Sadly Over-hyped

best movie i've ever seen.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

George Sanders was suave as the not quite wholesome gentleman adventurer The Saint but this B movie took the biscuit with its lacklustre, silly and confusing plot.Things start of well with Bela Lugosi popping up in Egypt and it seems an exact double has been smuggling diamonds involving a mummy from Egypt.We are unsure when Sanders pops up whether he is the Saint or the double. One plot point is that the Mummy has been to sent to his old lecturer who and his daughter have been friends with the real saint but who is this man who looks and sounds like him. How convenient.It might be that the real saint whistles his tune before he shows up or the villainous double has a tattoo.Jonathan Hale is Inspector Fernack who is just as confused as everyone else as. Nothing more is made of Lugosi who is wasted in a nothing roles and he is as confused as the audience and he no need to his stock of opium to get there.There is a nice sequence at the end as the Saint escapes from a leaking motorboat when he is all tied up but further silliness ensures that the Saint and his double swap places in his prison cell. This is not the best plotted or enjoyable of the Saint series.

There's a dead ringer for Simon Templar operating as a crime kingpin in Philadelphia…and he's started leaving the Saint's calling card at crime scenes. Will the real Simon Templar please come investigate?Meanwhile, the Saint's old friend Inspector Fernack (Jonathan Hale) is on vacation in—you guessed it—Philadelphia. He stops at the department to visit old friend Deputy Chief Bohlen (Donald MacBride)—and tags along with him on a murder case that turns up the Saint's calling card. Fernack is on the job.George Sanders pulls double duty as both Simon Templar and his counterpart, "The Boss" of Philadelphia crime, in this far-fetched but entertaining mystery. The hero's look-alike, and a single actor playing both roles, is not an especially unique idea; and this particular version of that old plot doesn't offer any special twists or turns. Basically, the Saint encounters mistaken identity, sets out to clear his name, runs into danger….Sanders is, of course, very good. Hale is also fine as Inspector Fernack, and the picture's best scenes are mostly those between Sanders and Hale, as once again outward gruffness partly veils their mutual respect and admiration.Bela Lugosi is a henchman with a thick accent; somewhat disappointingly, his role here is rather bland and Lugosi becomes just another actor. Helene Whitney is fine as an old flame of Simon's whose professor father is unwittingly drawn into the bad guys' plot; again, her performance is good but the role is rather predictable. A rather slow middle section is redeemed by an exciting final third, culminating in a neat and clever resolution…. Overall: nothing exceptional but smoothly produced and certainly easy to take, especially for fans of the Saint or Sanders or B mysteries in general.

This really is the worst Saint film starring George Sanders. The whole idea of the Saint having an exact double is not too credible but the filmmakers milk it for all it is worth. This results in a confusing film that is short on mystery and long on ridiculous coincidences. The crooks are a very stupid lot in this film. Even the presence of Bela Lugosi does nothing to help the film. He just turns out to be as stupid as the others. George Sanders does what he can with the limited script. He is as suave as ever as Simon Templar but flat as the head of the criminal gang. The scenes pairing Simon with Inspector Fernack(Jonathan Hale) are easily the best in the film. Sanders and Hale click well together as they did in their previous Saint films together. Too bad the story is such a let-down. Only worth seeing for Sanders and Hale. I give it 3 halos out of 10.

Unlike James Bond, the equally debonair Saint never made a successful transition to film from the fictional works of Leslie Charteris. Charteris hated all the film Saints - George Sanders, Hugh Sinclair and Leslie Howard. He thought that Cary Grant was the ideal choice for the role. But in the 1940s, the film industry would only make B-movies featuring the Saint. Since Cary Grant did not appear in B-movies, George Sanders got the role. He was popular in it at that time. Sanders always played suave cads extremely well. The Saint of the novels was also a suave cad, yet his creator did not approve of George Sanders. Charteris probably disliked Sanders because the latter did not physically resemble his creation. Roger Moore, the Saint of the small screen, came much closer to Charteris' ideal."The Saint's Double Trouble" is worth watching if you are Saint fan. If you like the sneering, sardonic George Sanders like I do, you will like it.(Reviewed by Sundar Narayan)