Sadly Over-hyped

Don't listen to the negative reviews

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

George Sanders (Simon Templar), Sally Gray (Penelope Parker), David Burns (Dugan), Gordon McLeod (Inspector Teal), Henry Oscar (Bruno Lang), Ralph Truman (Kusella), Carl Jaffe (Stengler), Ben Williams (Wilkins), Norah Howard (Mrs Morgan), Charles Carson (Morgan), Ballard Berkeley (Richard Blake), Hugh McDermott (Tim), John Abbott (Count Duni), Athene Seyler (Mrs Buckley), Charles Paton.Director: JOHN PADDY CARSTAIRS. Screenplay: Lynn Root, Frank Fenton. Based on the 1932 novelette The Million Pound Day included in the collection The Holy Terror by Leslie Charteris. Photographed by Claude Friese-Greene. Film editor: Douglas Robertson. Art director: C. Wilfred Arnold. Music director: Harry Acres. Production executive: Lee Marcus. Sound: Cecil Thornton. Producer: William Sistrom.Copyright 30 June 1939 by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Rialto: 18 July 1939. U.S. release: 30 June 1939. Australian release: 19 October 1939. 72 minutes.SYNOPSIS: "The Saint in London" has Templar arriving in England and becoming entangled with the counterfeiting gang of Kusella (Ralph Truman), Stengler (Carl Jaffe), and Lang (Henry Oscar). The gang has robbed a Balkan count and stolen £1 million.NOTES: Number 3 in the series.COMMENT: Although actually filmed in London, this entry makes very little use of the actual locations at hand. Aside from a bit of 2nd unit work, the movie is largely studio-bound. True, this affords photographer Friese-Greene the opportunity to give his night-lighting of the many extensive sets an attractively dark sheen. It also gives British character players and attractive heroine Sally Gray a similar chance to show their mettle. Unfortunately the script lets them all down. Based on a Charteris original too. The characters are pasteboard, the dialogue's verbose, and the plot, whilst full of incident, is similarly hollow, empty, devoid of interest and ho-hum routine. Carstairs' static direction doesn't help.

This is more the persona of the Saint with George Sanders stepping in the role and bringing just the right amount of dapper and debonair with an element of streetwise knowledge of low life and the underworld.The Saint steps in to foil a currency racket and bumps in to someone escaping from some ruthless gangsters. Along the way he helps a down on his luck Yank and meets a damsel who wants to help him out but ends up needing to be rescued by Templar.The Saint also jousting with Inspector Teal of Scotland Yard so there is a lot of plot going on but although Sanders looks the part this is still a B picture potboiler and nothing more.

During the New Year period at the beginning of 2006, BBC2 shown four Saint movies in the mornings and this was one of them.In this one, the Saint is in London and is assigned to investigate a load of forged currency. People involved in this include a woman and Count Duni.George Sanders stars as the Saint and the cast also includes Sally Gray and Henry Oscar.The Saint In London isn't brilliant as it tends to be a little slow moving at times but is certainly worth a look at. Not too bad.Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

Though the plot of "The Saint in London" does lack the elements of a true mystery, the players find the right sense of whimsy needed for this sort of light caper movie. The interplay between Sanders as Simon Templar and Sally Gray as his new-found female helper reminds me a little of the wonderful back-and-forth between John Steed and Emma Peel in the original Avengers series. This movie won't keep you on the edge of your seat, but it might cause you to sit back in the chair and just enjoy yourself for a while.