The Saint Meets the Tiger (1941) User Reviews

Meet the Saint

[Spondonman · 7/10 · 17 October 2005]

Altogether not too bad a Saint entry, the big problems being it was low budget and the annoying decomposition of the film when the '50's TV dupe was made. Unfortunately this can give you the feeling that by mistake you're watching Dick Barton, another (ultra) cheapo British sleuth series I like. I take it the original is lost? To make up for it they did their British best with some atmospheric sets, nice Templar repartee and a competent story.

I haven't seen this film for over 20 years now or read Meet the Tiger for over 30 but it seemed familiar ie faithful to Charteris's first Saint story written in 1929. I can't remember Inspector Teal in it however but all of the stalwart British cast work well together in an effective potboiler. The incidence of a man murdered on the Saint's doorstep leads him and valet (Mr Memory from the 39 Steps) - and Teal - to a nest of savage gold smugglers in a quaint English seaside town. There's a pretty frank love interest and many twists and turns and multiple plot lines going on to keep you guessing how it will all turn out, although if you know your Saint you know the ultimate outcome with the opening titles. Hugh Sinclair was not my idea of Simon Templar - he was chunkily adequate - but at this distance I wish he'd gone on to make a dozen or so more I'd yet to see!

So, imho well worth watching for fans and completists alike, especially if you can get over the bad condition of the print.

Another British episode of "The Saint"

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 1 June 2008]

When a man is killed on his doorstep, Simon Templar (Hugh Sinclair) tries to find out the reason in "The Saint Meets the Tiger," a 1943 film also starring Gordon McLeod, Jean Gillie and Wylie Watson. In this episode, The Saint has a butler (Wylie Watson) who regrets not taking a job in Chicago so he could work with mobsters; a death on the doorstep is what he's been waiting for. The man utters a few words before he dies, which lead Simon and his butler to a small town. There they meet a young woman, Pat (Gille), who becomes part of the "team" trying to uncover the identity of "The Tiger" and reveal a scam involving gold and an old mine.

The scenes on board ship were good, with the butler and Pat working together knocking people out and not realizing Simon was on board, too, and Simon not knowing they were on board. The two would run across a body and accuse the other of knocking him out. Inspector Teal shows up posing as a professor.

This is pleasant enough, though Sanders brought a certain panache to the role of The Saint that is missed here. And why, when the series was imported to Britain, wasn't the Saint's whistle brought along with him?

Entertaining entry in The Saint series

[VetteRanger · 7/10 · 21 October 2010]

The Saint Meets the Tiger" was the first of the Saint books, but appeared rather late in the series of movies. The Saint is following the trail of a million pounds sterling of gold stolen from a Bristol bank by a gang headed by "the Tiger", a criminal mastermind. Hugh Sinclair, who doesn't much look the part initially, grows on you as the Saint with his witty and confident performance. His sidekick, Horace, has been transformed from a rough retired seaman to a dapper butler. The story isn't, of course, exactly the plot of the book, but it is close enough to give you fond reminiscences of the book. The cast is very similar in most respects to the main characters in the book. One of the main differences is that the identity of the Tiger is revealed quite early in the movie, and that revelation is virtually the last event in the book.

Some of the action scenes are a bit simplistic, to the point of virtually being bungled. Yet the charm of the dialog and the heroes overcomes those deficiencies. If you like these classic old mysteries, you can do a lot worse than "The Saint Meets the Tiger".

Fair

[Michael_Elliott · 9 July 2008]

Saint Meets the Tiger, The (1941)

** (out of 4)

Eighth and final film of the original series switched from RKO over to Republic. This time out The Saint (Hugh Sinclair) gets involved with a gang of gold thieves who will stop at nothing to keep their riches. This entry is certainly better made than the previous film but in the end it still doesn't work too well. Once again, we've got a pretty interesting story to follow but sadly there's really no excitement and never any sense of real danger going on. This film also has a lot more comic relief than previous entries but, again, none of it really comes off too well. I think Sinclair is a lot better here than he was in the previous film as he manages to make the best scenes in the movie. The supporting cast are all pretty forgettable, which is another downside to this series as they never really had any good character actors working in them. Having now seen all of the films in the series I must say that overall this was the least interesting of them all. I think Holmes, Chan, Boston Blackie, The Falcon and the Crime Doctor all were better series and this one here, to me, ranks at the bottom. I know this series has a strong following but it just didn't cut it for me.

Amusing

[michaeljhuman · 6/10 · 5 April 2014]

Jean Gillie (sp?) makes this movie. She's too cute for words with her gung ho attitude. She's not really believable IMO. She's just too calm in the face of danger given her background, but it's fiction after all, why not have a really strong female character to match up with the Saint.

A lot of the supporting cast is pretty dull

George Sanders is better as the Saint IMO. Hugh does OK - he's charming and competent enough

The plot is weak like most Saint movies. I don't care really as long as the dialog entertains, and it does.

I admit to having a real love for the early Saint movies for their totally relaxing experience - the violence is comic when there is violence, and you always just assume the Saint will manage to come out alive. Even though the violence is comic, the body count is high in this movie. Heck, I can't even remember how many people get killed (or one assumes their wounds are fatal.)

I would say, if you liked the Sanders Saint movie, this one might appeal to you. If you like comic-mysteries from this era and don't mind weak plots you will like this. I think most people just have to like Jean Gillie here, what's to not like?

Not the brightest halo, but OK.......

[Panamint · 6/10 · 13 November 2007]

"The Saint Meets The Tiger" features competent British acting circa 1940's but is just not up to the high expectations you might have after seeing the George Sanders "Saint" series.

There is nothing really wrong with Hugh Sinclair's acting but it seems he would be more suited for one of those tough British wartime roles as a heroic commander or something like that. He is more in the strong military or policeman mold rather than the suave Saint type as personified by the smooth, charismatic Sanders. Jean Gillie is cute and youthfully energetic as the female lead and does a fine job of perking up this movie.

The overall story is outstanding as the Saint is on the trail of a crime ring and coyly infiltrates the inner workings of a small coastal town to look for stolen gold. I don't regard this movie as slow, but you could consider it methodical and geared for mystery/crime fans, and competently directed and plotted to showcase the well-conceived story.

If you are expecting an example of beautiful 1940's black-and-white cinematography you won't find it here. The movie seems more "grey-and-white", at least the print of it I saw on TV. A shame.

Die-hard Saint fans should be satisfied as the movie seems to make a great effort to remain true to its book-series roots.

One breezy Saint

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 27 December 2012]

When you deposit a body on Simon Templar's doorstep what else can you expect but that the Saint will get involved. But on which side of the law?

In an opening that was taken from The Maltese Falcon when Captain Jacoby arrives on Sam Spade's door dying and with the falcon, Simon TEmplar has a similar experience and before long is involved in exposing a smuggling racket. He's got competition though, another master criminal called the Tiger, identity unknown, is also cutting himself in on the plans. We're not sure who's with who except that Scotland Yard has an undercover man as well.

This is the second of two films that Hugh Sinclair starred in as Simon Templar over in Great Britain. This one's not as good as the first though Sinclair makes one breezy Saint. The story line is kind of muddled though that could be bad editing.

For fans of the series only.

The First Will Be Last For A While

[boblipton · 6/10 · 17 January 2024]

For the second time, Hugh Sinclair is Simon Templar. Ben Williams dies on his doorstep, raving about a million pounds in gold. Intrigued, he investigates with the aid of Jean Gillie, leading to a mysterious figure known as the Tiger.

Like the previous one, this was produced in Great Britain. Unlike the previous one, RKO did not distribute it in the United States. Instead they sold it to Republic Pictures. They would produce no others.

It's quite a clever entry in the series, based on the first Saint book that Charteris wrote. I like Sinclair's version of the Saint as someone actually does something more energetic than your typical George Sanders episode. My opinion, however, does not result in lots of people in 1941 saying "Oooh! Joan Hickson is in this one! Let's go to the movies!" at least in part because I'm writing this more than eighty years later.

Standard "B" movie

[jetan · 5/10 · 27 June 2000]

Ultra lightweight movie almost floats away. Jean Gillie is fine as Pat Holm (borrowed from the very early Saint novels), but Hugh Sinclair suffers compared to the more magnetic George Sanders and lacks the vocal charm of Vincent Price's radio Saint. One of the appealing things about the Simon Templar character was the suspicion that he was only on the side of the good guys for as long as it would prove profitable. None of this comes through in this Republic effort, though the production values are reasonably high.

A B-Film Full of Incidental Pleasures

[l_rawjalaurence · 6/10 · 2 August 2014]

THE SAINT MEETS THE TIGER is the second film RKO made in Britain with a British cast with Hugh Sinclair in the title-role. The plot is a familiar one: the Saint (Hugh Sinclair) travels down to Cornwall to uncover a smuggling plot involving in which one million pounds of gold will leave the country. What makes this thriller worth watching, however, is its incidental pleasures: although much of it is shot in the studio, with quite obviously phony backgrounds, there are occasional sequences shot on location in Cornwall, where we get an authentic impression of what British seaside life was like during the middle of World War II. There are some notable performances from Wylie Watson as Horace, the Saint's faithful butler with a penchant for listening to gangster thrillers on the radio. When he is drawn into the action he takes every opportunity to assume the tough-guy role, pointing his loaded pistol at the villains. The eponymous Tiger/ Tidemarsh (Clifford Evans) comes across as a very clever mastermind - on the one hand he is more than willing to look after Pat Holm (Jean Gillie) and ensure that she comes to no harm; on the other hand he shows his true nature while trying to deal with his gang. The members of said gang are cleverly delineated, ranging from crooked financier Lionel Bentley (Dennis Arundell), whose facial expressions seldom change, even when he is holding the Saint at gunpoint; to Bittle (Charles Victor), a tough-guy with an accent combining South African clipped vowels and a Chicago twang. Needless to say they are outwitted at the end, leaving the Saint to walk off into the sunset with Pat on his arm, but one has to admire their ambition.

Perhaps faithful to Charteris' novel, but where is the fun?!

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 25 November 2007]

Leslie Charteris was apparently unhappy with the RKO films based on his Simon Templar character that were made in the late 30s and early 40s because they bore little similarity to his stories--just the titles and title character's name were often retained. I read that Charteris refused to allow further versions of his stories unless major changes were made. As a result, RKO did what you'd expect from a studio--changed the character's name and continued the series under a new name ("The Falcon"). However, they and Republic Pictures did not want to drop the idea of the Saint altogether, so they made a couple films in Britain with an entirely new cast. Part of this was, of course, to make Charteris happy but this was also done because a British law required that a certain percentage of films shown in the country must be domestically produced--hence many American companies, such as MGM, Warner and RKO bought or created British film companies. Most of these British productions were made on a shoestring budget and the parent companies didn't particularly care too much about the quality of the films, as they were never intended to be shown anywhere outside the UK--and they were only making them to get around British law.

Now some of these British-made films very good and many of them were downright dull and boring--about how I would characterize THE SAINT MEETS THE TIGER--dull and boring. I know that this film has a reasonably high rating on IMDb, but for the life of me it was a major struggle for me to watch this insipid film. While the American films were not faithful to Charteris' vision, they were indeed fun. This more "by the book" version forgot to include the fun. Sure, they weren't "authentic", but for my money I'd much rather watch George Sanders as the Saint than dull old Hugh Sinclair--who, unfortunately, has the charisma of a mop.

FYI--While I prefer the Americanized version of the Saint, the same cannot be said of James Bond. Just like the Charteris novels, most James Bond films have almost no similarity to the original Ian Fleming novels--just the titles and character name. However, I would LOVE to one day see a series based on the books, as they were far superior to the impossibly perfect Bond we've seen in the films.

An absolute must-have pic for all Jean Gillie fans!

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 28 January 2014]

The overwhelming reason why anyone would be anxious to catch "The Saint Meets the Tiger" is the bright, charismatic, lively and super lovely Jean Gillie. Here delightfully animated Gillie not only has a lead role that is right up her alley but a photographer in Australian-born Robert Krasker who really knew how to present her super-attractively. The rest of the players – including the rather dull Hugh Sinclair as "The Saint" – in this otherwise rather routine if reasonably pacey entry, don't make anything like the same impression – aside from Charles Victor who registers strongly in a very small role. The direction by the always competent Paul L. Stein would certainly win no awards here. As said, it's competent but routine, serviceable but unexciting. I'd normally give a movie like this one, a seven, but Miss Gillie turns into a top-drawer eight! Available (coupled with "The Saint's Vacation") on an excellent Warner Archive DVD.

Breezy dialog, fast-moving plot in enjoyable comedy-mystery

[csteidler · 7/10 · 13 September 2012]

The action starts quickly: Simon Templar receives a phone call from a nervous stranger who mentions a million pounds. The doorbell rings. Templar opens the door and a man falls into his arms. The dying man hangs on just long enough to say something about "the Tiger" and the city of Baycombe….

The pace never slows down much from there, as the Saint takes a cottage in Baycombe and digs into a mystery involving a shipment of stolen gold bars, a mysterious mastermind known as the Tiger, and a group of ordinary-looking Baycombe residents mixed up in it all.

A game cast maintains a lively pace and a light tone in this enjoyable adventure. Wylie Watson is Horace, the Saint's new butler, a mystery lover looking for some excitement in a job. Jean Gillie is Pat Holm, the girl on the case, also eager for adventure and sporting a hairdo that's always falling across her face so she has to keep shaking it out of her eyes. Horace and Pat team up, thinking they'll catch the crooks on their own while the Saint is off working with…

Gordon McLeod, returning as Inspector Teal, also in Baycombe on the missing gold case (and trying unsuccessfully to work undercover as a vacationing professor). As usual, Teal is torn between arresting the Saint and asking for his help.

Hugh Sinclair is more than passable in his second and final go-around as Simon Templar. Sinclair's Saint is breezy, lanky and a fast talker. And confident—like when he's working a roomful of suspects and a policeman tells him, "I'll have to ask you to come along with me, Mr. Templar," and he just says, "Oh, I think not," and goes right on talking….

Overall, there's not a whole lot to it but it's certainly pleasant enough.

Note: I always like watching movie thieves handle stolen gold bricks. Movie gold bars are really heavy!

"He sees the world through crime-colored glasses."

[utgard14 · 5/10 · 26 June 2017]

The eighth and final Saint film from RKO. Well, technically it was released here by Republic but it was produced by RKO two years earlier and sat on the shelf while the studio worked out its legal issues with Saint creator Leslie Charteris. It's also the worst movie of the series, although still perfectly watchable. The plot has the Saint up against a villain called the Tiger. That's pretty much all you need to know to realize this isn't going to be much more than a generic programmer. Returning as the Saint is charmless Hugh Sinclair. His comic relief sidekick this time is valet Horace, played by Wylie Watson. He's an improvement over the last sidekick but not by much. Pretty Jean Gillie is the would-be love interest Pat Holmes. Apparently this character was a bigger deal in the Saint books but is just now making an appearance in this series. Gillie does a fine job and arguably has the most personality of anyone in the cast. But her banter and romance with the dull Sinclair is never very believable or interesting. Everything is very 1940s British, staid and mannered and leisurely paced. The story isn't particularly strong but they shove enough humor and action in to keep it your interest.

The Million Pound Gold Heist

[profh-1 · 7/10 · 22 January 2023]

A dead man on his doorstep leads Simon Templar-- AND Inspector Teal-- to Cornwall, in search of a gang who made off with a MILLION pounds in gold. Simon takes a cottage while he's there, and at a social gathering, acts like he knows far more than he does to make the baddies nervous and draw them out. Teal, meanwhile, goes undercover posing as a geological professor, and while he's ever suspicious of Templar, he's stymied by not wanting to blow his cover. Simon winds up spending half his time flirting with a local girl, Patricia Holm, who winds up joining his crusade to nab the bad guys and uncover the stolen gold. Eventually, it all leads to an amusing run-around on a huge yacht, a couple of red herrings, Simon learning the identity of the gang's leader, and finally revealing to Teal that he IS going to "get away" with the gold. "But you CAN'T DO THAT!" (Oh YES he can-- the same way Thomas Banacek did in every one of HIS stories-- heh.)

If I get this right, RKO British Production made this film, but due to a dispute between RKO in America and author Leslie Charteris, while it was released in England in December 1941, it wasn't until July 1943 that Republic Pictures finally released it in America. I suppose this explains why they didn't make any more after this. What a shame! Based on Leslie Charteris' 1st SAINT novel, "Enter The Tiger" (1928!), this film simply looks and feels more like a "real" SAINT story than almost anything else in the RKO series, and actually feels like a Roger Moore SAINT episode, 20 years EARLY! It has a VERY "English" look and feel to it-- viewers will enjoy it or not based on their liking or lack thereof for such things. I've seen this film multiple times since the 1980s, and I must admit, I NEVER quite enjoyed it as much as I did tonight. Perhaps my tastes have been continuing to evolve over the years.

Hugh Sinclair is TERRIFIC in this film-- so relaxed, so witty, so CONFIDENT, even in the most insane or dangerous situations. In fact, I only have 3 criticisms of him in this film: his hair doesn't look right, his CLOTHES look too casual, and... that moustache. OH dear!

Gordon McLeod makes his 3rd and biggest appearance as "Teal", and he just about steals the picture. Simon dances a fine line with him in this story, telling him if Teal "lets him have his fun", he'll deliver the bad guys to him, but also never quite telling him how. The funniest moment in the story has to be when Teal has Templar arrested for murder, then, an hour later, laughs himself silly revealing that he never did think Simon was guilty. These two have a very strange "friendship", if that's what you'd call it.

Wylie Watson is "Horace", Simon's butler, who wonders if he made the right decision turning down a job with a Chicago gangster. The only other thing I've ever seen him in was the offbeat comedy WHISKEY GALORE (1949).

Jean Gillie is "Patricia Holm", who turns out to be far more help than most girls in these things. In the books, she was Simon's on-again-off-again sometimes-steady girlfriend, and it's sad that this is the only time she ever appeared onscreen. Ironically, the character of Pat was in both "The Million Pound Day" and "Getaway", adapted as THE SAINT IN LONDON and THE SAINT'S VACATION-- but both films had Sally Gray, playing 2 different characters, instead of Pat-- and she'd have been PERFECT in the role! Well, Gillie is no Sally Gray... but, she's nice enough, and the presence of both Pat and Horace makes me really wish they'd done a whole long series of these things in England after this one.

The only other actor I really know in this one is Clifford Evans, who plays Pat's friend "Tidemarsh", the local newspaper reporter... who also turns out to be the film's MAIN villain. The audience is clued in on this quite early, while apparently, his identity was not revealed in the book until the very end. This reminds me of how the "007" film DR. NO totally gave away the main plot while Bond was still in M's office, instead of keeping it a mystery until 3/4ths of the way in. Long before I saw this film, I saw Evans on THE PRISONER as the "Number Two" who oversaw the mind-transfer story in "Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling".

Someone mentioned a body on the hero's doorstep coming from "The Maltese Falcon", but that book came out in 1930, 2 years after "Enter The Tiger". Meanwhile, I noticed a line where Simon says "I keep collecting guns", a line very similar to one Humphrey Bogart said as Philip Marlowe in THE BIG SLEEP (1944 / 1946)-- but that book came out in 1939! The bookcase hiding the entrance to an underground tunnel also turned up in the film A STUDY IN SCARLET (1933), but, the book that movie was based on, "Six Dead Men", came out in 1931! Seems to me other writers made a habit of swiping from Leslie Charteris (and NOT just Michael Arlen-- heh).

At the end, Simon tells Pat, "Halfway around the world there's a crook with a lot of money, and I'm going to have a lot of fun with him!" What a shame we had to wait so long to see The Saint onscreen again after this!

The last film of the original Saint series

[robert-temple-1 · 7/10 · 2 May 2023]

This is the eighth Saint film and the second and last with Hugh Sinclair as the Saint. It is based on a novel of the same title by Leslie Charteris (which was apparently the first Saint book to be published, according to another reviewer). It was not released this time by RKO but by Republic Pictures, all the previous Saint films having been RKO pictures; apparently this was really made by RKO and then handed to Republic for a much delayed release. In other words, it was apparently made before THE SAINT'S VACATION, but released after it. I still call it the eighth Saint film however, because it was the eighth to be released. It was the last of what is generally referred to as 'the original Saint series'. The lead gal in the film is played by Pat Gillie, who appeared in 22 films during her brief career of only 12 years, and died of pneumonia at the age of 33 in 1949. Gillie is not as cheerful and engaging as Sally Gray (who appears in THE SAINT'S VACATION, see my review, and appeared also in an earlier Saint film), and does not reach Gray's level of girlish charm. That does not mean that Gillie was bad in any way, merely that Gray was very special. This film is set in England and is very English indeed, with Gordon McLeod once again as Inspector Claude Teal. The film has a very gripping beginning: a man phones the Saint from a call box and asks to meet with him urgently. He is nearby and the Saint says yes come round immediately. However, the man is being followed and just as he rings the Saint's doorbell he is stabbed in the back. He manages to gasp a few incoherent words to the Saint and then dies. One of the words he spoke was 'Baycombe', the name of a fictitious Cornish fishing village. That is enough to send the Saint rushing down to Baycombe in search of another of the dying man's words: 'gold'. Much is made of the history of Baycombe as an old smuggler's port, with mysterious smugglers' caves said to be in the vicinity, though no one is sure where. It becomes clear that Baycombe contains numerous villains, but who are they? The Saint is accompanied by a humourous and formal butler named Horace whom he has brought with him from London. Horace is very amusingly played by the character actor Wylie Watson, who is famous for playing Mister Memory in the original 1935 film of THE 39 STEPS. (A greater contrast between the Saint's butler and Mister Memory cannot be imagined, so Watson was amazingly versatile. He last appeared as Herb Johnson in Fred Zinnemann's Australian epic, THE SUNDOWNERS in 1960.) The dying man had also mentioned 'the Tiger', who turns out to be the code name for the leader of a criminal gang. There is no actual tiger in the film. Discovering who 'the Tiger' is makes for good watching. We get some nice filming in a genuine Cornish fishing village. I recognised one of the streets, but cannot remember which of the towns it is in. The film is very amusing, being a semi-comedic mystery film. So it is fun to watch.

Opportunity Lost

[DKosty123 · 5/10 · 22 December 2012]

This movie is fast on action as the Saint finds out about stolen gold from a man murdered on his door step. It has low budget RKO written all over it during this wartime release. Because of this, there was no follow up to what could have enriched this film series.

That is the addition of Jean Gillie as a love interest for the Saint. This is her only time as Pat Holme who is a character in the novels. It actually looks at times that there are some real sparks between her Hugh Sinclair who is taking his second turn as the Saint here.

This followup to The Saint Takes a Vacation is actually a pretty much standard detective film other than that. Because of a dispute between the creator of the Saint, Leslie Charteris and RKO, this movie completed filming in June, 1941 and was not released until 1943. It is also RKO's last actual Saint Production as RKO's THe Saint Returns was actually produced by Britains Hammer Productions.

Sadly Jean Gillie would die a few years later on pneumonia at age 33.

England is a land in which museum curators . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 6/10 · 30 November 2018]

. . . are a shilling a six-pack, THE SAINT MEETS THE TIGER reveals. "Great" Britain is so old that pretty much every other house is open for the paying public's tours, on the theory that someone important MUST have once slept there. Britain has more museum curators than garbage men or plumbers, which is why half their trash ends up as exhibits on museum shelves, and their "loos" only flush half their . . . well, you get the idea. All of this helps explain WHY "Simon Templar" ducks toward the end of this flick, thus facilitating the assassination of Baycombe Museum Curator "Meridew" by thrown dagger. Since the murder weapon is Simon's to begin with, what better way to insure that it gets a good cleaning than by letting it get into the protective custody of Scotland Yard, a public institution duty bound to safeguard, thoroughly sterilize, sharpen, and return it in a timely manner? Because England always manages to stay the same, watch THE SAINT MEETS THE TIGER to pick up further tips on how to get the government to clean your dirty laundry on your next visit to Ye Olde Country.

Another "Saint" story that suffers from low-budget and Hugh Sinclair...

[Doylenf · 5/10 · 31 May 2008]

This entry begins with an intriguing opening--a man is found dead on Simon's doorstep and immediately Simon calls an inspector who, as usual, suspects Simon is holding out and knows more than he cares to reveal about the murder of a well-known bookie. Inspector Teal also has a confrontational moment with Simon's innocent butler.

"But I don't know anything," says Simon's butler.

"If you say that again, I'll arrest you on suspicion." Simon refers to his butler as a man who "sees the world through crime-colored glasses." The attempts at humor are as dull as the script.

Unfortunately, HUGH SINCLAIR as "The Saint", has none of the charisma of either a George Sanders or a Tom Conway, which is a huge drawback and JEAN GILLIE is so-so as the romantic interest. Her instant dislike of Simon is a bit overdone. "I didn't recognize you without your halo," she tells him by way of apology.

Nothing much happens that hasn't happened in a dozen other "Saint" movies as Simon attempts to find stolen gold and expose a crime boss called The Tiger. "Crooks work in the most select circles these days," he says, on the trail of gold thieves, while he moves through upper crust society.

Once again, Inspector Teal comes close to arresting Simon for murder in a cat-and-mouse game. All the other familiar ingredients are here too, with Simon making escapes from the bad guys in incredible fashion. But I was already weary of the plot by the time it got to the smuggler's cave of gold. The revelation of The Tiger is only a modest surprise.

Summing up: Moves quickly, but only moderately satisfying for "Saint" fans.

The Saint bags a tiger

[Prismark10 · 2/10 · 28 September 2014]

George Sanders added the word debonair to Simon Templar and when he left the series and got replaced with Hugh Sinclair and the films got shot in Britain with a lower budget, the decline in script and quality is obvious.

Simon Templar finds a dead man on his doorstep and finds himself mired in murder, smuggling and a South American gold mine.

The film is all rather silly with a runaround mess set on board a ship, although the Sander's films were shot in the USA there was some love on display, there is little love to show here and this was Sinclair's last appearance as the Saint and frankly he never convinced me in the role.