The Saint in London (1939)

Very best movie i ever watch

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

George Sanders is in London for The Saint In London and for real. RKO actually splurged and filmed this on the other side of the pond. While in London he gets involved with a gang of counterfeiters operating out of an fictitious Eastern European country. Of course the villains sound very Germanic to me.As his man Friday David Burns made one of his few films of the time, he was more on stage this early in his career. Also along for the thrill of a little adventure is Sally Gray who makes an unsuccessful play for Sanders. Personally I think I'd rather not be involved with someone known as The Saint.As usual Sanders is urbane, witty, and charming and seems never at a loss when it comes to outsmarting both sides of the law. Gordon McLeod is the Scotland Yard Inspector who hasn't quite learned to go with the flow the way his opposite number in New York Inspector Fernack has done.The unflappable George Sanders is always fun either as a Saint or a Falcon.

Although it stars George Sanders rather than Louis Hayward in the title role (as in the previous "The Saint In New York"), this light-hearted romp through the imaginary underworld of 1930s London is equally silly. Unfortunately, the wisecracks and cameos are no substitute for the poor script, bland plot and unbelievable characters. It appears too to have been made on a shoestring budget.Three things should stand out for the 21st Century viewer: the obvious back projection in the car scenes, the paucity of telephones, and the ubiquity of cigarette smoke. David Burns plays Simon Templar's unlikely sidekick, and the love interest is provided by Sally Gray as flibbertigibbet Penny Parker.

Enjoyed this great Classic 1939 film in black and white and enjoying the very young George Sanders as Simon Templar/The Saint who is investigating a counterfeit ring of crooks in London and is working with Scotland Yard without the local London police knowing just what he is doing. Sally Grey, (Penelope,'Penny' Baker) is a sweet sexy looking blonde who never seems to want to leave Simon Templar and follows him everywhere he goes no matter where it is and how dangerous it might turn out to be. Simon Templar hires a pickpocket goon to become his Valet named Dugan who sure has a definite New York accent with all his strong "R's" being pronounced through out the picture. If you are a big fan of George Sanders, this film you will definitely enjoy viewing.

Back in his native London after his American adventures, Simon Templar (aka The Saint) is drawn into a mystery on the tip-off of a friend in the British Secret Service. The Saint investigates one Bruno Lang, apparently a member of polite society but also up to his neck in a plot involving the printing and illegal distribution of millions of pounds worth of foreign currency. The Saint investigates and finds himself drawn into a complex and dangerous affair with few people to trust outside of his street-smart valet Dugan, a former guest of Sing-Sing Prison.Having just watched the much better Saint in New York I must confess that I was only disappointed by the fact that The Saint films immediately stepped back from the dark, cruel edge of the original and became just another b-movie series with a suave character solving crimes – in fact the presence of Sanders in the title role made it even harder to tell it apart from the Falcon series (which is essentially an extension of The Saint after RKO fell out with Charteris). The plot here is so-so and is the first of the film's failings. Of course I say failings suggesting that it is a major problem which of course, as a b-movie, it isn't really. The story is run-of-the-mill but still just about does enough to hold the interest without doing much special or out of the ordinary.Sanders may well do suave really well but I couldn't help notice how very dull he was compared to the much more interesting turn from Louis Hayward. That said he does well enough for fans of the series and he does play the smooth matinée idol pretty well, although I wish he had given the Saint at least a little bit of an edge to show his criminal roots. The support cast are mostly reasonably good, or at least up to the standard of the series. Burns is good in the reoccurring role (in this series and The Falcon) of wise-cracking sidekick; McLeod is OK as Teal while Oscar, Abbott and a few others make good bad guys. Gray is reasonably good as the love interest.Overall a solid entry in the series that will please fans but do little to please others. Acting, plotting and directing are all squarely in b-movie territory and none of them ever threaten to break out of the genre to produce something more memorable – a shame considering the promise shown in the very first film in the series.