The Swiss Conspiracy
                              
Director: Jack Arnold
Year: 1976
Rating: 5.0
A fairly bland film with a great cast though all of them were about ten years past their salad days. Still, this isn't bad - David Janssen, Senta Berger, Elke Sommer, John Saxon, John Ireland, Anton Diffring and Ray Milland. The same could be said about the director. Jack Arnold had been a big name in the B film circuit in the 1950s with fare such as Creature from the Black Lagoon, This Island Earth, Tarantula and The Incredible Shrinking Man - but since the early 1960s, he was embalmed in the world of TV episodes. This didn't get him back on track as it sank faster than a Mafia snitch in a concrete suit. Not that it is terrible - shot in Switzerland and an ok plot - but it felt like a TV film and I thought it was until one character says "bullshit". I don't think that was allowed on TV in 1976. The lead man Janssen was really a TV star who got hired for mediocre films from time to time. I am probably one of the few Janssen fans around, but I never would have paid money to see him in a theater. 

 

His character is hired by Ray Milland - well past his idol days and looking like a pumpkin a week after Halloween - who runs a Swiss Bank. We all know about Swiss banks and their fidelity to secrecy - but someone has gotten ahold of a few of the account numbers of their customers with dirt to hide. They are being blackmailed that if they don't fork money over, the secrets will be released. This includes Senta, Saxon and Ireland. Saxon is mob connected and calls a few boys over to kill Janssen for his old work in the Justice Department as well as his show O'Hara: US Treasury.  The plot is actually clever but the film has no sense of urgency and just rolls by. Of course, Senta cannot resist the charms and wry smile of Janssen (lucky bastard) and some skullduggery takes place. Both Senta and Elke look fine though Elke gets shortchanged in screen time. Saw it from a crappy video on YouTube. My usual complaint re that - if you are going to go to the trouble of uploading a film to YT - do it with a decent copy and of a significant size. You are killing my eyes.