The Saint Meets the Tiger

The eighth and final Saint film from RKO. Well, technically it was released here by Republic but it was produced by RKO two years earlier and sat on the shelf while the studio worked out its legal issues with Saint creator Leslie Charteris. It's also the worst movie of the series, although still perfectly watchable. The plot has the Saint up against a villain called the Tiger. That's pretty much all you need to know to realize this isn't going to be much more than a generic programmer. Returning as the Saint is charmless Hugh Sinclair. His comic relief sidekick this time is valet Horace, played by Wylie Watson. He's an improvement over the last sidekick but not by much. Pretty Jean Gillie is the would-be love interest Pat Holmes. Apparently this character was a bigger deal in the Saint books but is just now making an appearance in this series. Gillie does a fine job and arguably has the most personality of anyone in the cast. But her banter and romance with the dull Sinclair is never very believable or interesting. Everything is very 1940s British, staid and mannered and leisurely paced. The story isn't particularly strong but they shove enough humor and action in to keep it your interest.

When you deposit a body on Simon Templar's doorstep what else can you expect but that the Saint will get involved. But on which side of the law?

In an opening that was taken from The Maltese Falcon when Captain Jacoby arrives on Sam Spade's door dying and with the falcon, Simon TEmplar has a similar experience and before long is involved in exposing a smuggling racket. He's got competition though, another master criminal called the Tiger, identity unknown, is also cutting himself in on the plans. We're not sure who's with who except that Scotland Yard has an undercover man as well.

This is the second of two films that Hugh Sinclair starred in as Simon Templar over in Great Britain. This one's not as good as the first though Sinclair makes one breezy Saint. The story line is kind of muddled though that could be bad editing.

For fans of the series only.

Jean Gillie (sp?) makes this movie. She's too cute for words with her gung ho attitude. She's not really believable IMO. She's just too calm in the face of danger given her background, but it's fiction after all, why not have a really strong female character to match up with the Saint.

A lot of the supporting cast is pretty dull

George Sanders is better as the Saint IMO. Hugh does OK - he's charming and competent enough

The plot is weak like most Saint movies. I don't care really as long as the dialog entertains, and it does.

I admit to having a real love for the early Saint movies for their totally relaxing experience - the violence is comic when there is violence, and you always just assume the Saint will manage to come out alive. Even though the violence is comic, the body count is high in this movie. Heck, I can't even remember how many people get killed (or one assumes their wounds are fatal.)

I would say, if you liked the Sanders Saint movie, this one might appeal to you. If you like comic-mysteries from this era and don't mind weak plots you will like this. I think most people just have to like Jean Gillie here, what's to not like?

For the second time, Hugh Sinclair is Simon Templar. Ben Williams dies on his doorstep, raving about a million pounds in gold. Intrigued, he investigates with the aid of Jean Gillie, leading to a mysterious figure known as the Tiger.

Like the previous one, this was produced in Great Britain. Unlike the previous one, RKO did not distribute it in the United States. Instead they sold it to Republic Pictures. They would produce no others.

It's quite a clever entry in the series, based on the first Saint book that Charteris wrote. I like Sinclair's version of the Saint as someone actually does something more energetic than your typical George Sanders episode. My opinion, however, does not result in lots of people in 1941 saying "Oooh! Joan Hickson is in this one! Let's go to the movies!" at least in part because I'm writing this more than eighty years later.

The Saint Meets the Tiger" was the first of the Saint books, but appeared rather late in the series of movies. The Saint is following the trail of a million pounds sterling of gold stolen from a Bristol bank by a gang headed by "the Tiger", a criminal mastermind. Hugh Sinclair, who doesn't much look the part initially, grows on you as the Saint with his witty and confident performance. His sidekick, Horace, has been transformed from a rough retired seaman to a dapper butler. The story isn't, of course, exactly the plot of the book, but it is close enough to give you fond reminiscences of the book. The cast is very similar in most respects to the main characters in the book. One of the main differences is that the identity of the Tiger is revealed quite early in the movie, and that revelation is virtually the last event in the book.

Some of the action scenes are a bit simplistic, to the point of virtually being bungled. Yet the charm of the dialog and the heroes overcomes those deficiencies. If you like these classic old mysteries, you can do a lot worse than "The Saint Meets the Tiger".