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THE SAINTS VACATION
UK, 1943, 70 minutes, Black and white
Hugh Sinclair, Sally Gray, Cecil Parker.
Directed by Lesley Fenton.
The Saint’s Vacation is a brief story of Simon Templar, the Saint, created by novelist Leslie Charteris. This film is not as interesting as the films with George Sanders, a smooth and suave presence compared with this film’s Hugh Sinclair, dapper and debonair, but without the panache of George Sanders.
The film has some comic touches, especially with Templar’s friend, Monty, with whom he goes on vacation. The journalists don’t believe him and one of them, Mary Logan (Sally Gray) follows him by plane to the continent. Before long, they are all involved in a car pursuit, a mysterious box, murders and shootings. This is a hush-hush situation with the invention of a music box which has a code base for an electrical circuit, for improving a listening device. (It seems somewhat amazing to think how primitive these inventions seem to be in light of surveillance techniques of the latter part of the 20th century and into the 21st century.)
Cecil Parker, before he took on his range of dithering character roles, is the Germanic villain, pursuing the box, murdering the courier, continually confronting Templar. In fact, the box changes hands many times throughout the film. Also in the scene is a mysterious woman who turns out to be working for British government agencies.
The film gives the opportunity for an interpretation of the Saint as the gentleman detective, working outside the police investigations, but solving mysteries with some ease but not without danger.
The film is of historical interest, the style of supporting features in the 1930s and 40s, drawing on popular detective novels of the period. But this film is especially interesting because it was co-written by the novelist himself, Leslie Charteris.