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 a weird combination of mystery (there is a masked killer at work),heist movie (a gold robbery),and comedy (of the black kind). It mostly falls flat, but it also has its moments (like the scene mentioned in my summary above),and scores points for having several women - for a change - running the criminal organization that Granger goes up against. ** out of 4.

I've only seen a handful of Krimi's so far, but already it's clear that you can expect just about anything to happen, and while the plots don't always make complete logical sense - you can at least be guaranteed a damn good time! The Trygon Factor is no exception to this rule as the film being together several different plot elements and manages to spin a very intriguing tale of crime and murder out of it! Like most (all?) of the genre, the film is based on a book by Edgar Wallace and puts it's main focus on a monastery inhabited by both a group of nuns and a strange family. There has been some strange happenings going on in the area; including murder, and this leads Scotland Yard detective Cooper-Smith to investigate. It's not long before his investigation leads him to the monastery, but gaining a search warrant is a difficult task considering that the centre of it all is a place lived in by nuns. The detective therefore has to try and gather some 'real evidence' on the crimes which will allow him to gain the warrant and crack the case!

On paper it really sounds like this film will be a disaster as there's a great deal of little subplots and characters; yet somehow, the story comes together and despite a few moments of confusion; actually is quite coherent. The style of the film is great; director Cyril Frankel delivers a great colour scheme and the look of the film really suits its wayward plot line. The acting is very decent too, and the film features a standout performance from Stewart Granger in the lead role. It's clear that the film is not meant to be taken entirely seriously, and this is to its benefit as a truly serious tone would have ruined it. There's plenty to chuckle at in this movie! The atmosphere is great and the monastery at the centre of the movie provides some nice locations for the action to take place in. The murder scenes are not gory, but they are entertaining to watch - the final one is not to be missed! Overall, the Krimi genre on the whole certainly takes a bit of getting used to but it's great fun and this film is no exception. Highly recommended viewing!