Le Saint défie Scotland Yard

I've seen hundreds of RKO Pictures but this is one of the very worst, released in America in 1954 in the waning years of the distributor's existence. It's a must-miss, terminally boring entry in The Saint series starring Louis Heyward as the supposedly charming but deadly dull detective.

The script is lousy, direction by ultra-hack Seymour Friedman nonexistent, and the supporting cast miserable. Leading lady Naomi Chance is a nonstarter. Much of the running time is devoted to the unfunny and stupid conflict of The Saint with the local British gendarmes, while the mystery of a woman's death via car crash is never interesting or compelling.

What we're left with is an hour of pure filler, devoid of entertainment value. Looking fabulous clad at first just in a bath towel, platinum blonde local bombshell Diana Dors brightens up the screen for merely a couple of minutes, hardly enough to justify sitting through this junker.

Like Louis Hayward as the Saint. Sydney Tafler as usual an excellent bad guy. Some of fight scenes are a bit tame. My expectations of this film weren't high sure it has it's flaws but found it entertaining enough & there's more good than bad in this film. The England of the early 50's portrayed here seems a different world today. A film should be entertaining & hold your interest in spite of some of it's flaws it largely achieves this & that is more than Citizen Kane did ( mind numbingly boring) It's a film that somehow makes you want to go back in time to early 50's & see the UK as it was then.

This final picture in the Saint series is connected to the early 1940s RKO entries only by the presence of Louis Hayward, the original Simon Templar in 1938's The Saint in New York.

This time around, the Saint seeks information about a girlfriend who cabled him for help—and then crashed her car into the river before his arrival on the scene. The police call it an accident, but….

Hayward is a smooth-talking Saint whose smirk is alternately insolent and charming; caught red-handed snooping through an apartment, he merely removes the cigar from his mouth and asks politely, "Pardon me…do you have a match?" He can play rough, however, as well—he does not hesitate to slap around a crook who has sneaked into his own room and doesn't want to tell who sent him.

The Saint is assisted by right-hand man Hoppy (Thomas Gallagher), a reformed pickpocket (of course) who doubles as valet and bodyguard. The "girl Friday" of the title is a woman named Carol (Naomi Chance), whose help Templar enlists in tracking the mob that killed his girlfriend and is threatening and manipulating Carol over gambling debts.

The plot is okay but nothing extraordinary, although the identity of the secret mob "chief" did surprise me at the end. The mood is rather darker than that of the fairly breezy comedy-mysteries of a decade earlier; however, Louis Hayward's confident performance, a fair amount of droll humor, and some atmospheric London underworld settings combine for an entertaining and still essentially light-hearted adventure.

I always felt that Louis Hayward did better with the swash and buckle that with an hat and raincoat, and back after fifteen years since his first outing as the eponymous detective he doesn't really manage to make much impact with this thinly spun drama. His ex-girfriend had send him a cryptic note asking for his help, but before he can meet her she has a fatal car accident. The police are content it was just an accident but he isn't and so together with his nimble-fisted valet "Hoppy" (Thomas Gallagher) determines to get to the bottom of things. Along the way, it becomes clear that there is some sinister goings-on and that the gambling, debt-laden, "Carol" (Naomi Chance) might be able to help out with their investigations into the nasty machinations of the underworld. There's a little gentle humour here but the rest of it is very by-the-numbers with a story that isn't the strongest. There's still a decent set of supporting characters and there's a slight twist at the end to make it worth a watch, but the "Saint" formula for the big screen is a bit tired now, and I doubt I'll remember it for long.

Simon Templar is shocked to learn that an old girlfriend was killed, the same day that she cabled him, reaching out.

It's a pretty good, if not dynamic movie, I believe it was the last on the big screen, it would of course return with the well remembered series.

It's a solid storyline, there is a sense of mystery, one thing you'll notice, it doesn't really have any lighter moments, it's quite a straight up mystery, it's definitely atmospheric.

Diana Dors appears, what a presence, what an absolutely beautiful woman.

It had been quite a few years since Hayward last played Templar, The Saint in New York, Hayward made some impressive films in the gap years, including one of my favourites, And then there were none.

There is no denying that Hayward was a handsome actor, with presence and charisma, well suited for the part, people will no doubt compare him to Sanders, I liked both.

Solid, 6/10.