Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

disgusting, overrated, pointless

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Frustrated with the inability of the police and courts to deal with organized crime, a citizens committee decides to take matters into their own hands. They enlist the help of Simon Templar, aka The Saint, a British amateur crime-fighter not afraid to break the law or take lives to stop crime. Templar's given a list of names of six criminals and sets out to eliminate them one by one, saving a police inspector's life and rescuing a kidnapped child along the way.The first in RKO's "The Saint" series, based around Simon Templar. After this film, Louis Hayward would be replaced by the much more debonair George Sanders. Hayward would return to the character once more in the '50s in a movie made by Hammer, The Saint's Return. This first Saint film is really good. While I prefer George Sanders overall, there's certainly a gritty appeal about Hayward's Saint. He's a full-on vigilante murderer, a predecessor to the Charles Bronson-types we've had in films the last forty years. He's calm, cool, and collected no matter what jam he finds himself in. He's fun to watch. The tacked-on romance is lame and comes out of nowhere but, besides that, this is an entertaining movie.

Simon Templar aka the Saint started his long and illustrious career in 1929 with the release of Meet the Tiger as written by the brilliant Leslie Charteris. By the time this movie came along The Saint was already a very popular book character. And while most people know of Roger Moore, Ian Ogylvie, Simon Dutton or George Sanders playing the Saint this first one is played by Louis Hayward (he played in the first movie and the last one of the b/w series) and he does it very well. This Saint is light years away from the later suave performance of Sanders or Moore. This is a straight "revenge" story in which the Saint takes care of the organized crime in New York, by means that are not available to the police. In the book he has stay clear of both parties but in the movie, a knee fall to morality of those days, he is more or less asked by the police. The Saint does so in a whirlwind 48 hours. The 60 odd minutes the movie lasts fly by and leaves you with the feeling to see more.In a recent movie by Tarantino (Inglorious Basterds) he kinda gives a wink to the Saint by letting his heroine read a novel "Le Saint a New York", which proves that the Saint is still out there. With a new TV-pilot just behind the horizon. Now if the powers that be only released a full DVD-boxset of all b/w Saintmovies I for one would be a very pleased person.

The first film adaption of Leslie Charteris's hero Simon Templar, aka The Saint finds The Saint In New York taking on the job of cleaning out organized crime in the big apple. As if Thomas E. Dewey wasn't doing enough around that time.But I doubt Dewey would condone The Saint's methods. He's been put on retainer by an elite group of civic leaders concerned about rising crime rate. What they get is little more than a contract killer, albeit a charming one.Louis Hayward plays The Saint and then left the role to return to it for one more go in the Fifties. I wish he had done a few more episodes in this film series.What The Saint's been hired to do is eliminate one way or another a gang of six that control all the crime in New York City worth controlling. There's a seventh involved, but nobody knows who he is, he's an almost mythical figure known as the Big Fellow.Given this is a B film with a limited cast there's not too much suspense involved and it's rather obvious who the mastermind is. Still this Saint film gets by on the considerable charm of Louis Hayward and it's easy to take.

Before George Sanders took over the role, it went to LOUIS HAYWARD for THE SAINT IN NEW YORK. Hayward was an interesting actor who should have had a better career than he did in Hollywood, proving that when he got a chance to play an interesting scoundrel ("Ladies in Retirement"), he was fearless in letting his bad side show.Too bad he didn't play "The Saint" more often in the string of films RKO came up with in the '40s. He's good, better than his material here which is strictly a by-the-numbers sort of thing."You should have a question mark after your name," he tells his romantic interest, KAY SUTTON, a dark beauty who looks somewhat like a softer version of Gail Patrick. She's an enigmatic woman and remains so since her character is never developed.Hayward joins the search for "The Big Fellow", head of a crime gang wanted by the NYPD and along the way encounters several misadventures with mob members being disposed of in his unorthodox way.Interesting to see JACK Carson, JONATHAN HALE and SIG RUMAN in the supporting cast.Modestly entertaining but nothing special in this series.