The Saint's Vacation (1941)

I'll tell you why so serious

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Blistering performances.

George Sanders is the suave, sophisticated but also slightly dubious The Saint. Sanders jumped ship to become The Falcon and film series moved to be shot on location in Britain. Its fast paced, low budget B picture with cheap production values.Hugh Sinclair takes over as The Saint but he has none of the charisma or screen presence of Sanders and at some parts of the film he gets lost amongst other similar looking actors in the film. There is a propaganda element in this film with dastardly Nazis types and the plot is very much borrowed from The Lady Vanishes, although its based on an original Charteris story.Its a race across Europe on a train where everyone is looking for a strange music box. British film stalwart Cecil Parker is the villain as Prince Rudolph. There are some nice action sequences with fist fights and shooting scenes, elements of comedy and nice attractive leading ladies. Sinclair is bland and a little dull. We have no idea what is so important about the box though.

If it were not for Cecil Parker, who makes the most of an unusual role as the villain in this entry scripted by Leslie Charteris himself in collaboration with the talented Jeffrey Dell (who later wrote and directed that outstanding 1952 thriller, "The Dark Man"), and some good work by Arthur Macrae as our hero's right-hand man (he certainly fooled me with his gendarme impersonation), this entry could be classed as pretty routine. Certainly, former actor Leslie Fenton's direction is nothing to write home about, although he does stage the action with reasonable aplomb. He was later to direct the cult western, "Whispering Smith", and then the almost equally admired "Streets of Laredo", before blotting his copybook with "The Redhead and the Cowboy" in 1951. He then retired. Unlike his contemporaries, he ignored all overtures from TV even though he lived not that far away from Hollywood in Montecito, California. This Saint entry is available on an excellent Warner Archive DVD, coupled with "The Saint Meets the Tiger".

Hugh Sinclair is The Saint, Simon Templar, in "The Saint's Vacation," a 1941 film also starring Sally Gray, Cecil Parker and Arthur Macrae. Besides Roger Moore and Ian Ogilvy on television, the Saint has been played by Sinclair, Louis Hayward and George Sanders (that I've seen). I liked Hayward's smoothness, Sanders' turn of a phrase, and I like Sinclair's cool, casual, take it as it comes attitude. He doesn't have the dry wit of Sanders' Simon, but like Saints before him, nothing fazes him either. He also doesn't whistle the familiar "Saint" tune, which I kind of missed.Now the Saint is veddy veddy British as the productions were moved over to the UK, and Simon is working with a friend (Arthur Macrae) who's afraid of his shadow. This time the plot concerns a highly sought after music box - where have we heard that before? And, as usual, people will kill to get their hands on it.Sally Gray is pretty and energetic as a reporter who accompanies Simon as she tries to get a good story. Evidently she doesn't realize that if you like Sherlock Holmes and The Lady Vanishes, this variation on a theme is old stuff. Very pleasant film.

The Saint courts media interest wherever he goes and today is no interest – even though Monty just wants a nice quiet holiday with him, with no mystery or adventure. Slipping onto the ship in disguise throws most of the journalists off Templar's trail but not the plucky and determined Mary Langdon, who follows him on his trip. But as Summer follows Spring, so adventure follows the Saint and it is not long before he finds himself involved in shady goings-on over the possession of what appears to be a perfectly ordinary music box.As a fan of the Falcon series I decided to give other franchises a try and where better to start than the series that the original Falcon jumped out of – The Saint. In this entry the Saint gets into his usual scraps in the pursuit of a mystery box and the end result is a quite enjoyable little b-movie. The plot is straightforward but just about has enough action to make it worth seeing if you are into this sort of light entertainment (which I am). However those seeking a bit more substance will find this film lacking it but as long as you know what you are getting then it'll do the job.With Saunders jumping ship to join another RKO franchise (The Falcon) the role falls to Sinclair and he takes to it with no great distinction. True his performance is fitting for a b-movie serial but I didn't find him very memorable at all. Macrae is better and made some of his scenes better – never a good thing for a sidekick from a lead's point of view. Parker makes a good villain and he is by far the most interesting person in the film – his chemistry with Sinclair is effective and the former helps the latter be better than in solo scenes. Gray is just too obvious a blonde starlet to really stand out from the crowd but she does well enough. The film makes reasonable use of the location despite some heavy foreign accents that are distracting – the train scenes are quite enjoyable and the film manages to avoid feeling like it is stuck on a soundstage (even if it mostly is).Overall this is an OK film that will be enjoyed by viewers who like this sort of b-movie serial a la the Falcon etc. The plot is interesting enough even if it never really grabbed me; the acting helps and, although I didn't think Sinclair really managed to make the role his own, he is helped out by a great Parker and nice support from Macrae. Not anything special but a typical b-movie serial that can be enjoyed on that level.