The Saint Meets the Tiger

When you deposit a body on Simon Templar's doorstep what else can you expect but that the Saint will get involved. But on which side of the law?

In an opening that was taken from The Maltese Falcon when Captain Jacoby arrives on Sam Spade's door dying and with the falcon, Simon TEmplar has a similar experience and before long is involved in exposing a smuggling racket. He's got competition though, another master criminal called the Tiger, identity unknown, is also cutting himself in on the plans. We're not sure who's with who except that Scotland Yard has an undercover man as well.

This is the second of two films that Hugh Sinclair starred in as Simon Templar over in Great Britain. This one's not as good as the first though Sinclair makes one breezy Saint. The story line is kind of muddled though that could be bad editing.

For fans of the series only.

When a man is killed on his doorstep, Simon Templar (Hugh Sinclair) tries to find out the reason in "The Saint Meets the Tiger," a 1943 film also starring Gordon McLeod, Jean Gillie and Wylie Watson. In this episode, The Saint has a butler (Wylie Watson) who regrets not taking a job in Chicago so he could work with mobsters; a death on the doorstep is what he's been waiting for. The man utters a few words before he dies, which lead Simon and his butler to a small town. There they meet a young woman, Pat (Gille), who becomes part of the "team" trying to uncover the identity of "The Tiger" and reveal a scam involving gold and an old mine.

The scenes on board ship were good, with the butler and Pat working together knocking people out and not realizing Simon was on board, too, and Simon not knowing they were on board. The two would run across a body and accuse the other of knocking him out. Inspector Teal shows up posing as a professor.

This is pleasant enough, though Sanders brought a certain panache to the role of The Saint that is missed here. And why, when the series was imported to Britain, wasn't the Saint's whistle brought along with him?

For the second time, Hugh Sinclair is Simon Templar. Ben Williams dies on his doorstep, raving about a million pounds in gold. Intrigued, he investigates with the aid of Jean Gillie, leading to a mysterious figure known as the Tiger.

Like the previous one, this was produced in Great Britain. Unlike the previous one, RKO did not distribute it in the United States. Instead they sold it to Republic Pictures. They would produce no others.

It's quite a clever entry in the series, based on the first Saint book that Charteris wrote. I like Sinclair's version of the Saint as someone actually does something more energetic than your typical George Sanders episode. My opinion, however, does not result in lots of people in 1941 saying "Oooh! Joan Hickson is in this one! Let's go to the movies!" at least in part because I'm writing this more than eighty years later.

Ultra lightweight movie almost floats away. Jean Gillie is fine as Pat Holm (borrowed from the very early Saint novels), but Hugh Sinclair suffers compared to the more magnetic George Sanders and lacks the vocal charm of Vincent Price's radio Saint. One of the appealing things about the Simon Templar character was the suspicion that he was only on the side of the good guys for as long as it would prove profitable. None of this comes through in this Republic effort, though the production values are reasonably high.

Jean Gillie (sp?) makes this movie. She's too cute for words with her gung ho attitude. She's not really believable IMO. She's just too calm in the face of danger given her background, but it's fiction after all, why not have a really strong female character to match up with the Saint.

A lot of the supporting cast is pretty dull

George Sanders is better as the Saint IMO. Hugh does OK - he's charming and competent enough

The plot is weak like most Saint movies. I don't care really as long as the dialog entertains, and it does.

I admit to having a real love for the early Saint movies for their totally relaxing experience - the violence is comic when there is violence, and you always just assume the Saint will manage to come out alive. Even though the violence is comic, the body count is high in this movie. Heck, I can't even remember how many people get killed (or one assumes their wounds are fatal.)

I would say, if you liked the Sanders Saint movie, this one might appeal to you. If you like comic-mysteries from this era and don't mind weak plots you will like this. I think most people just have to like Jean Gillie here, what's to not like?