User reviews

Excellent entry in the RKO Saint series with well-written original script, good camera work and transitions, good directing to handle some twists in the plot, good editing to keep the flow constant, and good acting. George Sanders is suave and witty. Jonathan Hale simply is Inspector Fernack. Paul Guilfoyle plays a mobster who goes straight (and drinks milk) because he cannot take the pressure. He will return in a later entry in the series. Story begins on an ocean liner headed to the U.S. where the Saint meets but cannot connect with Wendie Barrie. She eventually succumbs to the Saint's charms but she breaks his heart in the end. The Saint assists Inspector Fernack clear his name from a frame. A few bodies fall along the way. Good entertainment and above average for this type of film. Watch it.

By all means, all of them are worth watching. They're not great films, or masterpieces, but they are good fun that give you the right amount of entertainment for just over an hour running time.

'The Saint Strikes Back' was a decent debut film for George Sanders in the role, though there was a finding-its-feet feel to it with the supporting cast and some of the storytelling being patchy. 'The Saint in London' is an improvement, with things feeling more settled and with a much better supporting cast, though production values weren't as good and the story could have been tighter and had more mystery.

Conversely, the third Saint film with Sanders 'The Saint Takes Over' is the best of the three and among the best of the series. There is not much actually to complain about, although the sets are still atmospheric the film does look at times like it was made quickly on a tight budget and the ending just felt too conveniently and easily wrapped up.

On the whole though, while things felt more settled in the previous film it was with 'The Saint Takes Over' where the series hit its stride. The story is by far the best executed of the Sanders-Saint films so far, it's breezy and tight and light-hearted and always easy to follow without being simplistic. At the same time, there is much more mystery here, and it's a compelling one, and it is the film in the series up to this point to feel closest to the tougher edge in the Louis Hayward Saint film that preceded the series.

Scripting is smart and with the right balance of fun and mystery, while the music is jaunty but also atmospheric. The direction is suitably brisk, and there are some good scenes such as the scaring to confessing scene.

As said with the previous films, Sanders himself is super-suave, sophisticated and wonderfully caddish, while also giving a charming and humorous edge and delivering some cutting lines with aplomb. Jonathan Hale is fine support, while Wendy Barrie is leagues better than she was in 'The Saint Strikes Back' (there she was a draw-back, here she blends right in tone with the story and has a much warmer character). Paul Guilfoyle is very amusing too.

On the whole, the best of the Saint series starring Sanders up to this point and among the best of the series too. 8/10 Bethany Cox

George Sanders and Wendy Barrie sit at the bar discussing a man in trouble. "Maybe he needs a guardian angel," suggests Sanders. "Or a patron saint," she replies. He pauses and squints at her: "Aren't they just about the same?"

Sanders is back as Simon Templar in this darker-than-usual Saint entry. Wendy Barrie is a fellow traveler whom Templar rescues from card sharps on board ship—and who turns out to be involved in the very case that has brought the Saint to New York once again.

The Saint's old friend and sometime nemesis Inspector Fernack is at the center of this plot—framed by mobsters who have planted $50,000 in his safe, Fernack is on suspension from the force. Jonathan Hale is strong as usual as Fernack, this time appreciative (mostly) of Templar's arrival on the scene to assist him.

Barrie's excellent performance—as a strong but sad, even tragic, figure—helps distinguish this film as one of the best in the Saint series. The interplay between Barrie and Sanders is especially good; while the plot may look like a formula B mystery, these are two highly skilled actors offering full performances.

Neatly constructed, it's an efficient but polished production. This is a good one.

P.S. Lest I give the idea that this movie is overly grim, I should mention that Paul Guilfoyle is quite good as a not very bright safecracker….and that any B movie fan will smile to see the great Cy Kendall listed in the opening credits as "Cyrus W. Kendall."

"The Saint Takes Over" stars George Sanders as Simon Templar, aka "The Saint" in this 1940 entry into the series. It also stars Wendy Barrie, Jonathan Hale and Paul Guilfoyle. On board ship en route to the U.S., The Saint meets and tries to make time with a woman (Wendy Barrie) who gives him the brushoff. Simon is coming to New York to help Inspector Fernack, now thoroughly discredited due to a gangster frame-up; $50,000 was found in his home. The gangster, Rocky (Roland Drew), of course, was found not guilty at trial, and he and his fellow mobsters pay the bill for the frame and attorney representation - $90,000 in total. Today you need that to defend yourself against a parking ticket. This was a murder rap.

Rocky sends his bodyguard, Pearly Gates (Guilfoyle) to the lawyer's house to steal the $90,000 from the safe. The attorney catches him red-handed and sends him back to his boss with a message. Seconds later, he's dead. Rocky meets a similar fate. And on and on - who's killing this group of gangsters? The Saint has to get one of them to talk so that Fernack can be cleared - can he get to anyone before they're murdered? The woman he met on board ship reappears and figures prominently in the case.

Few actors have a way with a line like George Sanders, and his dry wit, good looks, smooth voice and depth as an actor suit Simon Templar perfectly. Paul Guilfoyle provides some humor as the nervous, milk drinking Pearly Gates, and Jonathan Hale is great as the sometimes exasperated but worried sick Inspector Fernack. Wendy Barrie, who appeared in many Saint episodes, is very good as the woman who captures Simon's heart.

Very enjoyable.

George Sanders playing the Saint for the penultimate time does a good job out of a good script - with the usual good RKO cast around. It's a non-Charteris story too, bristling with murders and good clean fun.

Thread 1: In New York, Police Inspector Fernack, Templar's friend is framed in a corruption scandal and disgraced - ST comes over from London to try to put things right. Nice and simple so far - but is there really more than $90,000 in the world? Thread 2: Another tale of a woman taking revenge on the people who murdered her brother, Wendy Barrie does well in bumping off some nasty men and having the Saint fall in love with her to boot. Including a baddie who was under their direct protection and in Fernack's cellar - there's a creepy shot of him (dead and staring) and them in a car when they're taking him back to where they'd got him. Paul Guilfoyle as Pearly Gates must have supposed to have been homosexual in this - witness the dressing gown at the beginning, and the later beguiling comment by ST that he was thinking of keeping him as a pet - and did too for "Palm Springs"! Fernack was played by Jonathan Hale as usual but this time with such a beaten deflated attitude that what he really needed was a good slapping from Templar to liven him up.

The Hays Office also made sure you got the picture right, all threads are tied up with no straggly bits. Well worth watching for all of us who like this kind of thing, but if Val Kilmer's version is your yardstick then don't bother.

This is a better-than-average entry in the Saint series - It holds your interest and, as mysteries should, keeps you guessing until the end and has several suspects to choose from.

Many films from the Golden Age are not for all tastes, especially younger viewers. They date themselves by clothing, cars, settings, etc. Who nowadays asks for a highball? Or wears a suit and tie everywhere? And the legal process was so much simpler - must have been a dearth of lawyers back then. Frankly, much of value is missing from those days.

In any case, go with it and enjoy. It's good - in an old-fashioned sense.

George Sanders is my favorite saint. But some of the movies are a bit weak, usually the plot.

In this movie, the plot is about as good as you can expect from the RKO saint movies. It mostly makes sense, unlike some of them.

Paul Guifoyle (sp?) is back in this one, and that's a good thing. I really enjoy his comedic style at times. It's hard not to smile at his funny expressions and mispronunciations (does anyone else wonder where the gangster henchman habit of butchering pronunciations came from?)

Wendy Barrie is not too bad. I wish she had better lines or something, but it's not bad.

The usual Fernack(sp?) is present, and again, that's a good thing. I feel he should be a bit brighter given that he's a police detective, but I guess the dumb cop/detective is an old stereotype. Anyway, the saint is a bit like Bugs Bunny where his superiority is contrasted to idiots - so again, a tried and true stereotype.

As I say, this is one of my favorites. It's light, it moves right along, has the comic elements and the entertaining Sanders as saint.

This nifty little movie demonstrates the rock-solid virtues of a time, place and kind of masculine strength that we no longer have or even aspire to have. The Saint is a paladin with only the best motives, to say nothing of a polished vocabulary and diction. No need to turn up the volume or read the dialog. George Sanders is so charming and, yes, low-key that all that talent, smarts, physical presence and above all, masculinity, seem, well, almost normal. Some normal! George Clooney can not begin to master the scene as Mr. Sanders does (and does without Mr. Clooney's mugging).He could play a sniveler (witness The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and Rebecca) but when he was good, he was very, very good. Truly, a man for all reasons and seasons.

The above summary really isn't meant as a slam against this film, as the series followed a very similar format. As usual, Simon Templar ("The Saint") meets a lady in distress and comes to her aid. He also comes to the aid of a police detective who was framed of accepting a bribe. Along the way, he meets some interesting supporting characters (this time, Paul Guilfoyle as "Pearly" Gates) and during his unraveling of this not especially compelling mystery (none of them really are), Templar is extremely erudite and just plain cool! George Sanders is once again the consummate sophisticated British do-gooder and he succeeds once again in making an excellent B-detective series film. Nothing particularly special, but a familiar and breezy product sure to please fans of the genre.

When Inspector Fernack (Jonathan Hale) is framed, Simon Templar comes to America to help out not before meeting a beautiful damsel on the ship who is being cheated in a game of cards but their paths will cross again soon.

Fernack cannot explain how thousands and thousands of dollars were found in his safe. The Saint reckons a group of mobsters involved a race fixing ring are involved. However more bodies show up and they all point to Fernack as the murderer.

This is a more enjoyable B film simply because there is a nicer and more involved plot, a few red herrings and a milk drinking character called Pearly Gates who decides to turn his back on the mobsters and join up with the Saint.

No one was ever better as an acerbic, caustic, sarcastic bastard than George Sanders. Every film he ever made was never below 6 stars. That says quite a bit about his consistency as an actor. He could play the gentleman with ease, or a scoundrel just as easily. He could do comedy in his sleep, and could deliver dramatic roles with equal aplomb. The Saint was actually below his station as a fine actor, but working was always better than looking for the next role. Take in all the Saint films; they are all worthwhile.

One of the few friends that Simon Templar has in law enforcement is Inspector Fernack of the NYPD. Jonathan Hale as Fernack in the series has learned long ago to go with the flow where Templar is concerned. So when Fernack is found with $50,000.00 in mob money in his house he can't explain and he loses his badge, George Sanders as Simon Templar crosses the Atlantic to aid a friend.

While on the ocean voyage Sanders also aids beautiful Wendy Barrie who is being cheated by card sharps working the boat. Her story will interconnect with what Sanders is in New York for, but you'll have to see the film to find out how.

The mob which has six crime family bosses start getting systematically eliminated once Sanders arrives and this is bad because he needs some live perpetrators to clear the inspector. The police also think Hale might be doing this in revenge. Along the way Sanders and Hale manage to get Paul Guilfoyle who the 'bodyguard' to one of the late crime bosses to help in their quest. Guilfoyle provides a few laughs along the way.

It's a B film so I'm not expecting all that much from it. But it all ties too neatly and conveniently at the end. Still Sanders is his charming self as Templar and he's been in worse films.

Simon Templar (aka The Saint) decides to go and help when he reads that acquaintance Inspector Henry Fernack has been dropped from the police force for not being able to explain the thousands and thousands of dollars that had been found in his safe. He starts to investigate the suspicion that Fernack was actually set-up by a group of mobsters, eager to get him off their backs in regards a race fixing ring they have going. The more Templar pushes to help his friend though, the more the bodies start to pile up – ironically mostly pointing to Fernack as the murderer.

After getting a couple of episodes out under Sanders' control, the Saint series started to make me forget that I had enjoyed the original portrayal by Hayward a lot more than the later films. As a result I enjoyed this Saint film more than I had the last couple I'd watched. It may have also helped that the plot was an original tale (as opposed to an adaptation from Charteris' novels) and that it involved a lot more murders and mystery than other films. This isn't to say that it is brilliant because it is still very much fitting with the b-movie serial feel that the series generally had although it had enough movement to it to keep me watching.

Sanders is quite enjoyable and the tone of the series seems to have mellowed to better suit his cool, smooth delivery and style – which is a shame in my opinion but I'll try not to bang on about it. He leads the film nicely although he does tend to suck the urgency and tension out of the story by being so laid back all the time. Support from regulars Hale and Barrie is good along with some nice touches from Guilfoyle and a few others.

Overall this is an enjoyable and quite lively entry in the series that will please fans of The Saint and The Falcon. Nothing special and it never aspires to be more than the next episode in a b-movie serial but it is still OK if you meet it at that level.

GEORGE SANDERS is his usual suave self as the smoothly capable man who falls for WENDY BARRIE aboard a cruise ship, but is unable to really connect with her until he finds out the truth about her while he tries to clear Inspector Fernack (JOHNATHAN HALE) of a murder charge in New York City.

It's a typical "Saint" story with a predictable wrap-up that has the sinners paying for their crimes. It's a neat B-film entry that benefits from good performances from the cast and some appropriately menacing background music by Roy Webb.

Jonathan Hale does a good job of playing the police inspector suspected of several murders and unable to clear himself of the charges until The Saint steps in to help. The story concludes with a downbeat ending that may leave some fans disappointed, but most of the story is done in breezy style with Sanders delivering all of his lines with his usual flair.

George Sanders stops Wendy Barrie from being fleeced by a bunch of shipboard gamblers. He reads that his old pal Inspector Jonathan Hale, is suspended because $50,000 has been found in his safe. On showing up, he learns that Hale has been investigating a race-fixing racket, who wanted him put out of commission. Sanders offers to investigate, and soon enough the lawyer who has been fronting the group is shot in his home, and $90,000 in cash is missing from his safe.

I figured it out about 30 minutes into its 69 minute run, but it seems to me the best written of all of them. It was the first one not based on a Charteris book, and I believe that had a good deal to do with its excellence. This is not Charteris' Saint, it's Sanders', and the story could be written to suit his talents. His motivation is a simple and soft one, to help out a pal, and he claims to do some thinking here. He may even do it -- the character, I mean, not Sanders.

There are the usual errors caused by shooting everything on the RKO lot. The final confrontation takes place on a half-used suburban street, with a white picket fence and a low-rise detached apartment building, which backs onto a high-rise alleyway. Even stranger, what's actually on that block is Saint Patrick's Cathedral.

With Paul Guilfoyle, Morgan Conway, Robert Emmet Keane, and Cy Kendall.

This is the fifth of the Saint films, and the fourth with George Sanders as the Saint. What a relief that this is a good one again, after the horrible fourth film in the series which is not worth watching. This film is not based upon a story or a novel by Leslie Charteris, but has a screenplay which uses the character of the Saint ('created by Leslie Charteris') in a story written by the screenwriters Lynn Root and Frank Fenton . The plot is rather complex, and there are five and a half villains. (The half-villain is a woman who wants to kill the other five.) Wendy Barrie plays the half-villain. She wants to avenge the death of her brother, who was killed by the five baddies. They have also framed Inspector Henry Fernack, played as usual by Jonathan Hale. By putting his $50,000 in his safe and then arranging for the police to find it, so that he loses his job because of suspicion of corruption. So Sanders comes to the rescue to try and prove that Fernack is innocent. Paul Guilfoyle as Clarence 'Pearly' Gates has a prominent part in the film, exploiting his comic gifts and ability to act 'stupid'. The director is Jack Hiveley, who directed the previous film of the series and would direct the next one, THE SAINT IN PALM SPRINGS (1941), which would be the last Saint film for both himself and for George Sanders.

George Sanders in another Saint film... in this one, Simon helps out his friend Inspector Fernack ( Jonathan Hale). When the inspector runs into trouble with the mob, the saint tries to figure out what's going on. Slow and steady, like the plot of the film. Wendy Barrie co-stars, but the story would have been about the same without her. Barrie and Sanders had worked together on a couple Falcon films and a couple Saint films. Follow along as Simon and the inspector chase after thugs named Rocky and Pearly. moves pretty slowly, but it's entertaining enough for fans of Sanders. He would only make one more episode as the saint, then did a bunch as the Falcon. Shows on Turner Classics now and then. Directed by Jack Hively... he and Sanders made four Saint films.

When a police inspector is suspended on suspicion of fraud, it falls to his eponymous friend (George Sanders) to get to the bottom of things. It seems "Fernack" (Jonathan Hale) was found with $50,000 in his safe! Conclusive? Well soon our sleuth discovers that there is a cabal of five hoodlums determined to ruin his friend. Well they are, until, suddenly they themselves start dropping like flies. Are they betraying each other or is someone on the outside seeking revenge? "Templar" assisted by his police buddy, the not entirely trustworthy safecracker "Gates" (Paul Guilfoyle) and the slightly enigmatic "Ruth" (Wendy Barrie) who has penchant for roses must now identify and expose the culprit. Sanders was always good as the debonair, considered, detective who uses the minimum of brute force to apprehend his foes. Here the story is quite well written with a few red herrings and just enough intrigue to keep it interesting for just over an hour. Of course there's no jeopardy, but the denouement has a degree of sophistication to it that I found quite fun.

Saint Takes Over, The (1940)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Fifth film in RKO's series has George Sanders once again returning as The Saint. This time out his buddy is accused of a crime he didn't commit and disgraced so The Saint comes back to America to clear his name. While all of this is going on, we have a female going around seeking vengeance for the death of her brother but that's not all because mobsters are tied into a robbery. I must admit upfront that I haven't been overly impressed with any of the films from the series that Sanders has appeared in. I think the original film in the series was good but the three sequels were all fair at best. I'd call this one of the best of the Sanders films but it really starts off quite boring as the film spends way too much time trying to set up its story instead of delivering the goods. The second half of the film really picks up and leads to a nice ending and I really wish the first half had moved as well as the second. The highlight of the film is a scene where The Saint and a couple other men are trying to scare a confession out of a man but of course things don't go as planned. Sanders also delivers the best performance I've seen from him in the series and it's backed by a good music score.