I can’t quite believe it but this may in fact be the first Saint book I have read in about 35 years! I do remember picking up some of the tie-ins reprinted when Return of the Saint premiered on TV in 1978 but that was probably it – shocking! Hodder are reissuing all the books but as this collection of Simon Templar’s European adventures comes with a new intro by Mike Ripley, I couldn’t resist!
I submit this review for Bev’s 2014 Golden Age Vintage Mystery Challenge; Katie’s 2014 Book to Movie Challenge at Doing Dewey (for links, click here); and Patti Abbott’s Friday’s Forgotten Books meme over at her fab Pattinase blog, today celebrating works from the 1950s.
“… The Saint appeared to me to be a modern day knight errant, the clunky armour and white horse being replaced with a white, and anything but clunky, Volvo sports car, which was of course far cooler” from Mike Ripley’s introduction
In his highly amusing intro, Ripley admits that he grew up on the TV series starring Roger Moore rather than Leslie Charteris’ original books. On the evidence of this collection of seven stories, the adventures of Simon Templar (aka ‘The Saint’) still make for highly engaging escapist entertainment, even if some of the attitudes are very much of their time. As it happens, all seven of the stories were adapted for the Saint TV series starring Roger Moore, which was originally shown in the UK between 1962 and 1969. A huge hit in its day, Moore became instantly identified with the role and it’s easy to see why. Much nicer – with fewer criminal tendencies – than in the books but just as suave, broad-shouldered and good-humoured, he really is perfectly suited to the role, making the audience his partners in modern day fairy tales through his narration and his confiding, direct-to-camera introductions. As for the occasionally superior and patronising attitude to all and sundry, well, it makes the show creak a bit but it’s straight out of the books and is usually handled with plenty of humour (an anecdote on women drivers that is really sexist is then undercut when the Saint crashes his car).
Here are details for all seven of the short stories to be found in this volume (Charteris stopped writing Saint novels in the 1940s, focussing on short stories and novellas after that) and the TV adaptations that followed, with their respective original UK broadcast dates and original magazine publication, with a mini review attached for each (the characters not found in the original short stories are marked with an asterisk). It is interesting to note that the adaptations are mostly pretty faithful, that there was initially some location shooting overseas and that Moore, much like Patrick McGoohan in the first season of Danger Man, also affected a mid-transatlantic twang that would be lost as time went on.
“Monsieur the Inspector is, perhaps, anti-clerical?” Simon suggested gravely.
Paris: The Covetous Headsman (tx: 25 October 1962)
Magazine publication: The Saint Detective Magazine Spring 1953
Writer: John Roddick Director Michael Truman
Cast: Barbara Shelley (Valerie North), Eugene Deckers (Inspector Quercy), George Pastell (George Olivant), Esmond Knight (Antoine Louvois), *Robert Cawdron (Sergeant Luduc),*Carole Gray (Josie Clavel)
The volume gets off to a good start with the Saint getting mixed with Nazi collaborators, an unusual treasure hunt and a corpse that has been decapitated post-mortem (with acknowledgement duly made to Chesterton’s Father Brown classic, The Secret Garden), with a climax that would not have been acceptable for the Roger Moore TV iteration. The TV episode indeed is amended and greatly expanded, with the addition of several new characters (they all have additional sidekicks/henchmen) and the leading lady (a slightly underused Barbara Shelley) now being kidnapped at the halfway mark, though otherwise the plot, characters and dialogue are very faithful to the original. There is also a tiny bit of genuine location shooting with Moore in Paris, something that the series would rarely do in the future, relying completely on stock footage and the Elstree studio backlot.
“The Saint wore his clothes with the careless ease of a man accustomed to the best of everything, and with the confidence of one who did not have to think twice about paying for it”
Amsterdam: The Angel’s Eye (tx: 11 November 1966)
Magazine publication: The Saint Detective Magazine June/July 1953
Writer: Harry W. Junkin Director Leslie Norman
Cast: Jane Merrow (Mabel), Liam Redmond (Tom Upwater), *Anthony Nicholls (Lord Cranmore), *Donald Pickering (Jeremy), *T.P. McKenna (Malone), Cyril Shaps (Jonkheer)
The Saint is in the Netherlands and looking for a holiday, but as always trouble finds him, in the shape of middle-aged British couple Mabel and Tom Upwater. The husband brought over the eponymous precious gemstone to have it recut – but the next day the cutter claimed to have never seen him before, even after Tom complained to the police. Can Simon help the man keep his job and get the stone back? This is a neat little story with a nice twist at the end that I didn’t see coming. As it is quite a brief item, in making the transfer to TV the story underwent the usual overhaul with several new henchmen added as well as tons of padding by way of every conceivable cliché about Amsterdam (windmills, tulips, Anne Frank’s loft, Rembrandt’s home and a boat tour down the canals) and a new backstory – the stone now belongs to an English Lord fallen on hard times who decides to sell it, much to the disgust of Jeremy, his snobbish nephew. The Upwaters are now father and daughter and Jeremy is seemingly the villain of the piece – but the twist climax is retained and on the whole, despite the padding, this is a perfectly entertaining addition to the TV canon.
“There doesn’t seem to be any obvious reason why you should go on living, does there?”
The Rhine: The Rhine Maiden (tx: 21 January 1965)
Magazine publication: as ‘All Aboard for Shanghai!’ in The American Magazine February 1936
Writer: Brian Degas Director James Hill
Cast: Nigel Davenport (Charles Voyson), *Victor Beaumont (Dr. Schreiber), Stephanie Randall (Julia Harrison), *Anthony Booth (Hans), *George Pravda (Inspector Glessen)
While the saint is often referred to as a modern day Robin Hood, Charteris more often than not in this book calls him a buccaneer. In this story Simon reminds us of the darker side to his character, when he acts as both judge and executioner, something we had glimpsed at the climax of The Covetous Headsman. The Saint is on a train and befriends an old man and his daughter from the US who are visiting his homeland on his retirement. The man mentions that his pension comes from having invested all his savings in the company where has worked all his life as it happens that Charles Voyson, the CEO, is on the train too. The Saint however knows something the old man does not – that the newspapers have reported that company has gone bust and Voyson absconded with the money. Will Simon get recompense of the old man? Brian Degas really overhauls the narrative for the TV version – the father is already dead here and the focus is the daughter who is chasing Voyson for embezzlement. But, after having unsuccessfully trying to kills her with a low flying flower-pot, he fakes his own death and tries to start a new life, leading to the train climax from the story. Nigel Davenport makes for a terrifically hissable villain, quite the match for Templar and Anthony Booth is a great henchman – a really first-rate episode despite not being very close to the original.
“… he admitted that wrath and hauteur sat very well on her small imperious face”
Tyrol: The Golden Journey (tx: 6 December 1962)
Magazine publication: Harper’s Bazaar September 1934
Writer: Lewis Davidson Director Robert S. Baker
Cast: Erica Rogers (Belinda Dean), *Stella Bonheur (Aunt Joan West), *Paul Whitsun-Jones (woodcutter), Roger Delgado (Hotel Manager), *David Lawton (Guardia Civile)
This is an unusual story but a fascinating one, albeit with a few necessary caveats. While on holiday in Europe, after a quarrel with her fiancée, the fearsome Belinda Dean has her handbag stolen, losing all her money, identity papers and letter of credit. It turns out that Simon has taken them to teach her a lesson, forcing her to walk cross-country through Austria and learn about the real cost of living.
“It’s no good Belinda. You can’t run away. Life has caught up with you.”
Might this be seen as a vaguely subversive, even anti-Capitalist parable for the bitterest of the anti-Communist days of the Cold War? Well, it might read that way but the truth is that it was originally published during the 1930s Depression, and is much more explicable as an attack on the idle rich – and as such might find an extra resonance today. When Belinda softens they spend time with a group of people who wish to return to nature and turn their back on the cities – and given that we are describing central Europe after the rise of Hitler, this also give some extra density to this tale. It is also considered to be one of the best of the original TV episodes, a virtual two-hander in which the Saint undertakes the moral and ethical re-education of a rich and spoiled society woman, played fairly well by baby-faced Erica Rogers. The setting is relocated to the Costa Brava (though the countryside on display here looks a hell of a lot like Wales), though much is otherwise retained, including the climactic spanking (which might raise a few eyebrows today).
“I am Filippo Ravenna,” said the Saint.
Lucerne: The Loaded Tourist (tx: 1 November 1962)
Magazine publication: Manhunt March 1953
Writer: Richard Harris Director Jeremy Summers
Cast: Barbara Bates (Helen Ravenna), Edward Evans (Filippo Ravenna), Guy Deghy (Inspector Oscar Kleinhaus), *Joseph Cuby (Alfredo Ravenna), *Norman Florence (Carlos Visconti), Michael Rittermann (Paul Galen)
In Geneva the Saint is too late to stop a pair of thieves attack and kill Filippo Ravenna, an Italian businessman on his way to America. He runs after them and although they get away he ultimately manages to retrieve the victim’s briefcase, which is filled to the brim with precious goods. This is a fairly slender tale though an amusing one in which the police and the murderer prove as devious as Simon, who still gets away with part of the swag at the end. In the transfer to screen, the victim and his wife see their roles expanded and are also given a son, Alfredo, who spends most of his time helping the Saint solve the case. The adaptation is a smart one, using up all of the Charteris material and then embellishing on it very adroitly without changing the story at all and in many ways improving it by given the villain a much better-defined motive.
“It was a principle of the Saint’s sparsely principled career that one never exchanged entirely carefree badinage with anyone so liberally adorned with diamonds as Mrs Porphyria Nussberg”
Jaun-Les-Pins: The Spanish Cow (tx: 19 August 1965)
Magazine publication: Pearson’s Magazine July 1936
Writer: Michael Cramoy Director John Gilling
Cast: *Gary Raymond (Gilberto Arroyo), *Vivienne Ventura (Consuela Flores), Nancy Nevinson (Donna Luisa Arroyo), *Arnold Diamond (Colonel Latignant)
This is the slightest story in the collection, a character sketch of a large and ungainly American heiress who strikes fear and derision on the South of France and who, after pulling a face at Simon Templar, becomes the object of his criminal desires – or rather, her extraordinary jewels. Ultimately he makes an effort to become friends with her so that he can steal them but changes his mind when he finds that he pities her. For the TV version all that remains are the woman and her diamonds and the setting but the plot is now completely new. Mrs Nussberg becomes Donna Luisa Arroyo, the widow of the recently assassinated dictator of Santa Cruz and the diamonds are wanted by her brother-in-law to finance a counter-revolution and by the new government, who see that she has in her possession assets that now belong to the whole country. This is all handled in a thoroughly professional manner but is not especially memorable – but either way, given the massive if inevitable changes, one imagines Charteris wasn’t too impressed …
“Let’s-a go, sport,” said the man.
Rome: The Latin Touch (tx: 11 October 1962)
Magazine publication: The Saint Detective Magazine August/September 1953
Writer: Gerald Kelsey, Dick Sharples Director John Gilling
Cast: Alexander Knox (Governor Hudson Inverest), Bill Nagy (Tony Unciello), Warren Mitchell (Marco Di Cesari) Peter Illing (Inspector Buono), Suzan Farmer (Sue Inverest), *Doris Nolan (Maude Inverest), *Robert Easton (Benson), *Marie Burke (Signora Unciello)
We reach my home town in this concluding story about a kidnapping by the mafia, which proved one of the best and closest adaptations for the TV series. Roger Moore’s Italian is much better than the Saint’s in the book, which is riddled with grammatical, idiomatic and syntactical errors – but then Moore at the time had an Italian wife and had recently worked in Italy on a sand and sandal epic. Indeed, one of the nice things about this early episode is that there was some genuine location shooting in Rome for this episode around the Colosseum, which would become increasingly rare as the series wore on and the backlot used more and more. As in the case of The Covetous Headsman, the story is expanded by adding a girlfriend who works as a singer in a nightclub and a chatty older woman (a landlady earlier, here the mother of the villain) but really the the main addition is the expansion of the role of the taxi driver, which becomes a showcase for the awesome comic talents Warren Mitchell, who steals the show.
DVD Availability: Available in the US, France and Australia, in the UK the show comes in two volumes from Network. The first, ‘The Monochrome Years,’ contains all the episodes shot in black and white (all the episodes here with the exception of the colour episode from season 5, The Angel’s Eye); the second brings together all 47 of the episodes shot later in colour for season 5 and 6. Both come with abundant extras such as audio commentaries and best of all documentaries that alone are worth the price of admission, not least for reproducing some of the incredibly testy memos Charteris wrote to the producers (he really had it in for script editor Harry Junkin).
Producers: Robert S. Baker, Monty Berman
Screenplay: Harry W. Junkin (script editor)
Cinematography: Lionel Banes (Paul Beeson on The Angel’s Eye)
Art Direction: Charles Bishop, Allan Harris
Music: Edwin Astley
Cast: Roger Moore (Simon Templar, The Saint)
Anyone who wants to know anything about Simon Templar should consult the awesome resource that is www.saint.org/
I submit this review for Bev’s 2014 Golden Age Vintage Mystery Challenge bingo in the ‘amateur detective’ category:
Tipping My Fedora 
Sergio – You are definitely bringing back memories for me. I haven’t read those stories in forever! I’ll admit I didn’t really watch the TV show, but still – part of my mis-spent youth……
Thanks Margot – it was certainly fun reading these stories – relics of a bygone era they may, but I was certainly entertained!
I have never seen those television Saints. The first time I ever saw Roger Moore was in the Bond film For Your Eyes Only, like in 1981? My first Bond film. Bought a number of those nice Saint reissues and have been meaning to blog about them. Todd Downing was a fan back in the 1930s, along with many others!
Thanks Curt – yes, For Your Eyes Only was definitely 1981 (and one of the better Moore Bonds). In the UK the TV show was a real sensation in its day but is in fact still being repeated on digital TV channels – it probably helps that Sir Roger is still with us of course, though it looks like the recent attempt to start a new TV show didn’t get very far:
The book is available with me. However, I read it more than 30 years back and I have forgotten the stories. Hence I will reread it before submitting further comments.
Hope you enjoyt them Santosh and really look forward to hearing what you think of them after all these years.
I don’t think I’ve ever read any Saint stories but I set about remedying that earlier this year by picking up a handful of those new reprints. This collection wasn’t among them though, so I’ll look out for that next.
The TV show is a lot of fun and I dip in from time to time, unlike some I enjoy both the B&W and color episodes.
Thanks Colin – this one came out fairly recently (end of Jan, early Feb I think) – I must admit, I really enjoyed going through each story and then re-watching the relevant episode
Sounds a good way to do things. I’m very fond of short stories too so that’s another bonus as far as I’m concerned.
Funny I never read any of the books. I’m a fan of all things Saint-related. I like the RKO movies, Moore’s TV version and Ogilvy’s turn. The Dutton series I can take or leave to be honest though, and the Kilmer film is one I’d prefer to forget.
The onyl thing I’d liek to see of the Kilmer iteration si all the footage theiy junked fromt The original cut because the few stills I’ve seen made the climax at least looka lot more exciting. I agree though, all the various versions have advantatages to them and I really enjoyed the RKO and the Ian Ogilvy version too (it was my first exposure to the character – I still remember the TV Times cover announcing Return fo the Saint …
Cool! I don’t remember that cover but i certainly remember enjoying the series a lot as a kid.
At the time it seemed the height of sophistication and excitement – also, several episodes were shot in Italy (RAI was a co-production partner for several episodes) but, oh, to be ten years old again! Well, I’m sure I’ll get there if I live long enough …
Takes me back. I feel like putting on one of the discs now.
Network did another great job on those – and the ‘making of’ sees Ogilvy making several very sensible points about what, with hindsight, he might have done differently. The episode set in Venice, ‘Duel in Venice’ was a real highlight for me – which reminds me, the cover of the latest version has the Saint icon on a gondola even though none of the stories is set there …
Just to create a generic Euro feel I guess. Overall, I like the covers of the reprints, and I don’t often feel that way about current cover art.
And yes, the Network set of the Ogilvy series is very nice indeed.
The last great ITC series – well, the fact that it didn’t continue onmto a second series is probably why it was the last, not just because Lord Lew wanted to sink all that cash in Raise the Titanic ……
The Saint meant the TV prog to me in my childhood: in those days, with very limited channels, everyone watched the same series, and this one was very popular. I have never read the books though, and am absolutely loving all those different covers for the same volume – they couldn’t be more different.
Glad you enjoyed he covers – I did nick them all of the interweb apart from my one so I hope nobody complains 🙂
Lovely post! My only knowledge of the Saint is Roger Moore, but I *would* like to read some of the books!
Thanks Karen – I definitely want to go for one of the Saint novels next (which means published before 1948 as they were all ghost-written after that)
Thanks for the hint about 1948 – most useful!
Charteris was comparatively open about this but after The Saint Sees it Through in 1946 he onyl wrote novellas and short stories featuring Simon Templar – the rest were either novelisations of TV episodes (including one by and Harry Harris) or ghosted efforts, usually by Fleming Lee with some editorial input from Charteris. For further details, see: http://www.saint.org/books.htm
Thanks!
My very great pleasure 🙂
I’m afraid my knowledge of Leslie Charteris’ The Saint starts and stops with having seen the Val Kilmer movie, years ago, but never read any of the original stories or watched the Roger Moore adaptations. Maybe one has to do with other? Luckily, Adey has listed several Saint stories in Locked Room Murders, which will force me sooner or later to sample Charteris and The Saint. Of course, this review helped, too! 😉
Thanks TC – the Kilmer movie is a bit awful really – much better to watch some of the George Sanders movies or Roger Moore TV shows – way more fun (and much truer to the Charteris books) – I must check Adey, I hadn’t realised that!
I’m a big fan of the Charteris originals. I’ve managed to pick up most of the books, although after the Ogilvy TV series they more or less dropped out of print in the UK. Nice to see that the books are being made available again, as he is far too good a character to let die. The early stories, up till about the end of the War, are my favourites. Do like Moore, Ogilvy and the others, but the most interesting Templar is perhaps Louis Hayward in THE SAINT IN NEW YORK. Although he’s boyish and charming, he does come across at times as an amiable psychopath. He’s on ‘our’ side, but he enjoys murdering the bad guys just a little bit too much. As SHERLOCK put it “I may be on the side of the angels, but I’m not one of them”.
Thanks very much Skywatcher. I completely agree about Hayward, he is genuinely dangerous in the role and one one would imagine that Charteris would have approved. I can see why he didn’t continue in the role but iI wish he had (in the same vein).
Never seen, never read about The Saint though I’ve been holding on to an old Leslie Charteris paperback which I’ve been meaning to read for a long time (don’t recall the title now). This is the first I heard about the television series based on The Saint. However, I’d like to see a young Roger Moore as Simon Templar considering that I rather liked him as Bond in the eighties, which was the first time I ever saw him in a movie aside from another one alongside Tony Curtis that I don’t remember too well. Thanks for yet another revealing post, Sergio.
Thanks Prashant. He was great fun in The Persuaders (see below) opposite Tony Curtis despite some really horrible fashions (that he designed himself). You can watch an episode of Moore in The Saint online here.
Thanks for the links, Sergio. I remember “The Persuaders” somewhat vaguely.
It’s kind of a vague show Prashant! None of the stories is memorable but the chemistry between the two actors, and the great theme tune by John Barry, is worth the priove of admission (sic).
Like Margot, your fine review brought back a lot of memories. I watched THE SAINT TV show. as a kid. Roger Moore was perfect in the role. I read a few issues of THE SAINT MAGAZINE back then. I might have to invest in that box set of DVDs you mention.
Thanks George – the two DVD sets are tremendously good value by the way, I really recommend them.
I’ve seen both Moore and Ogilvy as “The Saint.” (Also, Val Kilmer, but that movie has absolutely nothing to do with the character other than co-opting his name and the calling card gimmick.) Discovering the real Simon Templar as opposed to the TV version was quite an eye opener for me. I’ve read only The Avenging Saint (aka Knight Templar), the third novel and a direct sequel to the second book The Last Hero. I was immediately struck by what a proto-super hero/super spy Simon Templar was in the book I read. I can only imagine his feats of derring-do get more and more elaborate as the series goes on. Plus I was astounded that Charteris was only 23 when he wrote the book, meaning he was even younger when he wrote Meet the Tiger! I have a ton of vintage Saint paperbacks and keep meaning to read the entire series in order. So many adventure and thriller writers owe a helluva a lot to Charteris and Simon Templar, not the least of which is Ian Fleming.
I’m sure you are right about his influence. I think in later years he was especially embarassed about the youthful excesses of Meet the Tiger, but he certainly started early and you’ve got to admire that (well, I have to) even if it is all so absurd because its really part of the charm I guess.
I read (some of) the novels when I was younger and remember enjoying them. Definitely watched the TV show although I don’t remember much about it. Of course, the novels I read may have been ghostwritten or a mix. I am sure I got them through the library and would not have known the difference. It would be interesting to try them again. Thanks for all the information about the books and TV shows and resources.
Thank you very much TracyK – I had a a great time getting (re)acquainted with Simon Templar.
The good news is I guess I’ll never run out of books to read. The bad news is there are so many I’ll probably never get too. Seems like every book I read is a choice made not to read another one. I’ve not read any of the Saint books, don’t have any, can’t imagine when I’d get to one. BUT, if I did, I’d try for one written before 1948. I wonder if the library still has any of these books? I’ll have to check.
As they have are being reprinted right now, I would hope there is a good chance the library will have some. Hope you enjoy the experience if you do get one Richard.
The one you reviewed here is the only one the library has, so I’ll get it.
Brill! I had no idea my influence stretched that far 🙂
Three stories in and enjoying. Fairly light stuff, fun, I can see what’s coming in most stories. Are the novels just longer stories, or are there differences when the author has more room?
Good question – not sure my memory is really up to an answer – I enjoyed those I read as a lad, but it was a while ago – the books he wrote in the 30s are usually held in high regard by his fans …
Charteris was very young when he first started writing; there are four novels (not very good, I’m afraid) that came before 1927’s MEET–THE TIGER! (which, compared to the novels and stories that followed, isn’t very good, either). But in DAREDEVIL, THE BANDIT, X ESQUIRE and THE WHITE RIDER (I’m not sure of the publication order) you can see the development of the writer Charteris would become and the outlaw hero who eventually took shape as the inimitable Simon Templar. I’ve been re-reading some of the earlier Saint stories for the first time in many years (my cousin introduced me to them in the late ’60s), and while there are a few cringe-inducing moments–Charteris was as prone to use ethnic stereotypes as any writer of the time–they are still enormously entertaining.
Thanks very much Michael for all the great background info – it’s easy I think to see why he remains popular.
I have reread the book and I found it enjoyable. The 2 best stories, in my opinion, are The Angel’s Eye and The Loaded Tourist.
In The Covetous Headsman, as you have mentioned, there is a reference to the Father Brown story “The Secret Garden” which is not named. Similarly, in The Angel’s Eye, there is an unnamed reference to the Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV episode “ Into Thin Air”.
Glad you enjoyed it Santosh and I think you are probably right on the merits of those stories. As for that reference in Angel’s Eye, well it’s a reference to the classic Paris Expo story, which allegedly happened in 1889 but may be an urban myth that has inspired a lot of fiction and served as the basis for the 1950 film So Long at the Fair as well as stories and radio plays by John Dickson Carr (the Hitchcock episode was screened after Charteris published his story) – there is an article on the original Paris story here.
Yes, on checking I find that while the Hitchcock episode was first telecast in 1955, Angel’s Eye was published in 1953. Thanks for the clarification and the link.
My pleasure chum!
Incidentally, my book cover varies from all the various covers shown by you. It is the Macfadden Books 1967 edition. It has an interesting blurb on the front cover, ” Follow the Saint around the Continent, while he rescues damsels in distress, steals when it’s convenient—-and kills only when it’s necessary “
I like that blurb Santosh – it has the real virtue of being 100% accurate!
Thanks for a very informative and interesting post on a character whom I have merely heard of. Incidentally, where has Val Kilmer disappeared?
Thanks Neer and fair point about Kilmer – he’s done some TV of late and his stage performance as Mark Twain may be turned into a movie – but apparently he nurned a lot of bridges at the height of his career, so …
Time to watch THE SAINT IN NEW YORK with Louis Hayward. I must have seen it at some time because I have affectionate if somewhat vague memories Hayward being suave (as he usually was) but dangerous in the role. I too watched Roger Moore as THE SAINT once upon a time. I loved the show but don’t think I ever read any of the stories, though of course, I might have.
I’m glad I returned to the stories as it was a real education and will read some of the novels now – very relaxing!
This is a really good idea for a blog post, Sergio – nice work! It made for very interesting reading, comparing the book and TV versions. I’ve read a handful of Charteris’ original SAINT stories over the years, but am much more a fan of the Moore TV series. I know that Charteris was notorious for sending long, aggrieved letters to the show’s producers over what he thought were unnecessary liberties taken with his stories, but apparently he grew to like Moore in the part pretty well. I have most of the monochrome SAINT eps but haven’t really dipped into them yet; they’re said to be generally superior to the later color ones, with which I’m far more familiar because that was the package that ran on syndication on U.S. TV when was growing up (plus I’ve had that A & E color SAINT set for several years.)
Thansk Jeff – tha black and white ones probably are better, it’s true, in the sense that they are more plausible, more tightly plotted – and of course based on the original stories. The later ones are more fanciful, and rarely based on Charteris’ work, but there are lots of good things there too (not to mention giant ants!)
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