The Saint strikes Back (1938) George Sanders comes across all smarmy. The film's fun though.
The Saint in London (1939) Apparantly Charteris' favourite of all the screen adaptations. It's a fine movie with a tense noir like feel and Sanders, ever the lounge lizard, does shine in this one.
The Saint's Double Trouble (1940) Two George Sanders- ahhh!
The Saint Takes Over (1940) George Sanders again and by this time the films had become far more comedic. But the film is entertaining enough.
The Saint in Palm Springs (1941) George Sanders is once more in fine form in the Miami set thriller involving precious postage stamps.
The Saint's Vacation (1942) Hugh Sinclair takes over the role and what is it with that moustache? It doesn't help that he has ears like Prince Charles.
Not one of the best.The Saint Meets the Tiger (1943) Again High Sinclair but the story is better this time and the film is a far better movie that Sinclair's debut. It would prove to be his last, though.
The Saint's Girl Friday (1954) Older, wiser but just as good Louis Hayward returns to the role. The film falls short of the excellence of The Saint in New York but it was still the best in years.
The Saint (1997) Well it's called The Saint and some of it looks like The Saint but it sure doesn't feel like The Saint. A major disappointment.
There were also two cinema versions of Roger Moore's Saint series but these were cobbled togethered episodes and there have been several foreign language movies. A full list can be found HERE.
2 comments:
Many thanks for a Saintly weekend. I loved the Moore series when I was about 6. One weekend my dad said that one of his mates in MENSA *wrote* the Saint, and that we were going to see him at the weekend. We dove to a bungalow near Eastbourne. It wasn't Leslie Charteris, and even at that age I was disappointed. The guy collected music boxes as I recall (potentially quite a cool villainish hobby) but was a disturbingly normal bloke. From stuff I've read since I think he might have adapted some of the TV episodes for paperbacks.
Later as a young man I found Saint Omnibus on a junk stall and got into the real stories. These blew me away of course and one glorious summer was spent hunting down the books in paperback - an exercise i now intend to repeat!
Roy - yeah the Saint stories are excellent - Charteris was an important crime writer and the Simon Templar character is immortal. Glad you enjoyed.
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