Director Jack Arnold, the man behind The Creature from the Black Lagoon, This Island Earth and other wonderous, great low-budget science fiction and horror movies from the 1950s, ends his directorial career with 1976 crime action thriller, The Swiss Conspiracy, which is a co-production between the United States and West Germany.
The story is about a Swiss bank that discovers that some confidential account numbers have been compromised. Five account holders are receiving blackmail threats because of this. The bank brings in David Christopher (David Jannsen, Marooned, Warning Shot), who used to work for the US Treasury to investigate. This leads to some revelations with the people being blackmailed and a few more murders!
The Swiss Conspiracy is a moody tense thriller with a couple of cool on foot chase scenes. The film is loaded with screen legends in addition to David Jannsen. Senta Berger (The Secret Ways, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse) is Denise Abbott, one of the persons being blackmailed! John Saxon (The Night Caller from Outer Space, Tenebrae) is Robert Hayes, while John Ireland (My Darling Clementine, Railroaded!, Red River) is Dwight McGowan. Both gentlemen are also victims of the blackmail scheme!
Possibly the biggest name of the case is the iconic Ray Milland(The Lost Weekend, Ministry of Fear, Dial M for Murder)who is bank president Johann Hurtil, while horror star Anton Diffring (Circus of Horrors, The Man Who Could Cheat Death, Fahrenheit 451) is Franz Benninger, the bank’s VP. And Elke Sommer (The Double McGuffin, Baron Blood, Lisa and the Devil) is his mistress!
Film Masters, known for their great releases of Roger Corman classics, have released something different this time around with a Region Free Blu-ray of The Swiss Conspiracy. And just like their other releases, they have done a magical job with putting this release together.
Given a 4K scan from 35mm elements, the movie looks stunning! The colors are rich, bold, and strong throughout. The interior shots look fantastic with a lot of details. Exteriors also boast a lot of detail with rich textures. The cinematography by W.P. Hassenstein shines greatly on this Blu-ray with a lot of beautiful scenery in Zurich, where the film was shot! The image doesn’t appear to have any speckles or lines, while film grain is present. It’s a very nice, well-polished, clean image.
As with their other Blu-rays, Film Masters offers two options with their audio. They are English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 or Dolby Digital 2.0. I really do not notice any real differences and just comes down to preference. The dialogue, action scenes, gunshots to me were perfectly balanced without hissing or popping sounds. The soundtrack by Klaus Doldinger is also rich. English DHS subtitles are available for this offering.
For their Blu-ray Film Masters has provided some extras including a commentary track with Author and Podcaster Daniel Budnik and Film Historian Rob Kelly. They provide a wealth of information in their discussion of The Swiss Conspiracy.
There is a booklet with linear notes by Lee Pfeiffer, the Editor-in-Chief of Cinema Retro magazine who shares her knowledge about this obscure feature.
Ballyhoo Motion Pictures presents, “Jack Arnold: The Lost Years,” focusing on the late career years of the filmmaker. If you’ve seen other Ballyhoo features, then you know what to expect here. Ballyhoo owner Daniel Griffith puts a lot of time and effort into his documentary style extras, and it certainly shows!
There’s still more. On this Blu-ray, Ryan Verrill and Will Dodson from Someone’s Favorite Productions present a visual essay, “Jack Arnold: A Three-Dimensional Filmmaker”
There is also a restored original 35mm Theatrical Trailer for the movie as well.
Film Masters Blu-ray of The Swiss Conspiracy continues the streak of putting out great releases and this is another highly recommended package!
The Swiss Conspiracy
Director –Jack Arnold
Cast- David Jannsen, Senta Berger, Ray Milland
Country of Origin-USA
Distributor – Film Masters
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date – 2/6/24