Touches You

People are voting emotionally.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Fourth film in the Saint series from RKO has George Sanders playing dual roles: Simon Templar and his evil doppelganger, Duke! The Saint has 48 hours to prove it was Duke and not he that committed a murder. Guess what? He'll only need 47. This is a good entry in the series with Sanders having fun playing bad. It's very amusing to hear him say things like "You mugs," even if he makes little effort to hide his accent. Bela Lugosi is also in this but, unfortunately, he's not given much to do. He's just an associate of the evil double. Still it's cool seeing Lugosi playing in a non-horror role with an actor you don't normally see him with. Pretty Helene Reynolds is the obligatory would-be love interest. The camera is in love with her. After being absent in the last film, Jonathan Hale returns as the likable police inspector frenemy of the Saint. The rest of the cast includes Donald MacBride, Byron Foulger, Thomas W. Ross, John F. Hamilton, and Elliott Sullivan. Those last two play the evil double's henchman. They have some funny lines.An enjoyable movie, mostly due to Sanders. The story isn't much to get excited about. It's never really explained why Saint has a double or what led Duke to know about him in the first place. Also, the Saint not seeming upset about the killing of the kindly old man who was a friend of his didn't sit right with me. Oh, and how cool is it that apparently back in the old days a guy could mail a mummy to another guy halfway around the world. And we think we have progress!

George Sanders was suave as the not quite wholesome gentleman adventurer The Saint but this B movie took the biscuit with its lacklustre, silly and confusing plot.Things start of well with Bela Lugosi popping up in Egypt and it seems an exact double has been smuggling diamonds involving a mummy from Egypt.We are unsure when Sanders pops up whether he is the Saint or the double. One plot point is that the Mummy has been to sent to his old lecturer who and his daughter have been friends with the real saint but who is this man who looks and sounds like him. How convenient.It might be that the real saint whistles his tune before he shows up or the villainous double has a tattoo.Jonathan Hale is Inspector Fernack who is just as confused as everyone else as. Nothing more is made of Lugosi who is wasted in a nothing roles and he is as confused as the audience and he no need to his stock of opium to get there.There is a nice sequence at the end as the Saint escapes from a leaking motorboat when he is all tied up but further silliness ensures that the Saint and his double swap places in his prison cell. This is not the best plotted or enjoyable of the Saint series.

I'm seeing some complaints about this movie that I don't think are warranted. Plenty of movies use the "exact double" angle...most don't pull it off very well. I think that this one did.Sanders delivers a subtle performance as the Saint's double; then, as the Saint, he lets the personality of the Saint out. It is very effective. The movie doesn't have the clichés one tends to see in this type of movie. Sanders not only outsmarts the bad guy, but he gets his revenge as well.Bela Lugosi is in this movie. Unfortunately, his role could've been played by any competent actor.This is a short, fun little movie. If you've got an hour and are in the mood for an enjoyable black and white, with a suave hero and a few thrills, this is your movie...

Unlike James Bond, the equally debonair Saint never made a successful transition to film from the fictional works of Leslie Charteris. Charteris hated all the film Saints - George Sanders, Hugh Sinclair and Leslie Howard. He thought that Cary Grant was the ideal choice for the role. But in the 1940s, the film industry would only make B-movies featuring the Saint. Since Cary Grant did not appear in B-movies, George Sanders got the role. He was popular in it at that time. Sanders always played suave cads extremely well. The Saint of the novels was also a suave cad, yet his creator did not approve of George Sanders. Charteris probably disliked Sanders because the latter did not physically resemble his creation. Roger Moore, the Saint of the small screen, came much closer to Charteris' ideal."The Saint's Double Trouble" is worth watching if you are Saint fan. If you like the sneering, sardonic George Sanders like I do, you will like it.(Reviewed by Sundar Narayan)