I wanted to but couldn't!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Louis Haywards only entry as the Saint, this movie has some interesting legends. The biggest one is that Alfred Hitchcock was supposed to come to the United States and direct it. Hitch did not come to the US until 2 years after this was made, so that did not happen.If Hitchcock had come over, I doubt that he would have directed it at RKO Pictures. I mean this movie is good but it is an obvious "B" Picture made to fill out double features on Saturday afternoons. I think the picture would have had a different cast and star and been made by Selznick on a much bigger budget if it were introducing Hitchock.The changes of how this movie was made are not obvious on camera. What is obvious is that Hayward was not going to be the man down the road. He is okay, but George Sanders would be better. Sig Ruman, a talented supporting actor is among a pretty good supporting cast in this one.It did sell a lot of tickets, though I wonder what the main feature was in theaters in 1938? One interesting feature that year was Room Service starring the Marx Brothers and featuring an unknown Lucille Ball. This might have been the under card for that one.

For my first encounter with The Saint, I'm glad it was with the original film in the series, this one featuring Louis Hayward in the role of Simon Templar, though continued in subsequent pictures by the likes of George Sanders and Hugh Sinclair. Hayward refers to himself as a 'lone wolf' later on in the story, describing the way he operates. Which is interesting in light of the fact he went on to portray that character in 'The Lone Wolf' TV series of the mid-Fifties.I was somewhat struck by the idea that The Saint was called on to deliver a brand of vigilante justice way back in 1930's New York. Operating under the auspices of the NYC Police Department, Templar was hired to dispatch mob big-wigs who always managed to avert prosecution with the help of shady lawyers. The concept of revolving door justice seems a product of more recent times, but obviously that wasn't the case at all as we see here.Clever repartee and offbeat disguise help The Saint make his rounds in New York as he gets closer and closer to the identity of The Big Fellow, one of the men on The Saint's hit list. In the midst of it all, he manages to get involved with gun moll Kay Sutton (Fay Edwards), who's motivation to help Templar isn't adequately enough explored. Sure he was good looking, charming and mysterious, but why trade that for her connections?On the flip side, I thought Templar walked into too many situations that surely should have cost him his skin, but hey, the guy was a genius according to henchman Hymie (Paul Guilfoyle). Apparently The Saint thought so too - "I'm such a hero I hardly recognize myself". Which was a curious thing for him to say, since every now and then I thought he resembled a young Desi Arnaz.

Hayward does cut a dashing figure with an easy smile, a penchant for poetical one-liners, and a snap-brim fedora. His version of the Saint is also more interesting than the standard sleuth of the period since he's not above breaking the law when it serves justice or following his own code of integrity. Too bad this kind of character complexity didn't survive the many sequels.The story itself is pretty routine: cleaning up the city by getting the mysterious Big Fellow. Not much excitement or suspense as the one-man-army sort of bounces back and forth between bad guys, snapping off occasional nifty one-liners. Then there's the sexy Kay Sutton to ease the eyes after all the ugly bad guys. And though her delivery sometimes sounds a flat note, she and Hayward manage to make their boilerplate romance surprisingly wistful.Anyway, I've got to say this about someone, and I think it's director Ben Holmes. How many of these programmers have you seen where somebody gets shot in one scene, yet turns up miraculously made whole in the next. Not here. The Saint gets wounded in one scene and, by golly, he favors that shoulder for the rest of the film. So an unofficial Oscar for Attention to Neglected Detail to Ben Holmes by default since such matters are usually the job of the director. Then too, on a slightly different note, I hope cable comes up with Holmes' intriguingly titled Cutie on Duty (1943) sometime real soon.

I caught The Saint In New York late one night on TV. It is actually - violence and all - a very faithful translation of Charteris' novel of the same name. Simon Templar's roguish audacity is very well conveyed by Hayward and the film is a lot of fun.