Sat 4 Dec 2021
A TV Mystery Review: THE SAINT “The Careful Terrorist†(1962).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[9] Comments
THE SAINT “The Careful Terrorist.†ITC, UK, 18 October 1962 (Season 1, episode 3.) Roger Moore (Simon Templar), Percy Herbert (Hoppy), Alan Gifford (Inspector Fernack). Guest Cast: David Kossoff, Peter Dyneley, Sally Bazely. Based on a story by Leslie Charteris. Directed by John Ainsworth. Currently streaming on the Shout Factory channel.
This third episode in the long-running The Saint series starring Roger Moore is only a little better than average, but it does have a few things to note about it. First of all, it has Simon Templar living comfortably in a New York City apartment, complete with a manservant named Hoppy, straight from the books, and a homicide detective named Furnack, a friendly adversary on the NYPD police force, also from the books. He is also up against a villain whom he deems one of the “ungodly,†and from whom he extracts a particularly wicked revenge.
The fellow, an urbane but totally crooked union boss who blows up a newspaper friend of Templar’s, really doesn’t stand a chance. When The Saint seeks retribution, he gets it, and the boss is thereby “hoist by his own petard.â€
Although he appeared in several of the Saint’s book-length adventures, this was the first and only appearance of Hoppy (Uniatz) in the TV series, and perhaps thankfully so. In this episode he’s played as an out-and-out moron with a mind full of bricks, spending his free time watching kids’ shows on TV and ogling girlie magazines. The fellow who plays Furnack, though, looks much the same as I pictured him, and yet he showed up in only one later episode, due to the fact that he’s pretty much tied down to his home base of New York City.
So it’s fairly obvious that the show’s producers were still feeling their way with this one, only a short way into the series, I thought it was the best so far. (Number two in the series was reviewed here by me.)
December 4th, 2021 at 9:49 pm
Percy Herbert was good casting as Hoppy, a shame he wasn’t better written.
I seem to recall the first appearance of Teel is nor Ivor Dean, but another actor in the role.
One of the things to note about the first season is how often the Saint had a fairly minor role in the actual episode sometimes appearing at the opening and then not again until mid-program.
December 4th, 2021 at 10:26 pm
Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about Teal and who played him:
“On television, Ivor Dean played Teal as a recurring character in the 1962–69 British series, The Saint. Teal appeared in several early episodes played by other actors (Campbell Singer, Norman Pitt and Wensley Pithey respectively). Dean appeared in another role in Teal’s second appearance (an episode entitled Starring the Saint) before being cast on a permanent basis.”
December 5th, 2021 at 11:16 am
The Saint is one of my favourite TV shows ever, though I struggled with this episode entirely because of Hoppy.
The character was too stupid for words, though Charteris certainly wrote many when describing him. On that basis, the television version is an accurate portrayal.
(Many B-films of the ’40s had similar characters – for example ‘Goldie’ in The Falcon films.)
Regarding Teal, Ivor Dean was perfect in the role. On seeing the episode ‘Starring the Saint’, in which Teal was played by another actor with Dean in another role, I was initially convinced that Teal was undercover!
In my humble view, this series had a very high hit rate with maybe only seven duff episodes among its 118.
December 5th, 2021 at 7:33 pm
I’m assuming that maybe this one is one of the seven. For me, starting from episode one, this the third one is the closest so far to the spirit of Charteris’s books and stories, even with dumb as a bunny Hoppy in it. I watched quite a few of the stories back in the 60s, but that was so long ago, they don’t really count.
I plan on watching them all now, but with 115 yet to go, I’d better get hopping.
December 5th, 2021 at 8:06 pm
A sidebar, not about casting but Roger Moore and The saint on NBC.
In 1961 Louis Hayward was shooting The Pursuers. Abe Lastfogel, head of the William Morris Agency, came in screened the first three black and white episodes and stated that if they shot the remaining thirty-six in color he would personally guarantee a sale to NBC. Not a time spot, but a sale. Hayward was quite enthusiastic about this, but his partners dismissed the idea.
Baker and Berman the following year, in a conference with Mr.Lastfogel, switched the production to color, and NBC bought the shows, never granted The Saint a permanent spot, but kept running it through the decade.
As for The Pursuers, BBC dropped the series after a single season, and it never played in the states outside of a cable outlet in New York which I set for very little money, $15,000 in 1967.
December 5th, 2021 at 9:03 pm
A sad story of what might have been. As for THE PURSUERS, it has fallen into a vast sea of obscurity, except for those lucky view who’ve somehow managed to see it. It currently has 8.3 stars on IMDb.
December 5th, 2021 at 9:24 pm
Side note: to me, Roger Moore is always a bit startling whenever I see him in a New York or Los Angeles setting. Probably just me.
December 6th, 2021 at 8:28 am
I’d love to see The Pursuers, particularly as I’m into old British films and TV shows of the period (I love American stuff too, of course).
December 6th, 2021 at 9:22 pm
There was a single episode of THE PURSUERS on YouTube a few months ago. Not the best print, but watchable.