The Queen's Ransom

The transition from b&w to color hurt some shows. It was a draw with "The Avengers" (but those were the Diana Rigg years!) The transition helped "The Saint" by largely abandoning the premise they were bringing the Charteris stories to life (actually, in the next series they would bring to the small screen the Charteris yarn of giant ants, one of his worst).

The Simon Templar dialogue at the beginning of each episode from now on becomes a voice-over.

Roger Moore, winsome as ever, sparkles in color. With the wholesale abandonment of Charteris the tales become more humorous (not all of them) and enter a Saintly la-la land. In fact, some of the stories (notably the sixth series "the Fiction Makers" might have been written for "The Avengers."

"Queen's Ransome" was a good place to start the color scheme. It's both daring and adventurous (with guest star Dawn Addams, for one, brief, shining moment a hot property in Hollywood, like Moore himself once was before getting stuck on the small screen) and conservative. With most everything still being shot in the studio.

I enjoy many of the b&w Saints but the color episodes feel more fun. Beginning with this tale of Simon Templar as a bodyguard with a queen with whom he had a prior relationship. Some nice twists; but sixty years after "The Saint" we've seen it all since.

This episode will have you watching it over & over again on DVD. Tautly directed by Roy Baker("A Night to Remember" about the Titanic) this episode could've easily been turned into a feature film. Beautiful Dawn Addams is the female guest star this time as Queen Adana. She & Simon(Roger Moore) are on the run escorting valuable jewels back to her husband, a deposed king. She & Simon have a visual & verbal dual of wits as they fly, rail & steal cars around France all while trying to elude Arab despots. They make a comically interesting pair while repeatedly avoiding attempts on their lives. My absolute favorite line in the episode and perhaps in all television, comes from veteran actress Nora Nickelson who masquerades as a sweet old lady while actually being part of the Arab gang. She beautifully upstages Moore & Addams with her old lady sweetness. After nearly poisoning Simon & the Queen she is caught and Addams playfully asks Nora if she does crime often and Nora responds by saying: "My talent for intrigue almost exactly matches my contempt for politicians." Priceless bit of dialogue. All of the Saint episodes are decent, the ones that have been put on discs. One might ask why didn't A&E market the whole library from 1962-69 going in chronological order year by year. Makes sense to me. But this particular episode, Queen's Ransom, is a gem. You can't go wrong watching it.