Trygon Factor, AKA Factor One (1966)

It’s groovy! It’s funky! It’s got saucy French hotel receptionists stripping down to their undies for no apparent reason! It’s got Stuart Grainger in it as an ageing lothario! And Susan Hampshire, before she moved to Glenbogle! It’s not really horror at all (ahem), but it does have a spooky killer and assorted mental nuns! So it’s going on this site!

Well, with all the exclamation marks used up already for this particular review, I suppose I’d better crack on. A moustachioed man gets drowned in a font when he gets caught sneaking around what appears to be a convent. Meanwhile, Cooper-Smith of the Yard (Grainger) is investigating a bank robbery, during which the thieves used a mortar gun (“They get cheekier and cheekier…” is his stiff-upper-lipped reaction). Somehow (don’t ask) his investigation leads him to the convent, which is actually an old stately home which is being rented to the Sisters Of Vigilance by the owner, a Mrs Emberley.

Anyway, it turns out that Mrs Emberley is smuggling precious jewels using the nuns’ pottery company as a front, with her brother (Robert Morley) running the import-export side of things. Cooper-Smith (who drives an Aston Martin and “doesn’t look like a policeman”, whatever that means) finds that all the young popsies he comes across (oo-er) start dropping like flies (usually after they’ve stripped off down to their undies). Mrs Emberley’s daughter (Hampshire) doesn’t strip off down to her undies, (boo) but she is a fashion photographer - necessitating lots of other young ladies to strip off down to theirs (hooray).

As the swinging plot whips along with plenty of cold English reactions to murder, we’re treated to a fair amount of double-crossing and a particularly great “isn’t Robert Morley fat?” joke (when it’s only the impact of his enormous frame which stops a seemingly unstoppable baddie).

With its barking mad script and screamingly camp approach to what is basically a cops v. smugglers tale, Trygon Factor owes more than a bit to The Avengers, with only the occasional nasty death (molten gold, anyone?) and bit of semi-nudity reminding you that you’re watching a film, rather than an ITC telly show. So, not horror - but worth checking out by anyone who enjoys the swinging stuff purveyed by horror companies like Amicus.

Last updated: February 27, 2010