The secret of the white nun

Movie
German title	The secret of the white nun
Original title	The Trygon Factor / The Trygonfaktor
Country of production	Great Britain , Germany
original language	English
Publishing year	1966
length	88 minutes
Age rating	FSK 16
Rod
Director	Cyril Frankel
script	Derry Quinn Stanley Munro
production	Horst Wendlandt Preben Philipsen , Ian Warren
music	Peter Thomas
camera	Harry Waxman
cut	Oswald Hafenrichter
occupation
Stewart Granger : Superintendent Cooper Smith Susan Hampshire : Trudy Emberday Sophie Hardy : Polly Lacroix Robert Morley : Hubert Hamlyn Brigitte Horney : Superior Eddi Arent : Emil Clossen Siegfried Schürenberg : Sir John (in the German version) James Robertson Justice : Sir John (in the English version) Cathleen Nesbitt : Lady Livia Emberday Diane Clare : Clare O'Connor James Culliford : Luke Emberday Allan Cuthbertson : Inspector Thompson Colin Gordon : Dice Yuri Borienko : Nailer Conrad Monk : Pasco John Barrett: Leader Caroline Blakiston : White Nun Richardina Jackson : Colored Nun Jeremy Hawk : Bank Director Russell Waters : Sergeant Chievers Joseph Cuby : Receptionist Tom Bowman : Security Guard Inigo Jackson : ballistics expert Cicely Paget-Bowman : Woman in the Hotel Hilary Wontner : Man in the hotel Monika Dietrich : photo model Carmen Dene : photo model Carol Dilworth : photo model Karen Young: photo model

The secret of the white nun is a British - German crime film (English title: The Trygon Factor ), which is based on motifs from the novel Käthe und Her Ten (original title: Kate Plus Ten ) by Edgar Wallace . The film was produced by Rialto Film and shot in London between August and October 1966 . The premiere of the 27th Edgar Wallace film of the post-war period took place on December 16, 1966 in the Passage-Kino in Saarbrücken .

action

While researching several robberies in London , most recently a jeweler , Inspector Thompson of Scotland Yard comes across the estate of the Emberday family, who run the nunnery of the Order of Vigilance there. The nuns make ceramics on the estate. In the monastery he meets the nun Clare O'Connor, who was previously noticed for minor offenses. Thompson wants to help her escape in return for information, but is drowned after their meeting by a masked figure in a baptismal font in the monastery. O'Connor escapes in a group of tourists from the monastery to the Whiteheart Hotel , where Thompson was also staying.

After the disappearance of his inspector and another bank robbery, Superintendent Cooper Smith begins an investigation as well. At Emberday Hall, the Mother Superior and the Emberday family, consisting of Lady Livia, her crazy son Luke, and her daughter Trudy, a photographer, have not seen Inspector Thompson. Skeptical about the roles of the family and the nuns, Smith also takes a room at the Whiteheart Hotel. However, receptionist Polly assures Smith that she has not seen him.

Meanwhile, the Emberday family is planning the funeral of a relative from Monte Carlo . This turns out to be the bank robber Clossen, who is transported from Switzerland to England at the instigation of the order and the family . The family and the order are responsible for the robberies, the nuns hide the stolen goods in the vases made in the monastery. Together they plan their last raid in order to then leave abroad.

Eventually, Thompson is found dead in the River Thames in Wapping , London . At the same time, the escaped Clare O'Connor is drowned in the bathtub of her room at the Whiteheart Hotel by the same masked figure who murdered Thompson. Smith discovers that O'Connor was a nun and interrogates the monastery director and trustee, Hubert Hamlyn, in the monastery warehouse near where Thompson's body was found. Hamlyn, however, denies O'Connor's membership in the order. Smith later has the warehouse searched. However, the search of the monastery fails due to the honor and reputation of the nuns, as they only produce seemingly harmless ceramics.

In the meantime, the nuns and their accomplices disguised as police officers raided the bank on Hencher Street and stole a million pounds in gold bars. The employees are killed with a poison gas. Clossen opens the safe with a kind of rocket launcher , and the nuns' accomplices are murdered in the gold truck on the way to the monastery. Trudy and the superior drowned Clossen later in the warehouse. Since the warehouse is being watched by the police, the matron and Trudy flee by boat. In the monastery, Lady Livia has Hamlyn, who has also fled and who turns out to be the superior's husband, murdered by the nuns.

After it is established that Thompson has been murdered, Smith searches the monastery without permission. Polly, the receptionist, also tries to break into the monastery to investigate. Here she meets the crazy Luke who wants to play with her and unintentionally drives her into the arms of the monastery workers.

In the monastery, Smith first discovers Hamlyn's body. After a fight with an employee of the monastery, he finds the nuns in the ceramics workshop where they are already melting the gold for the vases. However, he is overwhelmed and captured.

At the same time, the masked figure tries to kill the now imprisoned Polly, but is surprised by Luke. In battle, he can reveal her as his sister Trudy. Trudy disguised herself because she never felt like a woman, but a man. In their fight, Luke and Trudy destroy the ceramic workshop until Lady Livia shoots Luke. Trudy then threatens Smith, who has freed himself during the fight, with a revolver. She confesses that she murdered Thompson and Clare O'Connor. Smith can distract her from shooting him. As a result, she shoots the superior, who then spills liquid gold, which she wanted to transfer, onto Trudy. Trudy dies from the burns.

After the arrest of the nuns and the shocked Lady Livia, Cooper Smith picks up Polly and takes her as his wife.

Reviews

In general, opinions on The Secret of the White Nun were rather mixed.

In the issue of December 31, 1966, the Hamburger Abendblatt praised the work of director Cyril Frankel . With an “excellent cast” he “cleverly connected the film to the high-voltage network of the upper crime class”. Tom Hutchinson from the British RadioTimes praises the black humor, but criticizes the star line-up. The actors would "just end up running around in the hope of receiving instructions from director Cyril Frankel". The Filmecho shows January 1967 pleased with the film event and the series concept Wallace, the "formal and technically" be "clean format" keep. One still murders "with method, pretty in detail and logically one after the other".

The lexicon of international film , on the other hand, simply classifies the film as "tasteless and brutal", as does the Evangelical film observer , who, however, specifically names the gastod scenes as the "peak of tastelessness". The film of "the usual make" of the Edgar Wallace film series is therefore "to be rejected". moviesection.de regrets that the newer films in the series no longer have "the biting joke" and the "horrible atmosphere" as the older films.

German version

The German actors Brigitte Horney and Eddi Arent synchronized themselves, while Siegfried Schürenberg , whose scenes were shot exclusively for the German version, can be heard in the original sound. Other voice actors were:

role	actor	Voice actor
Superintendent Cooper Smith	Stewart Granger	Curt Ackermann
Trudy Emberday	Susan Hampshire	Eva Pflug
Hubert Hamlyn	Robert Morley	Erich Fiedler
Luke Emberday	James Culliford	Thomas Danneberg
Inspector Thompson	Allan Cuthbertson	Horst Keitel
Lady Livia Emberday	Cathleen Nesbitt	Lia Eibenschütz
Polly Lacroix	Sophie Hardy	Traudel Haas

Others

• In mid-1965, Rialto Film's own London subsidiary was founded under the direction of Ian Warren . The company was supposed to shoot this film on its original location in London in early 1966 . Originally wanted to film there Rialto and the remake of "The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes" and Edgar Wallace film "The Angel of Secrets" (English title:. Angel of Terror ) produce. Both projects were not realized after the British Rialto Film stopped production after this film.
• The first script by Derry Quinn had a different content and was initially entitled "Reign of Terror". After being renamed “The Trygon Factor”, it was extensively revised by Stanley Munro within a very short time .
• The shooting took place, much later than planned, between August 15 and October 7, 1966 on location in London and the surrounding area. The interior shots were taken at Shepperton Studios . The setting of the Emberday Hall estate was St. Mary's University , Strawberry Hill , in the Twickenham district in south-west London .
• Initially, other actors were planned: Heinz Drache instead of Stewart Granger , Maria Perschy or Nadja Tiller instead of Susan Hampshire , Marisa Mell instead of Sophie Hardy , Elisabeth Flickenschildt instead of Brigitte Horney , Wolfgang Kieling instead of Robert Morley . Also harald leipnitz and Klaus Kinski were originally involved in it. The director was initially Alfred Vohrer , later Alvin Rakoff .
• Stewart Granger took on the lead role as a replacement for the unrealized follow-up film to " Old Surehand Part 1 ", which fulfilled the contract that had already been signed. The film brought Susan Hampshire her first major lead role.
• For the German version, three alternative scenes with Siegfried Schürenberg as Sir John were filmed. In the original English version, James Robertson Justice played this role. Otherwise the two versions are identical with the exception of the credits.
• With this film, Eddi Arent said goodbye to the Edgar Wallace series. He acted in a total of 23 films in the series. As the busiest performer, he became something of a mascot for the series. Used for years as a personable comic relief , he played consistently negative types in his last four Wallace films and died the film death in each case.
• With a production volume of 4,000,000 DM, this was the most expensive production of the Edgar Wallace films .
• The film was approved by the FSK for ages 16 and over without any restrictions. The film was initially released in a heavily abridged version on television and as a video. The copy used for this was missing a complete act of about seven minutes in length. In 1991, the shortened version for ages 12 and up was released. In the meantime, the film has been released in the original theatrical version and is again released from the age of 16.
• Peter Thomas' soundtrack was released in 1968 on a production music LP "Jazz Graphics / The Spy Set" - KPM 1042 - without any reference to the feature film. The LP has just been published online again - again without any details. Parts of the soundtrack can also be found on the CD "Kriminalfilmmusik - Peter Thomas" BSC Musik GmbH (2000).

literature

• Edgar Wallace: Kathe and her ten (original title: Kate Plus Ten ). German translation. Heyne Verlag, Munich 1974, ISBN 3-453-10179-0 .
• Joachim Kramp , Jürgen Wehnert: The Edgar Wallace Lexicon. Life, work, films. It is impossible not to be captivated by Edgar Wallace! Verlag Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89602-508-2 .
• Joachim Kramp : Hello! This is Edgar Wallace speaking. The story of the legendary German crime film series from 1959–1972 . 3. Edition. Verlag Schwarzkopf and Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89602-645-3 .

Web links

• The Trygon Factor in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The secret of the white nun at filmportal.de
• The secret of the white nun ( memento from December 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) at deutscher-tonfilm.de
• Sound carrier with the film music

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hamburger Abendblatt- Hamburg: New Films in Hamburg. December 31, 1966, accessed April 18, 2020 (German). 
2. ^ Tom Hutchinson: The Trygon Factor Review. In: RadioTimes. Retrieved April 18, 2020 (English). 
3. ↑ Der Deutsche Film - Wallace - Ära 3. Retrieved on April 18, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Two thousand and one. Film lexicon FILMS from AZ - The secret of the white nun. Retrieved April 18, 2020 . 
5. ↑ The Secret of the White Nun Criticism . No. 16 . Evangelical Press Association, Munich 1967, p. 24 .
6. ↑ Thomas Ays: Edgar Wallace - The secret of the white nun. In: moviesection.de. Retrieved April 18, 2020 . 
7. ↑ German synchronous index | Voice actor | Lia Eibenschütz. Retrieved March 23, 2020 . 
8. ^ The Trygon Factor (1966) - IMDb. Retrieved March 27, 2020 .