Review of The Saint's Vacation (1941) by Allan C — 05 Sep 2012

The seventh Saint film produced by RKO Radio Pictures, and it was all change with this one. The production of the series was moved to wartime England to take advantage of money the government had held onto from American films, and because George Sanders was living in America, the role of Simon Templar was passed onto Hugh Sinclair, who is very suave in the role.

Simon Templar (Sinclair) is on a holiday by train through Europe, (even though it makes no real reference to the war), he's with his friend Monty Hayward (Arthur Macrae) who is flustered because the press know Hayward is friends with Templar, and they want to know his whereabouts.

On the train, Templar gets involved with reporter Mary Langdon (Sally Gray) and a music box, which Crown Prince Rudolph (Cecil Parker) wants to get his hands on, but the music it plays is a tuneless, incoherent sound.

But, with the musical cylinder removed and rubbed across paper, it's a secret code. When train passenger Valerie (Leueen MacGrath) is bundled off into a car by Gregory (John Warwick), the plot thickens.

It's quite a confused plot, and the train sequences reuses footage from Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes. It has some good moments, including some good action, but it does come across as a bit bland.

Maybe the move to the UK wasn't such as good idea, but it's short.