The Trygon Factor

Film still

The Trygon Factor - 1967 | 88 mins | Thriller | Colour

The Production Team

Director: Cyril Frankel.
Producer: Brian Taylor and Horst Wendlandt.
Script: Derry Quinn and Stanley Munro. (based on the novel "Kate Plus Ten" by Edgar Wallace)
Cinematography: Harry Waxman.
Film Editing: Oswald Hafenrichter.
Art Direction: Roy Stannard.
Makeup Department: Aldo Manganaro.
Sound Department: David Bowen and Pat Holmes.
Costume and Wardrobe Department: Charles Guerin and Dulcie Midwinter.
Original Music: Peter Thomas.

The Cast

Stewart Granger - Supt. Cooper-Smith
Susan Hampshire - Trudy Emberday
Robert Morley - Hubert Hamlyn
Cathleen Nesbitt - Livia Embarday
Brigitte Horney - Sister General
Sophie Hardy - Sophie
James Robertson Justice - Sir John
Eddi Arent - Emil Clossen
Diane Clare - Sister Claire
James Culliford - Luke Embarday
Allan Cuthbertson - Det. Thompson

Plot Synopsis

Blackly comic crime farce of fake nuns committing a series of robberies; adapted from the Edgar Wallace novel Kate Plus Ten. Messily directed by Cyril Frankel, this muddled offbeat thriller contains many plot holes and will leave viewers frequently confused. Stewart Granger returned to his native Britain to make this picture, and is joined by a support cast of British stalwarts including Robert Morley and James Robertson-Justice.

Senior Scotland Yard superintendent, Cooper-Smith (Stewart Granger), is called out to a convent situated on the grounds of Emberday Hall to investigate a rash of unsolved robberies. Behind the cloak of respectability; a member of an old English family has turned to crime to save her palatial family estate from ruin.

Livia Embarday (Cathleen Nesbitt) and daughter Trudy (Susan Hampshire), a photographer, have set up a phoney convent for the Sisters of Vigilance, as a front for a stolen-goods and heist operation. Meanwhile the "nuns" decide to expand their operation and bring in Emil Clossen (Eddi Arent), a talented European safecracker. The gang rob a large amount of gold bars from a London bank, murder a number of their cohorts, and intend to melt down the stolen bullion so that exporter Hubert Hamlyn (Robert Morley) can smuggle it out of the country. The infighting continues as Clossen is drowned in a coffin, Hamlyn gets cold feet and is strangled to death; Trudy is killed when hit by a molten gold, and her brother Luke (James Culliford) is shot in the back.