The saint in palm springs (1941)

The Saint in Palm Spring
George Sanders, Wendy Barrie
Directed by Jack Hively

This story was actually based on a Leslie Charteris story but by the time it hit the screen so much had been changed that Charteris turned the script into the Palm Springs novella that appeared, alongside two other novellas, in The Saint goes West (1942). The Saint Goes west which also contains stories called Arizona and Hollywood contains much sniping at the film industry.Charteris was obviously not happy with the way the movies had sanitised his anti-hero.

This was George Sanders last film in the title role and although I personally preferred Louis Hayward's more hard-bitten portrayal , this is still a pretty good movie. The plot contains the search for some rare postage stamps. There's a reasonable enough mystery plot going on here and the supporting cast all have a part to play - Paul Guilfoyle is excellent as small time crook turned detective Pearly Gates and Jonathon Hale makes a wonderful authority figure for Sanders' Robin Hood of crime to bounce off.

This was the sixth entry in RKO's series based on the character and at only 66 minutes it's a pleasing enough diversion but, to my mind, the only film that has ever truly captured the character of the original novels was The Saint in New York (1938).

Sanders considered the Saint and Falcon films the low points in his resume but he may have been a little over critical in his assessment. He makes for a great dashing character, smooth, cool and composed but, and it is probably down to the scripts, he never had that dangerous edge that Hayward brought to the first Saint movie. Mind you when Hayward returned to the role in the 1950's, for a couple of British productions, he was a poor relation to Sanders Saint and a world away from his original portrayal.

In conclusion this is a fun film from a time when these sort of things were banged out by studios in a couple of weeks. It' not meant to be taken seriously and no attempt is made to remain true to the Charteris source material. If you like classic movies there is no reason that you shouldn't enjoy this. But if you want the real Saint on celluloid get the awesome and hard-boiled, Saint in new York.