I've recently re-watched the first 8 films as part of my general 1930s-40s marathon. I was considering upgrading to DVD, but there was just too many other things I was spending monmey for at the moment, and decided to put it off. (Crazy enough, I did get the OnesMedia box set of THE FALCON-- all 16 of them in one set!!)
Way back, I had trouble getting a decent print of THE SAINT IN NEW YORK. I've learned so much about that film I never knew for decades. Lots of IMDB reviews complain the sequels were "toned down". Those people never read the books. "The Saint In New York" was never a "normal" Charteris book to begin with. It was presented as a "flashback" to Templar's earlier days when he spent a lot of time in Chicago and such fighting gangsters. VERY violent. The novel sold like crazy, which is what inspired RKO to buy the film rights. But they quickly ran in trouble with the Hayes Office, and their planned film was postponed for SEVERAL YEARS, and when they finally did it, they had to seriously tone it down, and totally recast all the parts.
So then they decided to buy the rights for ALL of Charteris' stories... but someone else really wanted to make Louis Hayward a big movie star, made him an offer, and he was out the door. George Sanders was TOTALLY-wrong for the part... and I rank THE SAINT STRIKES BACK as the single worst SAINT film ever made. Not his fault-- the script was ABOMINABLY-bad. So... what a shock that the follow-up, THE SAINT IN LONDON-- actually filmed IN England-- and based on a short story-- I rank as the single BEST Saint film ever made! Sanders is so good, that with a DAMNED-good script, he could overcome the fact that really, he had NO business being in those movies. (See SON OF MONTE CRISTO-- Sanders plays the snide villain opposite Louis Hayward as the dashing hero.)
It took me a lot of years to figure out that THE SAINT TAKES OVER is a thinly-veiled remake of STRIKES BACK, both very loosely based on my favorite novel-- "Angels Of Doom". I rank it as the 2nd-best Sanders SAINT film. The others are just kinda dull.
RKO was giving Leslie Charteris all kinds of hassles, and he was so disgusted with how they were treating his character, he TOOK BACK the rights-- then, signed a new deal with RKO's brand-new British wing. THE SAINT'S VACATION with Hugh Sinclair was a HUGE improvement on every single level... and the only criticism I have of it is that... Sinclair had a moustache. (I've seen him without one. He looked much better.)
RKO decided to thumb their nose at Charteris. They looked around and decided to start a series based on Michael Arlen's one-and-only FALCON novel, THE GAY FALCON. Now here it gets nuts. I've read Charteris sued Arlen for plagiarism. I'm surprised Charles H. Huff didn't sue Arlen first. Huff created "Michael Waring", alias "The Falcon" in 3 novels in 1936-1938. Michael Arlen created "Gaylord Falcon", alias "The Falcon", in one book in 1940. In 1941, RKO began their FALCON series, and did 4 films about "Gay Lawrence". Charteris sued RKO over THAT, too!
So, when RKO's British branch did THE SAINT MEETS THE TIGER in late 1941, the lawsuit saw to it that while it was released in England, it wasn't released in America until 2 years later, by a different distributor! Tragically, it was the last SAINT film for more than a decade.
Meanwhile, after 4 FALCON films, Sanders got bored and really, really wanted to move on. The 4th film was THE FALCON'S BROTHER, and was the only time George & his real life brother Tom ("Tom Conway") ever acted together. Gay got killed at the end, and "Tom Lawrence" took as as The Falcon. He did 10 of them from 1942-46.
But now it gets even crazier. The Blue Network did a FALCON radio show from 1943-1954 featuring "Michael Waring" -- THE ORIGINAL "Falcon"! 5 different actors played him on the radio. Then in 1948-49, another studio did 3 FALCON movies also featuring "Michael Waring". And then, someone else did a FALCON tv series with Charles McGraw as "Michael Waring".
I need to add... something I figured out thanks to someone at THIS message board... the 1997 movie THE SAINT with Val Kilmer, despite its title, is NOT a "Saint" movie AT ALL. Even though it has characters in it named "Simon Templar" (NOT his real name, in the film) and "Inspector Teal".
In is, in fact, loosely based on Louis Joseph Vance's 1914 novel "The Lone Wolf", about an orphan who grows up to be a professional thief, and takes the name "Michael Lanyard". He runs afoul of a criminal gang, and falls in love with a woman who inspires him to GO STRAIGHT.
This is NOT, in any way, "Simon Templar" (which was Templar's REAL NAME in every previous "Saint" book, movie, radio show, comic, TV episode, whatever).
It really flips me out when Hollywood types license ONE character or story... but then do ANOTHER, uncredited, AND UNPAID.
Oh, by the way... it seem NOBODY knows where a decent print of THE SAINT IN NEW YORK can be found, or if one exists. Currently, ALL existing prints have been made from a 16 mm print. NO S***. For a movie that apparently made a TON of money when it came out... this is OBSCENE. (My best copy, recorded straight off TCM, looks fuzzy as hell. The others from TCM are all VERY sharp.)
