starlet Diane Clare (PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES) is also around as a nun on the run, quite literally. The likes of Susan Hampshire, James Robertson Justice, and Robert Morley all play sinister suspects. Russian hardman Yuri Borienko (ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE) has a fine if clichéd part as a tough henchman and there's a great fight scene involving his character. At times THE TRYGON FACTOR feels like a random sequence of outlandish moments strung together by the barest of plots, but it's quite watchable and the ending is a memorable one.
