The Saint in New York

Louis Hayward is "The Saint in New York" in this 1938 film starring the Leslie Charteris character of Simon Templar, aka The Saint. Here, Simon is sent to New York to deal with gangsters who have escaped punishment by the justice system, and also to identify the man behind all of them, "The Big Fellow." I have to admit that though I've seen Roger Moore, Ian Ogilvy, and George Sanders in the role and enjoyed them, my favorite Saint has always been Louis Hayward since I first saw this film years ago. Hayward is smooth as silk both in manner and voice, as well as charming and lethal. While Sanders especially, with his talent for the acerbic, mined the humor in the role, Hayward mines the elegance, the grace, the light touch.

Hayward is backed up by the beautiful Kay Sutton, who reminded me of Kay Francis, Sig Ruman, Jonathan Hale, and Jack Carson in an early role.

Very good. It's a shame Hayward didn't do the role more.

So it begins, the start of the realisation of Leslie Charteris' literary creation, one Simon Templar, AKA: The Saint. And it's a good start to be sure.

Templar here is played by Louis Hayward, all smirky confidence, lithe and deadly, Templar is "hired" by some big city suits to snuff out New York's baddies who have in turn been snuffing out policemen and getting away with it. He's deadly, has a quip on the tongue and laughs in the face of danger, and of course he can charm the ladies as well. He gets into scrapes, meaning we get to enjoy his many escapes from impending death, he does indeed assassinate bad guys; and has us firmly on side in the process, and he crucially has us hankering for more of Charteris' rogue good guy!

It's good old fashioned fantastical fun mixed with some rugged 1930s gangster shenanigans. Hooray! 7/10

Although I had seen all of the other films in the Saint series, I had never viewed this one. This was the very first one in the series. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Louis Hayward played the character as a dapper but stern enforcer. His assignment is to rid New York of its' 6 most dangerous criminals. His intentions are not to capture them but to intentionally kill each of them. His verbal jousting with some of his intended victims provide lots of entertainment as well as suspense. The character, as portrayed by Hayward (long one of my favorite actors) never loses his cool detachment and always maintains his sense of humor. IMHO this is a very good film. Lots of entertainment including suspense, action, and humor.

I caught The Saint In New York late one night on TV. It is actually - violence and all - a very faithful translation of Charteris' novel of the same name. Simon Templar's roguish audacity is very well conveyed by Hayward and the film is a lot of fun.

The Saint In New York is the first of the Saint movies and of the ones I've seen, one of the best.

In this one, The Saint is sent to New York to investigate gangsters in the underworld there. There are plenty of shootings and killings and he gets involved in some quite dangerous situations. He is after one particular gangster known as The Big Fellow who is the leader of a gang. He also falls in love.

The cast features Louis Haywood as the Saint, Kay Sutton and Jonathan Hale.

The Saint In New York is worth watching if you get the chance. A treat.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.