I agree with NickKitt. The film really didn't have much to do with either the series or the books, although they are pretty different as well. Basically think of The Saint as an adventurer, a Robin Hood. In the early books he is something of a thief with a heart. He then is granted a Royal pardon (after thwarting an attempt to kill the King) after which his status becomes more dubious - he still commits the odd crime, but almost always against other crooks or other worthy parties, often taking a cut of their proceeds, or cons conmen. On occasion though, he seems to be directly employed, albeit temporarily, by the various forces of law and order. Generally the police know he is committing crimes, but usually the victims can't press charges, or he simply evades capture. His exact status and modus operendi tends to vary a bit from book to book, and its rather hard to pin down a chronology. In the early novels he has an unusually open relationship with a Patricia Holme, who I don't think was ever introduced in any other media, and who eventually disappeared (without explanation).
The series, being 60s TV, rather plays down the law breaking, and he's seen as a more general do-gooder and righter of wrongs, or even something of an informal detective at times. Also don't forget the 30s/40s film series, where he first appeared as particularly ruthless, then became more suave than action oriented.
I don't think the origin of his name is explicitly explained, but was really the author's conceit of both his actions and initials. He very occasionally uses disguises, but more often just used an assumed name, and more often than that everybody knows who he is. Again, its a conceit of the opening of every TV episode that everyone knows "the famous Simon Templar". In the books he was headline news for a while as a modern Robin Hood, but that seems predominantly in the early stories.
I'd try thinking of him as a modern Robin Hood, another story where the details change a bit but the broad strokes remain the same. Except for the 1990s film, which was really a pretty disgraceful cash-in on little more than the name. It pretty much discarded the premise of the books and series, even more than the Mission Impossible films did theirs. The argument is that the film is sort of an origin story, a prequel, but this is kind of making an excuse for the abandonment of the (admittedly vague) premise, IMHO.
The episode you spoke of BTW with the blackmailed women, sounds almost certainly to be The Gentle Ladies.
Hope some of that helps.
I hope NickKitt is is right about a new series (although I'm not sure about Dougray Scott - here's always been a lightness to the character, which seems wrong for him), but this has been rumoured so often that I'll believe it once they actually start filming.
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profh-1
13 years ago
While the nickname "Saint" seems to stand in for his initials (S.T.), it can also be taken either ironically (he breaks the law every chance he gets) or poetically (he goes out of his way to help those in trouble and does what he can to bring down "the ungodly", as he likes to call them).
In the earliest books I've read, he and a group of like-minded friends saw themselves as crusaders for justice, doing whatever it took to make the world a better place.
However, the group soon split up and it mostly Simon and his on-again/off-again girlfriend Patricia Holm (what a shock it was learning about HER, as in the entire history of SAINT films and TV shows she's only ever appeared ONCE, and hardly resembled the Patricia in the books at all). For most of the 30's, Simon (sometimes with Pat, sometimes not) splits his time between helping those in need and pulling elaborate CON GAMES against criminals (often OTHER con men) in order to finance his "retirement fund" (something mentioned in a different context in the Val Kilmer movie).
By the 40's, Pat has mostly disappeared and he spends a lot of his time with a small-time crook-gone-straight, Hoppy Uniatz (who, like Pat, makes exactly ONE appearance ever on film, and Percy Herbert is NOT my idea of Hoppy!). In many ways, RKO's FALCON films are actually closer in format to the SAINT books of the time than RKO's SAINT films, since The Falcon tends to have A)a girlfriend, B)a sidekick, and C)a butler.
Templar continues his adventuring, helping people, and sometimes doing favors for British Intelligence. A bit of this can be seen in the film THE SAINT IN LONDON, where Templar hires an "ex"-pickpocket, Dugan, roams around with Penelope Parker (it was PAT in the original short story, and Sally Gray would have made a PERFECT Pat!), and doing a favor for the "Intelligence Service", something he can't tell Inspector Teal until the adventure is finally wrapped up. (This was rather similar to the situation in "ANGELS OF DOOM", except there, Templar was working-- in secret-- for the Police Commissioner, who didn't tell Teal what was going on, either!)
One could say that Templar on the 60's TV show should have been an older Templar who was mostly "retired" and down to just having adventures helping people... but Roger Moore is so YOUNG on the show, and they rarely if ever seem to explain exactly what Templar is "FAMOUS" for!
It's a shame Roger Moore didn't spend the 70's and 80's making big-budget SAINT movies, instead of doing a bad impersonation of "James Bond".
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