The Pearls of Peace

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.

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.

For me this is not really the saint.... Erica Rogers is good as the only character of interest in this unsaintly episode. He's at his best battling the ungodly! Here we get a discussion of true beauty real versus surface deep!! Jess ( Erica Rogers ) is surface deep, Consuelo is true beauty!!

This is a real pearl of an episode.

Pun fully intended.

The story simply stands out well, even amongst a decent serial like The Saint.

Double crosses, femme fatale, saintly stranger, there's so much to enjoy in this episode.

The central plot surrounding pearls in Mexican California is strong and rounded. Another pun there, sorry.

The cast perform admirably in their given roles. To the extent that this doesn't have to be an episode of The Saint. This easily could be a standalone feature of some sort.

The production is authentic, if a tad claustrophobic but that lends a certain charm to the piece.

Oh, and the "saintly stranger" I mentioned early - plot twist, it isn't Simon Templar.

Highly recommended.

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.