“…the Robin Hood of modern crime…”

It was 1997, and I found myself roped into going to see The Saint with a group of friends—an agonizing experience, and a perfectly dreadful film that bears no resemblance to anything Leslie Charteris ever wrote. (The movie only works if a, you can swallow that Elizabeth Shue is a scientist working on cold fusion, and b, you can convince yourself that Val Kilmer is not one of the most annoying actors to ever walk in front of a motion picture camera. I failed miserably on both counts.) Returning home, I was able to alleviate my revulsion at having paid to see it thanks to a marathon of the original Saint films being run by the ever reliable Turner Classic Movies. My favorite, by the way, is The Saint Strikes Back (1939), starring George Sanders—Sanders did five of these quick-but-enjoyable B-mysteries for RKO before becoming bored with them and moving on to another RKO B-movie series, The Falcon, based on the character created by Michael Arlen. He became bored with those as well, leaving the fourth film, The Falcon’s Brother (1942), and being replaced by his real-life brother Tom Conway. (Sanders eventually committed suicide in 1972, leaving behind a note that he was bored with it all. Maybe he should have considered another line of work.)

But I digress. Author Leslie Charteris introduced the character Simon Templar—a.k.a. The Saint—in the 1928 novel The Saint Meets the Tiger (later filmed as a 1941 movie starring Hugh Sinclair); Templar being a modern-day rogue/adventurer who subscribed to the Robin Hood philosophy of robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. Though he frequently intervened in murder and mysteries, he really wasn’t a detective in the literal sense, preferring to taking a big bite out of life’s sandwich and letting the juice dribble down his chin. (Okay, I apologize for that—this is what happens when you listen to too many Pat Novaks.) Many more novels and short stories followed, leading to a mystery magazine, a comic strip, films and TV series—and a radio series, first broadcast over NBC January 6, 1945.

The Saint’s first radio run lasted a scant three months, with a show starring Edgar Barrier and sponsored by Bromo Seltzer. He had a little more luck a few months later; this time actor Brian Aherne played the suave sleuth in a CBS series that replaced Campbell Soup-sponsored The Jack Carson Show during the summer of 1945. Louise Arthur co-starred in this version as Patricia Holm, Templar’s lady friend in the early Charteris novels. The show then returned in a West Coast version for CBS on July 9, 1947, starring the best-known of the radio Saints, Vincent Price.

I believe that Price was the perfect actor to play The Saint, particularly due to the George Sanders quality he brought to the part (although author Charteris didn’t care for Sanders, proclaiming him miscast): witty, urbane, and always handy with a quip for any situation. (John Dunning is quoted as saying that Price “was able to elevate ordinary lines and make them sing.”) His Templar was a true sophisticate, a patron of the arts and a frequent diner at the finest restaurants, much like the real-life Price. (When I lived in Westover, West Virginia during the nineties, a friend of mine took me to an Italian restaurant that Price had once visited and proclaimed to be magnificent, so I knew going in that the food was going to be top-notch.) With Price in the role, the show lasted a year on CBS until June 30, 1948, then resurfaced on Mutual in July 1949 before moving to its final home on NBC in June 1950. Price left the series in May 1951, and Tom Conway (Price must have told him that he was bored as well) replaced him as Templar until the show was cancelled October 14, 1951. The NBC series had a memorable opening in which the listener heard footsteps, accompanied by a haunting whistle, which leads me to wonder what would have happened if he had met up with the Whistler one night. (I bet they’d have one heck of a duet.)

Last night, I listened to a pair of episodes from the 1950-51 NBC run of The Saint, beginning with “The Terrible Tintype” (originally broadcast November 26, 1950). A woman named Sally Blair (Helen Parrish) is convinced that Simon has in his possession a photograph of her sister Valerie (Joan Banks) and her lover (Lamont Johnson), and is working for Valerie’s husband. Things get a tad sticky when Val’s spouse is discovered deader-than-a-doornail. Lawrence Dobkin appears in this episode as Louie the Cab Driver, and would make frequent appearances in this part while the series was on NBC. This fine episode was written by Louis Vittes, who provides great dialogue for the above-named cast and supporting actors Ken Christy and Dan O’Herlihy.

The second show, “Marvin Hickerson, Private Eye” (12/3/50), is an absolute jewel; a young woman (Lesley Banning) approaches Templar’s table with an offer he can’t refuse:

ALICE: Excuse me…do you mind if I sit down here with you?
SIMON: Why, I’d be happy if you…
ALICE: Oh, thank you…I hope you realize that I wouldn’t approach a perfect stranger if it wasn’t a matter of life or death…
SIMON: Oh, I’m sure you…
ALICE: …and it is a matter of life or death…that’s why I had to sit down with the handsomest man in the room…you…
SIMON: Well, I’d…
ALICE: …but you certainly aren’t much of a conversationalist…
SIMON: Well, happily you fill the gap…now, how may I be of service in this matter of life or death?
ALICE: Do you think you could gaze into my eyes…as if I were the only woman in the entire world? But don’t make it anything personal…
SIMON: Well, I consider it a thespic challenge…
ALICE: I want you to…hug me with your eyes…while I spurn you proudly…
SIMON: Ah, la belle dame son merci…well, uh…now, how’s this for an ardent yet humble gaze?
ALICE: Well, not now…he’s not watching…
SIMON: Sorry, I didn’t mean to be fresh…who’s he?
ALICE: Marvin…he’s over there with that…that woman…
SIMON: Oh…
ALICE: He’s looking at her the way I want you to look at me…
SIMON: This I shall have to see…
ALICE: Well, don’t turn around…they’re leaving…they’ll see you…
SIMON: Well, uh…shall I start hugging you now? I’m sure it will be good for the muscles in my eyes…
ALICE: Yes, hurry up…
SIMON: I’m hugging…
ALICE: Stop!
SIMON: Why?
ALICE: He never even noticed me…he walked right on out…oh, men!

Alice is Alice Parks, who enlists Simon’s help in looking out for her amateur detective boyfriend Marvin (Simon derisively informs the would-be sleuth that “You are not Sam Spade”). There’s not much mystery in this particular episode, but it’s undeniably funny, with a superb cast made up of Victor Rodman, Barney Phillips, Maggie Morley, Edmund McDonald, and Herb Vigran.

With regards to The Saint—which remains every bit as entertaining as it was during Radio’s Golden Age--OTR listeners today have benefited greatly from Price’s generosity; the legend has it that the actor called a member of SPERDVAC and asked them if they would be interested in some old transcriptions that he was planning to toss (thus ensuring that the organization dedicated to old-time radio would set a new land-speed record in the time they took to get over there), so some fifty-five episodes are extant today. Though Price is immortalized today as a horror movie icon, the actor considered radio his favorite entertainment medium:

The extraordinary thing about radio was the care that went into the shows. There was a kind of perfection about the radio actor that was extraordinary. It was a very small group of people, and I always felt myself enormously privileged that I was able to join that group.