The Saint's Vacation

All the Saint wants to do is take a little trip abroad…but the gang of reporters tracking him down to the pier just won't believe he's not on a case. Among those reporters is Mary Langdon (Sally Gray), the only girl reporter in the bunch, determined to catch a big scoop to launch her career.

Along with his friend Monty, Simon tries to convince Mary he's on vacation, but suddenly things start to happen all at once: a mysterious parking lot meeting, a pursuit by automobile, a foot chase through the woods, a fight in a darkened clearing in which even our heroine assists, stomping a prone tough guy's wrist and taking away his knife just in time….

Simon Templar may be on vacation, but a case certainly finds him. Gradually he learns that all the to-do concerns a small, mysterious package that multiple parties seek (and Templar soon has).

Gray and Sinclair work well together, and exchange some enjoyably clever repartee. (Mary: "I suppose you realize we stand an excellent chance of being sent to jail for a couple of years." Simon: "Well, you can't expect to have your fun for nothing, can you.")

The picture really gets interesting when veteran English actor Cecil Parker comes on the scene as villain Rudolph Hauser, a spy who—like everyone else—badly wants that little box. Parker and Sinclair are excellent together—two experienced operators who maintain an exceedingly polite surface while playing a deadly game.

Hugh Sinclair is actually a quite pleasing Simon Templar—he captures the character's polished and polite exterior as well as the cool alertness and ready athleticism lurking just beneath. The picture's strong cast and a plot that presents a few surprises help to make this a very entertaining series entry. Only the resolution seems a bit weak…but that may be because the buildup was so good.

Best dialog exchange: In a highly tense moment, Templar bursts into Hauser's living room to find the owner ready to confront and presumably trap him. Templar plays it suave: "You don't mind me….butting in like this?" To which the reply is equally civil: "Oh, on the contrary, I…I'm always pleased to see you."

Entertaining little low-budget entry from Great Britain, it has HUGH SINCLAIR as "The Saint" involved immediately in getting hold of a music box that holds some sort of war secret--although the war itself is never actually named and kept strictly out of sight. SALLY GRAY makes a pleasant female lead, a newspaper reporter who is a lot braver than The Saint's sidekick, played by ARTHUR MACRAE in a most annoying manner. He makes Dr. Watson's Nigel Bruce look like a brain surgeon.

With some obvious studio backgrounds subbing for Switzerland locales, this caper moves along at a fast pace, filling every one of its one hour running time with story development that never lets up.

CECIL PARKER is a smooth villain, but the story has all the familiar ingredients we've come to expect in any Saint outing. The McGuffin is clearly the music box and the plot is kept simple with everyone's concentration on getting hold of it.

Summing up: Passes the time quickly and pleasantly, but Hugh Sinclair is no replacement for George Sanders, no matter how British he is.

One of the better entries in a series that was starting to tail off. Sanders had left the part of the Saint to become "The Gay Falcon" for the same studio, RKO, and production was transferred to war-torn Britain. Unbelievably this film shows little signs of the conflict as it's a tale of a race across Europe (with train footage apparently dragged out of Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes") to solve the mystery of a strange music box. Hugh Sinclair is slightly wooden as Simon Templar, although he gets into his stride during the action sequences and promises to shape up well (actually his one sequel is slightly disappointing as he doesn't get the chance to display his athleticism in the same way again). Sally Gray, who popped up as the romantic interest in "The Saint in London" is reporter Mary Langdon, out to get a story whether the Saint wants her to or not -- she was easily the prettiest co-star of the series and could easily have outshone a dozen similar Hollywood actresses. Arthur Macrae is a fine comic Monty Hayward and Ealing Comedies regular Cecil Parker an excellent, hissable villain as Crown Prince Rudolph. Gordon McLeod makes the second of three appearances as Chief Inspector Teal, though sadly his is only a guest appearance right at the end of the film. Again, he is easily the best of the screen/TV Teals. The story is faithfully adapted (if shortened) from "Getaway", one of Saint creator Leslie Charteris's best books. Forget the Val Kilmer "Saint" film effort (which has nothing in common with Charteris's character, and doesn't even credit the author) and curl up and enjoy.

I hadn't seen this one for nearly 20 years until tonight on cable, and an excellent watch it was at 58 minutes long. Necessarily then a fast paced thriller, the story lifted straight off The Lady Vanishes with Cecil Parker in both but having more immoral fibre in this as the Nazi. At least, I think he was on the Nazis side - nothing is made clear until the very end when this McGuffin is breezily explained by Felix Aylmer. Dressed to Kill provided another variant of this plot 5 years later for Holmes and Watson.

Basically everyone's after a mysterious box and prepared to kill for it. In one scene Parker coldly shoots dead two unarmed train guards for hindering him in his quest, even though we the audience know the whole episode was a deliberate false trail laid by (the apparently uncaring) Templar to throw the baddies off his track.

All it really needed was Charters and Caldicott in one of the foreign hotels arguing about cricket to complete the similarity to TLV. However, the former packed in some rather poor model shots for buildings etc whereas in TSV we're treated to some splendid Gothic Bavarian sets, of hotels, castles and woodland. I wonder what period film they were used for first? With all faults, still a nice little film.

Hugh Sinclair is The Saint, Simon Templar, in "The Saint's Vacation," a 1941 film also starring Sally Gray, Cecil Parker and Arthur Macrae. Besides Roger Moore and Ian Ogilvy on television, the Saint has been played by Sinclair, Louis Hayward and George Sanders (that I've seen). I liked Hayward's smoothness, Sanders' turn of a phrase, and I like Sinclair's cool, casual, take it as it comes attitude. He doesn't have the dry wit of Sanders' Simon, but like Saints before him, nothing fazes him either. He also doesn't whistle the familiar "Saint" tune, which I kind of missed.

Now the Saint is veddy veddy British as the productions were moved over to the UK, and Simon is working with a friend (Arthur Macrae) who's afraid of his shadow. This time the plot concerns a highly sought after music box - where have we heard that before? And, as usual, people will kill to get their hands on it.

Sally Gray is pretty and energetic as a reporter who accompanies Simon as she tries to get a good story. Evidently she doesn't realize that if you like Sherlock Holmes and The Lady Vanishes, this variation on a theme is old stuff. Very pleasant film.