''The Saint Meets the Tiger'' is a 1941 British mystery

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

directed by Paul L. Stein and starring

Hugh Sinclair Admiral Sir Hugh Francis Paget Sinclair, (18 August 1873 – 4 November 1939), known as Quex Sinclair, was a British intelligence officer. He was Director of British Naval Intelligence between 1919 and 1921, and he subsequently helped to se ...

Jean Gillie A ( , ; ), sometimes called a maneater, Mata Hari, or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype of litera ...

and Clifford Evans. It was made by the British unit of

RKO Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the major film studios, "Big Five" film studios of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood's Clas ...

and released the same year, but was not distributed until 1943 in America. This was to be the last of the eight films in RKO's

film series A film series or movie series is a collection of related films in succession that share the same fictional universe, or are marketed as a series. It is a type of series fiction. This article explains what film series are and gives brief examples ...

about the crimefighter the Saint. It was shot at

Denham Studios Denham Film Studios (''later dubbed Anvil Studios)'' was a British film production studio operating from 1936 to 1952, founded by Alexander Korda, in Buckinghamshire. Notable films made at Denham include ''Brief Encounter'' and David Lean's ...

outside

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

with sets designed by the

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

Paul Sheriff. The previous entries in the series had all been made in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

except '' The Saint's Vacation''.

Plot

Simon "The Saint" Templar finds a dead man on his doorstep. Soon the ace investigator finds himself mired in more murder, smuggling and a South American mine.

Cast

* Hugh Sinclair as Simon Templar (The Saint) * Jean Gillie as Pat Holm * Gordon McLeod as Insp. Claud Teal / Prof. Karn * Clifford Evans as Tidemarsh / The Tiger *

Wylie Watson Wylie Watson (6 February 1889 – 3 May 1966) (born John Wylie Robertson) was a Scottish actor. Among his best-known roles were those of "Mr Memory", an amazing man who commits "50 new facts to his memory every day" in Alfred Hitchcock's film ' ...

as Horace (Templar's butler) *

Dennis Arundell Dennis Drew Arundell OBE (22 July 1898 – 10 December 1988)"Arundell, Denni ...

as Lionel Bentley * Charles Victor as Bittle * Louise Hampton as Aunt Agatha Gurten *

John Salew John Rylett Salew (28 February 1902 (some sources state 1 January 1897)14 September 1961) was an English stage film and TV actor. Salew made the transition from stage to films in 1939, and according to Allmovie, "the manpower shortage during W ...

as Merridon (curator of the Baycome Museum) *

Arthur Hambling Arthur Hambling (14 March 1888 – 6 December 1952) was a British actor, on stage from 1912, and best known for appearances in the films ''Henry V'' (1944) and ''The Lavender Hill Mob'' (1951). In 1939 he appeared in the West End in N.C. Hunte ...

as Police constable *

Amy Veness Amy Veness (26 February 1876 – 22 September 1960) was an English film actress. She played the role of Grandma Huggett in '' The Huggetts Trilogy'' and was sometimes credited as Amy Van Ness. Veness was born Amy Clarice Beart in Aldeburgh, Su ...

as Mrs. Donald Jones *

Claude Bailey Claude Bailey (19 November 1895 – 22 March 1950) was a British actor. He was born and died in London. Partial filmography * ''Little Waitress'' (1932) * ''The Unholy Quest'' (1934) * ''The Saint Meets the Tiger'' (1941) * ''Hatter's Castle ...

as Donald Jones * Noel Dainton as Burton (Bentley's butler) * Eric Clavering as Frankie * Ben Williams as Joe Gallo *

Joan Hickson Joan Bogle Hickson (5 August 1906 – 17 October 1998) was an English actress of theatre, film and television. She was known for her role as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in the television series '' Miss Marple''. She also narrated a number of ...

as Mary (Aunt Agatha's maid) * John Slater as Eddie * Tony Quinn as Paddy * Alf Goddard as Tailor

Release

After '' The Saint's Vacation'' (1941),

makes his second (and final) appearance as Templar in this adventure, which sees Templar investigating a dead body left on his doorstep. This leads him to a quiet seaside village in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

where he pursues a mysterious villain known as The Tiger. Co-starring in the film is

as Templar's love interest, Patricia Holm. Although this character made many appearances in the book series, this is to date the only film in which she appears. The character next appears on screen portrayed by

Eliza Dushku Eliza Patricia Dushku (; born December 30, 1980) is an American former actress. Dushku starred as Faith (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Faith in the supernatural Drama (film and television), drama series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1998–2003) an ...

in an unaired pilot for a ''Saint'' TV series produced in the 2010s. Because of a dispute between RKO and the Saint's creator,

Leslie Charteris Leslie Charteris (; born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin; 12 May 1907 – 15 April 1993), was a British-Chinese author of adventure fiction, as well as a screenwriter.The Gay Falcon ''The Gay Falcon'' is a 1941 American mystery thriller film directed by Irving Reis and starring George Sanders, Wendy Barrie and Allen Jenkins. A B film produced and distributed by RKO Pictures, it the first in a series of sixteen films about ...

'' in October 1941, the first film in their new ''

Falcon Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Some small species of falcons with long, narrow wings are called hobbies, and some that hover while hunting are called kestrels. Falcons are widely distrib ...

'' series, and Leslie Charteris felt that the Falcon was nothing but a copy of his character, enhanced by the fact that

George Sanders George Henry Sanders (3 July 1906 – 25 April 1972) was a British actor and singer whose career spanned over 40 years. His heavy, upper-class English accent and smooth bass voice often led him to be cast as sophisticated but villainous charac ...

played the Falcon. He was the most established face of the Saint, after having played the character in five of the previous films, the last being released earlier the same year. RKO eventually sold the US distribution rights to

Republic Pictures Republic Pictures is currently an acquisition-only label owned by Paramount Pictures. Its history dates back to Republic Pictures Corporation, an American film studio that originally operated from 1935 to 1967, based in Los Angeles, California ...

, while its British arm handled the UK distribution as planned, and the film was released in both countries in 1943.Barer, Burl, ''The Saint: A Complete History in Print, Radio, Film and Television of Leslie Charteris' Robin Hood of Modern Crime, Simon Templar 1928-1992'', McFarland, 2003, p. 69 ''The Saint Meets the Tiger'' is an adaptation of Charteris' first Saint novel, '' Meet - The Tiger!'', and was the last Saint novel adapted by the RKO series. In a sense, it was also the last film in the RKO series, as the final film, '' The Saint's Return'' did not come until ten years later and was produced and distributed in the UK by British

Hammer Films A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nails into wood, to shape metal (as wi ...

, while RKO only handled the US distribution.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Meets The Tiger, The 1941 films The Saint (Simon Templar) British black-and-white films Films directed by Paul L. Stein British crime films 1941 crime films Films based on British novels British detective films Republic Pictures films RKO Pictures films 1940s British films 1941 mystery films British mystery films 1940s English-language films Films shot at Denham Film Studios Films set in London Films set in Cornwall English-language crime films English-language mystery films