Vendetta for the Saint: Part 1

This is a great addition to the famous tv series "The Saint" starring Roger Moore. The film was first shown in UK as two episodes of the series, in January 1969; in US it was shown as one tv movie, also in 1969 and later it hit theatres almost in whole Europe. This is one of my favourite films starring Moore at his best. It's got a real solid plot, based on one of the best Leslie Charteris novels. It's full of exciting and engaging situations and also introduces Ian Hendry and a young Steven Berkoff ("Octopussy"). It's a big part of the 1960s television history reminding us of a very characteristic style of film making. This is not only for Roger Moore or the Saint fans but also for all people who are interested in the 1960s culture.

The two-part "Saint" episode "Vendetta for the Saint" has here been cobbled together to make one seamless adventure package. Those two episodes, numbers 113 and 114 (out of 118), first aired in January '69, but have never made it to U.S. syndication. So don't look for them with other Season 5 and 6 episodes occasionally showing on the cable station BBC-America. That's a real shame, as this is one of the toughest adventures that Simon Templar has ever gotten himself involved in, in a long history of sticking his neck out for friends and casual acquaintances! Here, he goes to Sicily to take on all of the Mafia, after a stranger he meets in a bar is rubbed out by the Mob. The film features beautiful location shooting, the large cast typical of these programs, a more straightforward story line (some of the "Saint" episodes seem excessively complicated to me, many with gratuitous surprise endings), and some real harrowing moments for Simon. The old boy sure does have a tough time here, running all over the Palermo countryside as numerous Mafia goons hunt him down on motorbikes. A definite plus is that this DVD is just beautiful to look at; what an improvement over the televised "Saint"s! The colors are absolutely lustrous here; an absolutely first-rate transfer! My only problem with this exciting film, actually, was Ian Hendry, a terrific British actor who was here miscast, I feel, as an Italian don. Somehow, the Ipswich-born Hendry does not fully convince as a Sicilian. This quibble aside, "Vendetta for the Saint" should provide an excellent evening's entertainment for all Simon Templar fans.

Nice to see Simon Templar out of the studio for a change. Most of the 1960s ITC TV series looked pretty glossy for the time, having the budget to be shot on film, and latterly in colour. Even so, they didn't spend much time on location, often faking exteriors in the studio, and only using location establishment shots, many of them looking like library footage. By that measure, Vendetta for the Saint really does look like a proper movie, with great use of the Italian locations, and only a few obvious studio shots. As it was also intended to be shown as a TV double bill, it is possibly a bit over-extended for its material (a fault shared by some of Leslie Charteris's novels). That said, the pace doesn't let up too often. Good solid performances from the main cast, Ian Hendry is interesting as the ruthless villain who will stop at nothing to get to the top of the mafia (despite slipping in and out of his New York mobster accent a bit erratically), but this is Roger Moore's film, and he is rarely off screen, so if you are looking for a masterclass in eyebrow acting, this is the film to watch. A fitting end (more or less) to the series.

The Saint has been one of my favourite fiction characters right since my early teens when I first discovered the books and started collecting them. Vendetta was one of the last I bought before I lost patience with the samey and all too often rather uninspired latest books. Vendetta was definitely superior to any that had appeared for a good many years.

This 2-part TV adaptation is one of the best TV episodes and it was good to see it again recently. Of the various actor incarnations of the Saint, Roger Moore is by a long way the best I've seen - not perfect but that is mainly because of the generally anodyne TV scripts which ignored the darker side of the Saint's original ethos and ruthless lawlessness and made him into a thoroughly nice guy who went around helping people rather than seeking out adventure. Admittedly the later books were in themselves rather anodyne, notably those that followed the Saint's departure for ever from England to take up residence (more or less) in the USA at the start of WW2 - something for which I never forgave the writer since I felt this great English hero should have been here helping to save England, not pootling around in the US chasing the odd Nazi at the behest of the CIA or FBI or whoever it was employed him at that period.

I've no doubt incidentally that Moore could have played the original, sharper and more dynamic (also more moralising!) early Saint, given the opportunity but none of the Saint episodes I've seen, which is most of them, ever came near the standard of the early books.

I would like to see a Saint movie based on those early Saint books - there are some splendid early adventures. Vendetta harked back somewhat to those early days in that it was much better than any other Saint book since the pre-WW2 stories. I'd also mention that I've never seen any screen version of a Saint story that came close to the Charteris original and I have to ignore the Val Kilmer effort which was totally bizarre and nothing remotely like Charteris's Saint - it beats me how the director could get it so completely and mind-bendingly wrong when the books are there for the checking. Charteris was a master story teller.

In Vendetta, the Saint is in Sicily and gets involved with the inevitable pretty girl in trouble from a family both linked with and in difficulties with the Mafia, and you can guess at some of the things that would happen to him - I won't give the plot away any further. On the whole the filming is fine although there is an excessively extended chase sequence - which gives you plenty of scenery to look at but my impression was this was filling time to ensure the story would fill two TV periods adequately. Other than this, the pacing is fine and Moore as always give a sterling performance - entertaining, humorous as well as tough and when necessary ruthless.

(No matter what movie Moore may be in and some haven't been brilliant, I've always found his own performance will be excellent, a supremely professional actor.)

Given director O’Connolly’s background in B-movies, he perhaps results in being more at ease with the low-budget requirements of this one (emanating from its TV origins): nevertheless, it effectively utilizes several European locations – including passing off Malta (even my hometown puts in a prominent appearance during a scuffle 20 minutes into the film!) as Palermo; incidentally, star Roger Moore would also come over here for the WWI adventure SHOUT AT THE DEVIL (1976) – incidentally, both films were made at a time when my country was still a British colony.

Anyway, the plot finds Simon Templar facing off with the Mafia – but, at the same time, aiding their cause by uncovering an imposter in their midst (at a rather precarious time for them, since they’re being assembled to elect a new Don). The accents throughout are fairly risible, though Ian Hendry is decent as a would-be mobster…but, then, Finlay Currie plays the dying Mafia head?! As was the case with THE FICTION-MAKERS (1968), The Saint is romanced and helped by a couple of girls – one of whom is Hendry’s moll and the other (played by lovely Rosemary Dexter) his niece. Despite her English-sounding name, the latter was actually Pakistani by birth and, curiously enough, most of her career was spent in Italian exploitation fare (her facial features looked familiar enough but, frankly, I had forgotten all about her appearance in Jess Franco’s MARQUIS DE SADE’S JUSTINE [1968] myself!).

Resolving itself into a number of confrontations and chases, the narrative obviously takes an altogether different route from its caper-type predecessor – and manages to be more involving by having the hero make a personal issue out of the case (hence the title). Even so, I have to admit that his characterization isn’t very clearly defined – certainly not in the way James Bond was (or would be for Moore when he took the role himself)…and it doesn’t help, either, that I haven’t watched the 1997 big-screen incarnation of Leslie Charteris’ creation directed by Phillip Noyce and starring Val Kilmer!