The Saint returned to the big screen after a twelve year absence, and to sweeten the deal RKO have Louis Hayward reprise the role – even if he only played it once, he was the first. This is a very British focused story, unlike the George Sanders films – it’s British setting and characters make it closer to the Hugh Sinclair movies, although Hayward’s Saint is, again, American.
The plot has the Saint called back to England by an old girlfriend, who turns out to have been killed in a car crash. He starts investigating, visits gambling dens. Diana Dors has a support role – a fun scene where she seduces Hayward to distract him. Also fun when some old biddies excitedly ask Saint about his violent activities.
The Saint does have a girl Friday, a pretty thing who assists him – but she only is properly introduced after the film is half over. The revelation of the identity of one of the crooks is a genuine surprise, but as a whole the film is a bit flat – more like an episode of a television series, and that wasn’t enough in 1954. It needed colour and a bit of flash, like the Roger Moore series later provided.
There is a cute final brawl where the Saint punches out the baddy while his henchman punches the baddy’s henchman and his girl punches the baddy’s girl. Hayward doesn’t kill as many baddies in this one but he does engineer things so that baddies kill their own men twice.
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