The Swiss Conspiracy (Blu-Ray Review)
**The Blu-Ray/DVD from Film Masters of “The Swiss Conspiracy” will be available on February 20, 2024. This is a review of not just the feature, but the Blu-Ray edition. The grade for this will be for the main movie itself; the set grades will be featured in the body.
“The Swiss Conspiracy” (1976)
A film like “The Swiss Conspiracy” deserves to be restored not necessarily because it’s good, but because no movie- regardless of quality- deserves to be lost for all time. Think of the treasure of films just from the silent era that were lost forever because the studios didn’t see the need for preservation. Now, studios can just choose not to release films for the sake of a tax break, and never let it see the light of day. One can see “The Swiss Conspiracy” befalling either of those fates, but thankfully, Film Masters has chosen to restore it, and bring context to it.
Jack Arnold’s 1976 film is very much a spy thriller in the James Bond and “Mission: Impossible” vein, but also a paranoia thriller that is akin to the genre films of a post-Watergate, post-JFK America. This is genre filmmaking to cash in on what people wanted to see at that time, and “The Swiss Conspiracy” works on that level. Outside of John Saxon, most people won’t recognize the names of the actors in this film, but all serve the archetypes of the genre very well.
The film’s opening paragraphs set the stage for the film- Swiss banking is unique because the banks keep people’s banking information private. All they are are account numbers, and no one can get the information from them. That’s usually the case, at least, until now, when several clients of one such Swiss bank are being blackmailed for their accounts. The bank brings in David Christopher (David Janssen), a former U.S. Treasury agent, to help figure out who the blackmailer is. Whenever secret money is involved, however, you can expect that things will never be as simple as all that. After all, if it was, why make a movie?
For a film with four people credited for story, Norman Klenman’s screenplay is fairly tight in its plotting, moving briskly from one plot point to the other. The story is something which you’ll be familiar with, and Arnold keeps everything light without getting bogged down with any emotional or narrative complexity. It’s an entertaining film, though you may not necessarily remember it for long afterwards.
Blu-Ray Presentation
As always, Film Masters delivers the good with this new restoration and disc release. Their 4K restoration is successful in making the color cinematography, and scenery, pop, and the delightfully ’70s score by Klaus Doldinger sounds great. As for the extras, there should really be no surprises by now. I haven’t taken them in yet, but Film Masters always delivers the goods. Here, we get a restored classic trailer, as well as a new recut one; an audio commentary by film historian Robert Kelly and author Daniel Budnik; a video essay known as “A Three Dimensional Filmmaker”; a new featurette entitled “Jack Arnold: The Lost Years”; and liner notes written by Lee Pfeiffer.
Film Grade: B+
Audio & Video: A
Bonus Features: N/A
I’m thoroughly enjoying the variety of these Film Masters releases; it’s giving me a new appreciation of films on the outskirts of the cinema world, and I look forward to what’s coming up.
