This is the second Saint film, based upon Leslie Charteris's novel ANGELS OF DOOM. Louis Hayward has been replaced here as the Saint by George Sanders, who was to go on to make several Saint films. Sanders does not have the mad look in his eye that Hayward mastered, or the sense of reckless impetuosity, but his effortless charm and extremely witty quips, aided by excellent dialogue generally, combine to make him the famous Saint of whom it may confidently be said: 'Once seen, never forgotten.' Jonathan Hale as Inspector Henry Fernack remains in his role from the previous Saint film and he would go on to appear in several more. In this film the femme fatale is the fascinating Wendy Barrie, who would also appear in later Saint films. George Sanders seems to mean it when he says to her at one point that he longs 'to see, to touch, to imagine' her. Many would. But she is a dangerous creature, who does not hesitate for a moment to kill someone, but at the same time is waiflike in her desire to avenge her dead policeman father who had been framed, and is tireless in trying to track and kill a gang of gangsters including a senior policeman who were responsible not only for that but for a reign of terror in the city (New York). There's something about her eyes and her expression that is so unnerving. In what passes for real life, Barrie was the mistress of a notorious gangster named Bugsy Siegel, partner of Meyer Lansky, who was murdered in 1947 at the age of 41 by a mob hit team as he sat on the sofa in his home in Beverly Hills. Maybe one reason why Wendy Barrie was so good at playing a ruthless violent woman is that she knew so many ruthless violent men. Sometimes reality and fiction can become too close for comfort. But she does add that extra spice of danger to the film in an uncanny way.
Review of The Saint Strikes Back
