Louis Hayward
Simon Templar
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A crime spree in New York forces the police commissioner to turn to Englishman Simon Templar, who fights lawlessness and corruption through unorthodox methods. Templar sets his sights on individual crimes bosses, and after bringing down two vicious leaders through disguise and deception, discovers that there is a mastermind behind all the city's crime.
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| Release Date | 1938-05-25 |
|---|---|
| Runtime | 1h 9m |
| Directors | Ben Holmes, Joseph H. August, Frank Redman, Perry Ferguson |
| Producer | William Sistrom |
| Writers | Charles Kaufman, Mortimer Offner, Leslie Charteris |
I'm such a hero I hardly recognise myself.
So it begins, the start of the realisation of Leslie Charteris' literary creation, one Simon Templar, AKA: The Saint. And it's a good start to be sure.
Templar here is played by Louis Hayward, all smirky confidence, lithe and deadly, Templar is "hired" by some big city suits to snuff out New York's baddies who have in turn been snuffing out policemen and getting away with it. He's deadly, has a quip on the tongue and laughs in the face of danger, and of course he can charm the ladies as well. He gets into scrapes, meaning we get to enjoy his many escapes from impending death, he does indeed assassinate bad guys; and has us firmly on side in the process, and he crucially has us hankering for more of Charteris' rogue good guy!
It's good old fashioned fantastical fun mixed with some rugged 1930s gangster shenanigans. Hooray! 7/10
— John Chard