This Tuesday, October 12, TCM will air a marathon of the original black and white Saint movies, titles which remain stubbornly unavailable on DVD in the United States. (This marathon had originally been scheduled for last June, but it was pre-empted due to one of their daylong tributes to someone recently deceased. I forget who now.) The line-up, from TCM's website, is as follows:
10:00 AM The Saint In New York (1938)
The Saint goes undercover to get the goods on New York's mob kingpins. Cast: Louis Hayward, Kay Sutton, Jonathan Hale. Dir: Ben Holmes. BW-72 mins, TV-G, CC
11:15 AM The Saint Strikes Back (1939)
The Saint helps a young beauty take vengeance on the mobsters who ruined her father. Cast: George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, Barry Fitzgerald. Dir: John Farrow. BW-64 mins, TV-G, CC
The Saint's investigation of a counterfeiting ring uncovers a nest of spies. Cast: George Sanders, David Burns, Sally Gray. Dir: John Paddy Carstairs. BW-72 mins, TV-G, CC
1:45 PM The Saint's Double Trouble (1940)
Reformed jewel thief Simon Templer lands in hot water when a look-alike smuggles stolen goods out of Egypt. Cast: George Sanders, Jonathan Hale, Bela Lugosi. Dir: Jack Hively. BW-67 mins, TV-G, CC
3:00 PM The Saint Takes Over (1940)
Reformed jewel thief Simon Templar tries to help a police inspector who's been framed on bribery charges. Cast: George Sanders, Jonathan Hale, Wendy Barrie. Dir: Jack Hively. BW-70 mins, TV-G, CC
4:15 PM The Saint In Palm Springs (1941)
Reformed jewel thief Simon Templar's efforts to deliver a fortune in rare stamps are complicated by murder. Cast: George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, Jonathan Hale. Dir: Jack Hively. BW-66 mins, TV-G, CC
Reformed jewel thief Simon Templer vies with Nazi agents for possession of a mysterious music box. Cast: Hugh Sinclair, Sally Gray, Arthur Macrae. Dir: Leslie Fenton. BW-61 mins, TV-G
6:45 PM The Saint Meets the Tiger (1943)
The Saint infiltrates a small English village run by smugglers. Cast: Hugh Sinclair, Jean Gillie, Clifford Evans. Dir: Paul L. Stein. BW-69 mins, TV-G, CC
The cable channel will also show Who Was that Lady? (review here) and another movie I discussed in my Tony Curtis obituary, Don't Make Waves (not a spy movie, but lots of Sixties fun) as part of another one of those tributes to the recently deceased, this time in honor of Curtis, on Sunday. There are a whole bunch of great Curtis movies in that line-up, but, not surprisingly, no other spy titles.
I've only seen couple of the Saint movies. They're fun.
ReplyDeleteIs it June 8 or October 12? ;)
ReplyDeleteWhoops, sorry. I was awfully tired when I posted that last night and left in the date from when this post had originally been prepared before the last marathon was pre-empted. It's October 12. Changed it above.
ReplyDeleteYes, these black and white Saint movies are fun! And every actor brings something different to the role. George Sanders is great, but I think my favorite is probably Hugh Sinclair, who returned years later for Hammer's Saint production.
I haven't seen the Hugh Sinclair Saint movie but I'll be looking out for it. I love Leslie Charteris's original Saint novels as well.
ReplyDeleteTanner said...
ReplyDelete"...I think my favorite is probably Hugh Sinclair, who returned years later for Hammer's Saint production."
Hammer's Saint production?
Tex
(Saint fan since December 21, 1979 at 11:40pm)
Hammer tried to revive the character with Hayward reprising the role in The Saint's Return, aka The Saint's Girl Friday, in 1953. Unfortunately, the rights situation with that one seems to be complicated and it wasn't included when the other Saint movies turned up on VHS double features in the 90s nor in any of the Hammer waves on DVD on either side of the Atlantic. It also doesn't play when TCM does their Saint marathons. It's pretty good though. Hopefully it will be released one day, somehow...
ReplyDeleteTanner. It wasn't Hugh Sinclair who starred in "The Saint's Girl Friday," it was Louis Haywood- the original screen Simon Templar. I never saw "Girl Friday," either but Haywood's take on Simon Templar as a happy hit man is so much fun in "The Saint in New York." I bet that's what you were thinking.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Christopher; I meant to say Louis Hayward and not Hugh Sinclair in my first comment. Hayward's my favorite. Sorry for the confusion.
ReplyDeleteI'm a Sanders man but Hayward was very good. Wish he'd had a couple more chances at it before Sanders took over. I have no idea how many of these I've seen because I get them mixed up with each other and with the Falcon movies Sanders did later. It doesn't help that Wendy Barrie was in both series too, playing essentially the same character but with 4 or 5 different names!
ReplyDeleteSome nice RKO Saint images there. So far as I know, Hammer has the rights to "Girl Friday". What I suspect will happen is that WB will release the 8 Saint films they have via their Archive system and, at some point, Hammer will get around to releasing their sole entry. The 8 RKO's are available on dvd in Spain & France with English soundtracks but, why buy them if they're missing "Girl Friday"?
ReplyDelete