Roger Moore enjoyed few big screen roles before inheriting Sean Connery’s license to kill in the James Bond franchise. But he had served a long apprenticeship on television, especially in the popular British export “The Saint” (1962-1969), where he learned his way around the posh precincts where intrigue travels in fast sporty cars on unlimited expense accounts.
“The Saint: The Complete Series,” a 33-DVD box set, covers the series from its black-and-white, English crime caper inception through its full-color adventures in exotic ports of call for the international jet set. Moore’s television iteration of the Saint (aka Simon Templar) wasn’t the first screen appearance by the character from British adventure writer Leslie Charteris’ crime novels. George Sanders played him in five low budget detective movies (1939-1941). Nor was Moore the last Saint: Val Kilmer brought the role to the end of the 20th century in a 1997 film. And yet, for fans, Moore remains the actor most associated with the character.
Many episodes collected in “The Complete Series” were well filmed and composed and infused with stylish ‘60s panache. The plots were often creaky, enabling the Saint to fall in with a beautiful woman and thwart bad guys, but the same is true of Bond movies. With brow slightly arched, Moore suavely took it all in stride, whether on the back roads of France or the alleys of Venice. The Saint was no cop and too much the globetrotter to hold down a steady job as a private detective. Although the Moore series soft-shoes his back-story, Charteris’ character was a criminal with a code—he didn’t like most of the other criminals he encountered and was prepared to do them in. The Saint remains an intriguing concept, worthy for a 21st century remake.
