La grande sfida a Scotland Yard

Not a lot of people know that while Merton Park were making their black & white Edgar Wallace adaptations during the early sixties two separate series were being made in Germany with the emphasis in their case being more on sinister hooded figures and the like.

At about the time that the series at Merton Park came to its conclusion for the next couple of years the German adaptations continued with contributions from the British; which accounts for a hybrid like The Trygon Factor', which was in colour with a cast containing Brits like Stewart Granger and Allan Cutherbertson but a very Germanic ambience. And a revelation of the identity of the killer at the conclusion that's a real doozy.

Edgar Wallace wrote some fine old English murder mysteries and practically invented the genre with the glorious exception of Sherlock Holmes. He was a pretty prolific author and The Trygon Factor was one of his stories.

Sadly this souped up modern version updated for the swinging London 60s just doesn't cut it. Stewart Granger stars as the Scotland Yard Inspector on the trail of one of his own gone missing and stumbles on a nice smuggling racket run by a most eccentric landed gentry family and a convent who share the same real estate.

It's a fine kettle of fish when the aristocracy has to use one of its stately homes of England for some racket. But when aristocrats fall on hard times they'll do anything short of day labor.

Not even Robert Morley and Cathleen Nesbit can save this. And Susan Hampshire as a love interest for Stewart Granger is absurd.

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.

A Scotland Yard detective (Stewart Granger) is investigating a string of robberies and a murder, and the information he uncovers leads him to the estate of a wealthy but strange English family, who share their mansion with a group of nuns. The detective comes to suspect that neither the family nor the nuns is quite what they seem to be.

Quite an oddball mystery film that can be confusing, character motivations can be hard to fathom and there's a lack of sharpness in the plot, but on the other hand, it's strangeness can be entertaining and there's a dash of creativity at work. There's nice decor, location and a sinister atmosphere- and some black humour. Stewart Granger is his usual charming self and makes this a distracting watch.

I must admit this was an interesting picture. It has some zany scenes, like nuns racing down the River Thames in a motorboat, which alone are worth the price of admission. It was filmed partially at St. Mary's College in Twickenham, Middlesex, England, using the part of the college termed "Strawberry Hill," which Horace Walpole built as a Gothic-revival castle in the mid-1700's. I was an American teenager who happened to study at that college in 1969, and the staff mentioned that this picture had been filmed there a few years before. In fact, quite a few films and television shows have been made at "Strawberry Hill" because the college needs the funds badly for upkeep. I also remember a scene in the film with overt lesbian overtones.