The Saint in New York

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.

Hayward does cut a dashing figure with an easy smile, a penchant for poetical one-liners, and a snap-brim fedora. His version of the Saint is also more interesting than the standard sleuth of the period since he's not above breaking the law when it serves justice or following his own code of integrity. Too bad this kind of character complexity didn't survive the many sequels.

The story itself is pretty routine: cleaning up the city by getting the mysterious Big Fellow. Not much excitement or suspense as the one-man-army sort of bounces back and forth between bad guys, snapping off occasional nifty one-liners. Then there's the sexy Kay Sutton to ease the eyes after all the ugly bad guys. And though her delivery sometimes sounds a flat note, she and Hayward manage to make their boilerplate romance surprisingly wistful.

Anyway, I've got to say this about someone, and I think it's director Ben Holmes. How many of these programmers have you seen where somebody gets shot in one scene, yet turns up miraculously made whole in the next. Not here. The Saint gets wounded in one scene and, by golly, he favors that shoulder for the rest of the film. So an unofficial Oscar for Attention to Neglected Detail to Ben Holmes by default since such matters are usually the job of the director. Then too, on a slightly different note, I hope cable comes up with Holmes' intriguingly titled Cutie on Duty (1943) sometime real soon.

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.

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.

The Saint films starring George Sanders are very enjoyable films (apart from the disappointing 'The Saint's Double Trouble'), and Sanders is great in the role, but only 'The Saint Takes Over' is almost up to the level of 'The Saint in New York' and closest in spirit to it.

Signalling the start of RKO's nine-film Saint films, 'The Saint in New York' for me stands out as the best. Not without its imperfections, but is regardless hugely entertaining. It does sag ever so slightly in the middle and, other than the entertaining Jonathan Hale and Kay Sutton (despite a relatively underwritten role) who brings the right amount of allure and mystery, the supporting cast while still solid and well suited to their roles are not hugely memorable.

Louis Hayward however is simply terrific in the title role, bringing suavity, charisma, elegance and toughness to a potentially stock character that actually has shades of complexity. While low-budget, 'The Saint in New York' is nicely shot and is aesthetically atmospheric. The music is lively and haunting, while the direction keeps the pace going but also allows the plot to breathe.

As for the script, it is sharp, cutting and witty without being wordy, simplistic or clunky. The story is the toughest, edgiest and darkest of the series, meaning that there is more of a sense of mystery than the Sanders outings, as well as some nicely balanced humour. The mystery itself is diverting and doesn't suffer from the somewhat short duration of the film, meaning it doesn't get rushed or confused. The ending is one of the more satisfying ones of the series.

Overall, the first Saint film is also the best one. As enjoyable as the Sanders Saint films are, 'The Saint in New York' executes various elements better and there is a preference for the darker and tougher edge to the still appealingly light-hearted one of the succeeding films. 8/10 Bethany Cox