The Swiss Conspiracy (1976) has a credit sequence so bad that I almost didn’t keep watching afterwards, but I endured, for some reason—and probably shouldn’t have. This schlocky mystery involves a Swiss bank run by Johann Hurtil (Ray Milland), which learns that five of its important clients are being blackmailed. Hurtil secures the services of former U.S. Justice Department agent David Christopher (David Janssen) to investigate and deal with the problem. This leads to clashes with old rival Robert Hayes (John Saxon), romance with the lovely Denise Abbott (Senta Berger), car chases, gunplay, and other assorted peril.
Looking like it was filmed through a wet newspaper, The Swiss Conspiracy executes a middling mystery plot while managing the trick of making Switzerland look grubby and unappealing. The cheesy, disco-funk soundtrack is almost enough to elevate it into so-bad-its-good territory, but beyond that its only true assets are Janssen’s gruff charisma and Berger’s good looks. The rest is just ugly, uninteresting filmmaking that leads to a comically terrible pseudo-noir ending on a Swiss mountaintop. There’s a reason you haven’t heard of this one; eminently skippable.
