El regreso de El Santo

Who is the Saint? "Well, not the man who knows everything, just the man who knows the important things."

George Sanders is the mysterious, charming and dangerous Simon Templar: "You're important to me—that's why I know you," he explains to an annoyed Wendy Barrie, whom he has just forcibly escorted from a nightclub—moments before the cops arrive to investigate a murder.

Sanders is perfect as the Saint: a droll wit, a cad, an underdog, a shrewd tactician who is not afraid to take a risk. And that Sanders voice!

Wendy Barrie is also fine as the hard-edged daughter of a policeman. Her father was framed by a fellow cop and died in disgrace; Barrie is out to exact some revenge for her father by stirring up trouble for the department. Sanders explains her plot nicely to the investigating officers: "She thinks he got a dirty deal from the police so she's enlisted a bunch of second rate crooks to annoy you."

The Saint is on the scene as one who always takes an interest in rooting out corruption; in this case, his sense of adventure and interest in justice have brought him all the way to San Francisco.

The supporting cast includes great character actors who all do their jobs: Jerome Cowan is a cop who's obviously mixed up in the dirty business somehow; Neil Hamilton is another detective; Barry Fitzgerald is "Zipper," a small time crook impressed with Sanders' style ("I never seen such a cop").

Jonathan Hale is again on hand as Inspector Fernack, the old pro who has had dealings with Templar in the past. His relationship with the Saint is of course complicated—one minute he is sticking up for Templar's motives and methods, not much later he is (momentarily) convinced that Templar is the mastermind behind the whole San Francisco setup.

Besides the great cast, this film features a strong script and is beautifully photographed—a very classy B mystery.

You have to stay wide awake to follow the plot convolutions of THE SAINT STRIKES BACK and by the time it reaches its final scene you may lose your way keeping track of a number of undeveloped characters whose names are bandied about with such nonchalance that in the end it hardly matters when you discover who the main culprit is.

The plot revolves around hard-boiled dame WENDY BARRIE who's surrounded herself with gangsters in order to avenge the death of her father. Barrie gives the kind of performance that should have made her a femme fatale in a number of B-films, but nothing more than that. She's a one note actress if ever there was one.

Fortunately, the script is graced by the presence of GEORGE SANDERS, who can deliver a crisp line with so much bite and sarcasm that it's fun to see him using his verbal wit on some unsavory characters. NEIL HAMILTON makes no impression whatsoever in a colorless role as a man supposedly in love with Barrie, but BARRY FITZGERALD turns up to put some spice into the story, at least in the last half of the film.

It's strictly formula stuff intended to entertain as a programmer in the late '30s and offers nothing very original or new to make it anything more than something of passing interest.

George Sanders made his debut as Leslie Charteris's international man of mystery Simon Templar, AKA The Saint in this film, The Saint Strikes Back. For all the rumors about his crooked ways Sanders is more often helping the local authorities than not, especially if it's doggedly honest Inspector Fernack of the NYPD homicide squad resolutely played as always by Jonanthan Hale.

One gets jet lagged now with the time zone changes and the jet air speeds with coast to coast flights. But Sanders had to have the worst case of it film history as he flies from San Francisco to New York after saving Wendy Barrie from being the object of a hit man. She's the daughter of a disgraced former NYPD detective who was accused of crookedness and took his own life. Now she's a West Coast wild child and thought to be in the rackets as well. Sanders then flies back bringing Hale in tow.

She's close to them however in her associates and it's up to the Saint to discover who's a San Francisco rackets boss and bring them to justice.

Sanders who in most films was the movie's biggest cad is a fine hero, a regular modern Robin Hood. Still people don't believe he's quite honest and he likes it that way.

If you like the books and the films, you'll enjoy this one.

It's not too bad a b movie, with Sanders, Barrie, Hale, Cowen, Hamilton, Gargan, Fitzgerald and even Willie Best we could be either with Charlie Chan, Moto, the Falcon, Blackie, Holmes or the Saint etc. In other words you get the chance to spend another hour in the company of some old friends, from plain to urbane, murdering and being murdered - always a pleasure in my book.

Barrie's a hard-boiled dame out to avenge and clear her framed and dead father, a police detective by planning and carrying out with her coterie a string of underworld assassinations. Which would surely have had the opposite effect! Sanders joins in the fun simply by dancing in the right club in the right place in the right city at the right time with the right lighting falling on both him and the first killer (at the right time!) and killing him.

The story and acting's OK, the only gripe I've got is near the end with the hurried and almost laughable discovery of who the evil genius (Waldeman) was - did they almost forget about his relevance in the plot? That said, a solid entry in the series.

"The Saint Strikes Back" (1939) is directed by a young John Farrow, who would not only go onto to make film noir classics like "The Big Clock" (1948), "Alias Nick Beal" (1949) and "Where Danger Lives" (1950), but he would win an Oscar for writing the screenplay for Michael Todd's multi-award winning "Around the World in Eighty Days" (1956). So, not only do you have a notable director at the beginning of his career here, but George Sanders in his first role as The Saint, eleven years away from getting the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for "All About Eve" (1950). Also, there are quite a few familiar faces in the picture: Jerome Cowan, Barry Fitzgerald and Jonathan Hale, all of whom would be active in the motion picture business in the forthcoming decade. So, historically, quite an important film. But there's a lot more to it than just recognisable names. The photography, by Frank Redman, is striking, an impressively long shot at the very beginning of the movie in particular, is a cut above the rest. The acting too, is polished and professional.

On the other hand, the screenplay, written by John Twist, from Leslie Charteris's "She Was a Lady" (1931), credited in the film as "Angels of Doom", while it moves briskly along, is a tad confusing. For the life of me, I couldn't tell you who did what and why in this film. But this doesn't detract form the enjoyment, and in a perverse way, it enhances it. It's not the best of its kind, but this proto-noir is certainly worth a watch.