Le Saint reprend du service

This is a better-than-average entry in the Saint series - It holds your interest and, as mysteries should, keeps you guessing until the end and has several suspects to choose from.

Many films from the Golden Age are not for all tastes, especially younger viewers. They date themselves by clothing, cars, settings, etc. Who nowadays asks for a highball? Or wears a suit and tie everywhere? And the legal process was so much simpler - must have been a dearth of lawyers back then. Frankly, much of value is missing from those days.

In any case, go with it and enjoy. It's good - in an old-fashioned sense.

"The Saint Takes Over" stars George Sanders as Simon Templar, aka "The Saint" in this 1940 entry into the series. It also stars Wendy Barrie, Jonathan Hale and Paul Guilfoyle. On board ship en route to the U.S., The Saint meets and tries to make time with a woman (Wendy Barrie) who gives him the brushoff. Simon is coming to New York to help Inspector Fernack, now thoroughly discredited due to a gangster frame-up; $50,000 was found in his home. The gangster, Rocky (Roland Drew), of course, was found not guilty at trial, and he and his fellow mobsters pay the bill for the frame and attorney representation - $90,000 in total. Today you need that to defend yourself against a parking ticket. This was a murder rap.

Rocky sends his bodyguard, Pearly Gates (Guilfoyle) to the lawyer's house to steal the $90,000 from the safe. The attorney catches him red-handed and sends him back to his boss with a message. Seconds later, he's dead. Rocky meets a similar fate. And on and on - who's killing this group of gangsters? The Saint has to get one of them to talk so that Fernack can be cleared - can he get to anyone before they're murdered? The woman he met on board ship reappears and figures prominently in the case.

Few actors have a way with a line like George Sanders, and his dry wit, good looks, smooth voice and depth as an actor suit Simon Templar perfectly. Paul Guilfoyle provides some humor as the nervous, milk drinking Pearly Gates, and Jonathan Hale is great as the sometimes exasperated but worried sick Inspector Fernack. Wendy Barrie, who appeared in many Saint episodes, is very good as the woman who captures Simon's heart.

Very enjoyable.

Simon Templar (aka The Saint) decides to go and help when he reads that acquaintance Inspector Henry Fernack has been dropped from the police force for not being able to explain the thousands and thousands of dollars that had been found in his safe. He starts to investigate the suspicion that Fernack was actually set-up by a group of mobsters, eager to get him off their backs in regards a race fixing ring they have going. The more Templar pushes to help his friend though, the more the bodies start to pile up – ironically mostly pointing to Fernack as the murderer.

After getting a couple of episodes out under Sanders' control, the Saint series started to make me forget that I had enjoyed the original portrayal by Hayward a lot more than the later films. As a result I enjoyed this Saint film more than I had the last couple I'd watched. It may have also helped that the plot was an original tale (as opposed to an adaptation from Charteris' novels) and that it involved a lot more murders and mystery than other films. This isn't to say that it is brilliant because it is still very much fitting with the b-movie serial feel that the series generally had although it had enough movement to it to keep me watching.

Sanders is quite enjoyable and the tone of the series seems to have mellowed to better suit his cool, smooth delivery and style – which is a shame in my opinion but I'll try not to bang on about it. He leads the film nicely although he does tend to suck the urgency and tension out of the story by being so laid back all the time. Support from regulars Hale and Barrie is good along with some nice touches from Guilfoyle and a few others.

Overall this is an enjoyable and quite lively entry in the series that will please fans of The Saint and The Falcon. Nothing special and it never aspires to be more than the next episode in a b-movie serial but it is still OK if you meet it at that level.

This nifty little movie demonstrates the rock-solid virtues of a time, place and kind of masculine strength that we no longer have or even aspire to have. The Saint is a paladin with only the best motives, to say nothing of a polished vocabulary and diction. No need to turn up the volume or read the dialog. George Sanders is so charming and, yes, low-key that all that talent, smarts, physical presence and above all, masculinity, seem, well, almost normal. Some normal! George Clooney can not begin to master the scene as Mr. Sanders does (and does without Mr. Clooney's mugging).He could play a sniveler (witness The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and Rebecca) but when he was good, he was very, very good. Truly, a man for all reasons and seasons.

By all means, all of them are worth watching. They're not great films, or masterpieces, but they are good fun that give you the right amount of entertainment for just over an hour running time.

'The Saint Strikes Back' was a decent debut film for George Sanders in the role, though there was a finding-its-feet feel to it with the supporting cast and some of the storytelling being patchy. 'The Saint in London' is an improvement, with things feeling more settled and with a much better supporting cast, though production values weren't as good and the story could have been tighter and had more mystery.

Conversely, the third Saint film with Sanders 'The Saint Takes Over' is the best of the three and among the best of the series. There is not much actually to complain about, although the sets are still atmospheric the film does look at times like it was made quickly on a tight budget and the ending just felt too conveniently and easily wrapped up.

On the whole though, while things felt more settled in the previous film it was with 'The Saint Takes Over' where the series hit its stride. The story is by far the best executed of the Sanders-Saint films so far, it's breezy and tight and light-hearted and always easy to follow without being simplistic. At the same time, there is much more mystery here, and it's a compelling one, and it is the film in the series up to this point to feel closest to the tougher edge in the Louis Hayward Saint film that preceded the series.

Scripting is smart and with the right balance of fun and mystery, while the music is jaunty but also atmospheric. The direction is suitably brisk, and there are some good scenes such as the scaring to confessing scene.

As said with the previous films, Sanders himself is super-suave, sophisticated and wonderfully caddish, while also giving a charming and humorous edge and delivering some cutting lines with aplomb. Jonathan Hale is fine support, while Wendy Barrie is leagues better than she was in 'The Saint Strikes Back' (there she was a draw-back, here she blends right in tone with the story and has a much warmer character). Paul Guilfoyle is very amusing too.

On the whole, the best of the Saint series starring Sanders up to this point and among the best of the series too. 8/10 Bethany Cox