The Pearls of Peace

It lacks the action that dominated the series, but this episode featured the finest story The Saint ever presented.

The true beauty capable in the human spirit is the dominant theme of the episode, and toward the end, that spirit is sent soaring. Along the way, those obsessed with material things are shown in all their sallowness, and more importantly, those who value what is truly dear, reveal the height of their character.

This truth is summed up in the coda scene, where perhaps some of the wisest counsel is served up in the closing narration.

Before it got into its stride, the early episodes of The Saint were somewhat patchy, sometimes excellent, sometimes poor. This extended meditation on the skin-depth of beauty is decidedly on the poor end of the spectrum.

The plot centres around an ill-fated expedition for pearls in Mexico, led by an old friend of Simon's. The friend, Brad, played without charm by Bob Kanter, is about as cretinous as it is possible for a character to be, just about able to tie his shoelaces without help but no more. It is virtually impossible to imagine how smooth Simon and this schmuck ever got together. Of course the expedition goes wrong, with results closer to mawkish than tragic.

The story is told in flashback, and Simon hardly appears in the first half. We ache for his appearance, but when he does finally turn up, he is crude rather than urbane, with his treatment of Brad's scheming girlfriend particularly scandalous. She is certainly mercenary, but her point of view is completely reasonable - she is castigated by Simon for not accompanying her idiot boyfriend on his hare-brained jaunt to a remote spot in Mexico, as if it is the duty of any girl to indulge her man's whims however moronic. She (being an evil bitch) wants to stay in New York to continue pursuing her career - appalling! And Simon is never witty in his put-downs, only ever rude - completely out of character.

Simon's resolution of the difficulties is supposed to be rough justice - though actually unjust and criminal. And then - unforgivably, since the whole tale is a flashback - we don't get the end of the story.

I think they were trying to be a little bit thought-provoking, but the end result is sexist, sentimental, morally dubious and tedious in the extreme.

Simon agrees to help finance a friend's ill-fated pearl hunting operation. Years later, he receives word that his friend is living in Mexico and wants to pay back what he owes. Simon heads to Mexico to investigate and is shocked at what he finds.

I know I'm only six episodes into The Saint, but The Pearls of Peace is not what I've come to expect from the series. For lack of a better word, it doesn't feel like the other episodes I've seen. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, it's just different. Instead of the usual action/crime/drama genre classification I would use to describe The Saint, this episode is more like a drama/romance w/ a dash of crime. The story is told in flashback style with Simon little more than a background character for most of the episode. He really doesn't do much until the episode is almost over. Again, not that any of this is bad, just different. One thing that's not different is that, in the end, Simon's on-hand to save the day. However, the little switcheroo that he pulls wasn't nearly as clever as it was meant to be. The con was way too easy to predict. And, I could have done without that sappy final monologue. It's a real low point for me.

There are a couple of acting highlights I want to point out. First, Dina Palsner is fantastic as Consuelo. She gives a very refined, dignified performance and creates a believably loving character. Second is Erica Rogers. Has there ever been a more uncaring, selfish gold-digger than Rogers' Joss Hendry? I think that the contrast between these two characters is a real strength of The Pearls of Peace.

6/10

I have to disagree with kmoh-1 (although I liked his review): I rather liked this episode.

It's a bit slower than most and, unusually, the Saint is really only a bit part in the story until the last 15 minutes or so; but it has some elements of the two Humphrey Bogart "Sierra" movies: greed, avarice, double-cross, disfigurement, pity, caring, and the nature of beauty.

Perhaps a bit much for a one-hour show, but I though it was an honest try - although I have to admit, I could have done without the last 2 minutes of syrupy "summing up".

Perhaps kmoh isn't quite as old as me - I started watching 'the Saint' around 1965 - so what he sees as "sexist" I just see as 1962 (the year this episode came out). Perhaps if he could look past that, he'd see what I did: a nicely-crafted story, well played.

I doubt if he'd say the same if it was a Bogie movie he'd been watching. :-)

I thought I'd write a review of this episode as there is only one and I totally disagree with it. I thought this was one of the best episodes so far though I also disagree with saying that the early episodes are patchy. There are one or two that were not as good as the others but I've found most of them to be much better than I ever thought they would be especially the very first episode which I thought was genius and really well executed. This episode was quite different to all the others being more thoughtful and grown up which was a pleasant surprise. It was written by Richard Harris who went on to write the successful comedy 'Outside Edge' and episodes of 'A Touch Of Frost'. I just hope future episodes are as good as this one.