The Swiss Conspiracy

I've got an acquaintance on one of the non-movie blogs I regularly read who works for a Swiss multinational and jokes that he "will work for raclette" and that he goes off to the fondue mines. So when I came across a new-to-me movie available to stream on Tubi called The Swiss Conspiracy, I knew I had to watch it.

The movi was released in 1976 and was based on the existence in those days, as an opening title card also read in voiceover tells us, that Swiss banks were highly valued for their absolute secrecy, with accounts being numbered and nobody revealing the names behind the numbers. Of course there are humans behind the banking system, so it's theoretically possible to get at the humans in some way. Cut to a shot of a man eating dinner in a restaurant, with a waiter coming in pushing a cart full of food, only to reveal he's got a gun, shooting the patron dead!

We then go to the Hurtil Bank in Zürich, run by the Hurtil family, with the current president being Johann Hurtil (Ray Milland). Somebody comes in wanting to see the president, and carrying a letter. That person has received a blackmail letter, saying that that blackmailer knows the recipient has an account at the Hurtil bank and that if the victim doesn't pay up SFr. 1 million, the account information will be made public. This is an obvious problem for the victim, but it's just as much of a problem for the bank, as they don't want to reveal that they've been compromised.

Hurtil and his vice-president, Benninger (Anton Diffring), feel like they can't really go to the police, at least not with the emphasis of handling things through the traditional legal system, since the result would be a trial which would reveal way too much information about the loss of banking secrecy to the general public. So instead, they bring in a former agent from the US Treasury department, David Christopher (David Janssen).

At the same time Christopher is at the bank, he's introduced to two people of note. One is Denise Abbott (Senta Berger), who is a blackmail victim, having blackmailed men herself as their mistress and then hiding the money with Hurtil. You'll notice I wrote "a" blackmail victim, not "the". In fact, there are five victims. One has already been killed as we saw at the beginning of the movie; Abbott is a second; and Christopher is about to meet a third, Hayes (John Saxon), who is a Chicago mobster and absolutely pissed to see Christopher since he things the bank has gone to the American authorities. There are more victims: Texas oilman McGowan (John Ireland), and Dutch businessman Kosta.

Christopher's job is to find the blackmailer and handle the matter with discretion. Hurtil himself would seem like a place to start, as would Benninger. But beyond that, who? And when some thugs go after first Christopher and then Hayes, you have to wonder whether Swiss bankers would know enough to be able to hire such hitmen. (I must admit I have zero experience with Swiss banking.)

The Swiss Conspiracy feels like the sort of movie that might have been made because the producer had funds that they had to use in Switzerland, and wanted to get some Hollywood names (or former names) who wanted a working vacation in lovely Switzerland. That, and the movie has the feel of a TV Movie of the Week with a bunch of formerly big stars, much the way that The Love Boat did except that the running time is twice that of a traditional TV episode. The Swiss Conspiracy is moderately entertaining, but ultimately forgettable.