The Saint - The Fiction Makers
            
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Year: 1968
Rating: 7.0
The Saint is in my opinion one of the best shows to ever grace the small screen. There were 118 episodes running from 1962 to 1968 starring the impeccably polite, classy, confident and at times smug Roger Moore. The first 71 episodes were shot in black and white and the rest in color. This was a two-parter that was folded into a film. The same for Vendetta for the Saint. The beginning of the show became iconic - Simon Templar (the Saint's real name) would be with some people and someone would point out that he was The Saint and a halo would appear above his head, a smile on his face and the famous theme music would kick in to the silhouetted images in action during the opening credits. The theme music came from a whistled tune by the creator of the character, Leslie Charteris, who also kept a close eye on the show. Often, the Saint would speak directly to the audience. It was really unlike any other show mixing humor, action, suspense, beautiful women, foreign locations, spiffy cars and excellent production values.


 
The character of the Saint of course has a long history beginning with the 19 novels and many short stories by Charteris beginning in 1928. The Saint was a debonair jewel thief and occasional killer but usually on the side of justice. Beginning in 1938 the Saint was brought to film by RKO for nine films usually starring George Sanders. But the first one, The Saint in New York, had Louis Hayward as the Saint and he was fairly close to the book - part hero, part sociopath - but when Sanders took over, they cleaned him up and turned him into a do-gooder with a shady past. Even though many of the TV shows were based on Charteris's writings, they kept the elegance and charm of the Saint but smoothed him out even more so. The Saint is a gallant knight generally saving a woman in distress or upending the plans of villains and spies. He still steals from time to time but always in a good cause. Inspector Teal from Scotland Yard is always out to nail him but never does.

 

Moore who had wanted to produce the Saint a few years previously is perfect for him. Maybe a shade too handsome but he brings the audience into his schemes with a raised eyebrow or smirk. I like him so much more as the Saint than as James Bond. He had been offered the Bond role a few times in the 1960s but turned it down because of his TV show though eventually accepting it in 1973. But by then the Bond films had taken on a comic aspect that feels very outdated today - to me anyways - Jaws? Really? This two-parter has a clever plot with more than a spoonful of tongue in cheek humor. It is directed by the very able Roy Ward Baker who had helmed Quatermass and the Pit the year before and would go on to a few other Hammer films - The Vampire Lovers, Scars of Dracula and Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde.

 

Templar is asked by a publisher friend to go check up on one of his writers, Amos Klein, after someone has broken into his files on the author. The author is very secretive, never had a picture published and the character in the books is a super spy who fights against the evil forces of S.W.O.R.D. headed by Warlock. In fact, some thugs show up - one of them Nicholas Smith, Mr. Rumbolt in Are You Being Served? - and kidnap the Saint and Klein. But Klein it turns out is a female (Sylvia Sims) and the kidnappers make the easy mistake of thinking Templar is Klein. The kidnappers work for a man so enthralled with her books that he has taken on the identity of Warlock and asks Templar/Klein to come up with plan to break into the most impregnable storage facility holding millions in valuable. If they don't, they die.