Wed 29 Sep 2021
A Movie Review by David Friend: THE SAINT (2017)
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[18] Comments
THE SAINT. Motion Picture Corporation of America/Netflix, 2017. Adam Rayner as Simon Templar, Eliza Dushku as Patricia Holm, Sir Roger Moore as Jasper, James Remar as Arnold Valecross, Ian Ogilvy as The Fixer/older Xander, Adam Woodward as Xander, Enrique Murciano as Inspector John Henry Fernack. Based on the characters created by Leslie Charteris. Director: Ernie Barbarash.
A few years back saw the return of a character who had once been famous worldwide. Simon Templar, a.k.a. The Saint, was followed by many in film, television, radio, comic strips and books. First and foremost a literary character, he featured in fifty books between 1928 and 1983. The Saint was a suave, witty, ruthless adventurer, known as ‘the Robin Hood of Modern Crime’ for his tendency to rob from the wealthy corrupt and help those who needed it most.
He is best known today for the television series starring Roger Moore, which aired 118 episodes between 1962 and 1969. It was a global hit, turned Moore into British television’s first millionaire, saw him mobbed wherever he went in the world, and won him the role of James Bond.
Return of the Saint, with Ian Ogilvy, followed ten years later, but was a short-lived success. Since then, the most high-profile attempt to revive the character was a 1997 blockbuster movie starring Val Kilmer. It was an unwatchable mess, flopped hard and Kilmer’s career never fully recovered.
There was nothing more until a television pilot was filmed in 2013 with Adam Rayner and Eliza Dushku. It wasn’t picked up for a series and the pilot remained on the shelf for four years. Now, it has been dusted down and reassembled as a full-length film for a digital release, with more than forty minutes of new footage and a beefed-up story. The short shooting schedule did not allow for the return of the pilot’s director, Simon West, so Ernie Barbarash was enlisted instead, while no less than twenty producers are credited.
So, was it worth waiting twenty years for a new Saint adventure? Well, Rayner is excellent as Simon Templar. He has the sense of impish fun that the character should always possess. Dushku plays Templar’s (sort of) girlfriend Patricia Holm, who featured in many of the early stories but hasn’t been seen onscreen since 1943. This version of the character is high-kicking, tech-savvy and knows her way around a gun.
Cannily, the antagonist of the story is played by Return of the Saint’s Ian Ogilvy, who gets much screen time as a mysterious and callous manipulator of international affairs. The plot sees him and his right-hand man, Arnie Valecross, steal $2.5 billion intended to help a third world country. Valecross, however, suffers a crisis of conscience and diverts the funds. In response, his daughter is kidnapped with the threat that she will be killed in two days unless the money is returned.
Valecross enlists The Saint, who plans to get the money, retrieve the girl and double-cross the kidnappers. Meanwhile, the FBI and LAPD are on his trail. Things get even more intense when his girlfriend Patricia is captured too.
This could have been an awkward salvage operation but, happily, the additional material synchronises smoothly with the pilot footage. The only way to discern between the 2013 and 2017 material is Adam Rayner’s beard. He was contractually obliged to keep it between seasons of the FX series Tyrant and retains it for the first half hour of the film (in other words, much of the new stuff). Fortunately, it does not hamper things and it could even be said that the character needs to change his look at times to avoid being recognised. It all works, therefore, as a legitimate television movie.
The script is surprisingly funny and there is some decent action too, although it could never be mistaken for a theatrical release. Fans of the 1970s series will particularly enjoy seeing Ogilvy again, while genre favourite Greg Grunberg has a minor role. There are numerous flashbacks to Templar’s childhood which seek to establish the character’s backstory, although there’s very little point when this is strictly a one-off.
The plot itself is convoluted and not distinct enough from other cyber-theft stories. Indeed, the project’s lack of distinction is perhaps its problem. Although many of the Saint stories were set in America, placing a potential series there makes it indistinguishable from White Collar, Leverage, Burn Notice, MacGyver and other G-man series of recent years.
The Saint property was once in the lead – a champion, if not a trail-blazer – while here it looks like it is simply trying to merge in with the crowd. Nonetheless, despite being unoriginal and unmemorable, this is a fun, undemanding 116 minutes which is worth seeing.

September 29th, 2021 at 8:26 pm
I enjoyed this one, but the next time they try to give the Saint an origin and backstory I am going to hunt down the writer, producer, or director responsible and punch him in his stupid nose.
The Saint needs no origin. He does not have a school. History begins on a beach where we first see him and that is all we need to know.
He is not Batman and needs no dead parents, nor is he Superman with a dead world, or Bulldog Drummond strangling German soldiers in no man’s land. He is Simon Templar, and the name may not be real, the Saint, he steals from crooks and kills (some) bad guys, protects the innocent and powerless, lives and dresses well, doesn’t have a club, doesn’t have a mysterious noble ancestor, doesn’t have an old Etonian tie or regiment to his name.
Honestly he needs none of those things, only the insecure idiots trying to improve on one of the most successful franchises in history need those things.
Just give me a Saintly saint with a wry smile and a halo who can deliver a punch as if he meant it, dresses to the nines, and has a way with a line and a raised eyebrow and that is all that is needed. There is no more or less than that to him and it has sold books and commercials since 1925 which is more than can be said of any of the immature minds trying to remake him.
I liked this one despite that, but it took a lot including Raynor, Ogilvy, and Dushku to get me past that pointless backstory and history that simply are not needed.
I wish the rest of the film lived up to the opening and that early bit though.
September 29th, 2021 at 8:33 pm
Amen, my friend.
September 29th, 2021 at 9:12 pm
David, of course.
Do you think that description fits Dexter?
September 30th, 2021 at 6:56 am
When I was a kid and went to see a Tarzan movie or a Robin Hood flick, we didn’t need no stinkin’ Origin. Our hero just swung down on a vine, saved the day, and went about his business.
But I also want to add some kudos to the discussion for David’s perceptive and highly readable review of a film many of us might have passed over.
September 30th, 2021 at 9:32 am
The same problem has plagued the infrequent adaptations of Robert E. Howard’s work. Hollywood simply insists on origin stories.
September 30th, 2021 at 2:29 pm
It will be interesting to see if anything comes of the latest attempt to revive him.
Same problem, though, will stay apply: how to make him different from so many similar characters?
September 30th, 2021 at 6:40 pm
Latest attempt? Tell me more.
October 1st, 2021 at 5:44 am
Steve, maybe we could create an origin story for you!
October 1st, 2021 at 10:01 am
Um, maybe let’s be a little quiet about that.
October 1st, 2021 at 7:45 am
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/rege-jean-page-the-saint-movie-1234988363/
October 1st, 2021 at 10:00 am
Thanks, David. I guess I’ve been way out of the loop:
“Paramount is seeing Regé-Jean Page’s halo.
“Page, the breakout actor from Neflix’s Bridgerton, has come aboard to star in and executive produce the studio’s reboot of The Saint. At the same time, playwright and actor Kwame Kwei-Armah has been brought in to write a new draft of the script for the adventure thriller. This is Page’s second project with Paramount following the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons.
“Producing The Saint are Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Brad Krevoy, as well as Robert Evans, who died in 2019 and will receive a posthumous credit.”
October 1st, 2021 at 11:08 am
You’ve no idea how much I fought against that backstory and those flashbacks…just be grateful you’ve not seen the failed pilot!
October 1st, 2021 at 11:14 am
Well, I’m certainly glad for everything you did do. As you can see, there’s a host of Saint fans around the world who are in total agreement with you.
October 1st, 2021 at 4:19 pm
Here we are, stuck on 13 comments again. That will never do.
October 1st, 2021 at 8:32 pm
Ian, I can imagine, and never considered you were on board with it. I respect you and your work on Charteris and the Saint too much for that.
I’m on board for Page as the Saint, if they don’t insist on needless back story. He could come close to that Cary Grant/Rex Harrison/Jack Buchanon thing Charteris imagined.
It would be different if Charteris gave the character a history, or even wanted to.
This was an attractive and entertaining surprise despite that. I can see what could be done with the character if they just accepted the Saint is and threw the audience in head first sink or swim. If millions of people come out saying they would have liked it better with an origin then that would be some justification.
Charteris never felt the need, but it could be all dismissed with a throwaway line. “I’m Simon Templar, some people call me the Saint, what more do you need to know?”
Even in CASINO ROYALE with Craig Bond doesn’t get a so called origin story. They fill in some details (many at least suggested by Fleming) over the next five films, but they don’t overdo it, and Bond did have an origin at least mentioned in the books.
But the Saint? No, he just is.
October 2nd, 2021 at 11:53 am
Thanks for your kind comments.
I have had so many discussions with many producers over the years who insist that we need to explain who the Saint is and where he comes from. They often try to mitigate my argument with the idea that we need to explain why he does what he does. We don’t. He does it because he can, and because he sees a need.
October 2nd, 2021 at 4:06 pm
“He does it because he can, and because he sees a need.”
Well said!!
November 13th, 2021 at 9:30 pm
A potentially good film, mostly because of several good actors and in spite of a couple of bad ones and lots of bad dialog.
The needless origin is not the worst problem with this one. I have never seen a film where nobody pointing a gun is able to fire before someone standing right in front of them can either leap out of the way or take the gun right out of their hand. It must happen six or seven times.