The Saint's Return

For the Leslie Charteris novella collection with a similar title, see The Saint Returns.
The Saint's Return
a.k.a. The Saint's Girl Friday

US film poster with the US title
Directed by Seymour Friedman
Produced by Anthony Hinds
Julian Lesser
Written by Allan MacKinnon
based on characters by Leslie Charteris
Starring Louis Hayward
Naomi Chance
Cinematography Walter J. Harvey
Edited by James Needs
Distributed by Exclusive Films (UK
RKO Radio Pictures (US)
Release dates
  • 15 April 1954 (1954-04-15) (US)[1]
Running time
 73 min.
Language English

The Saint's Return (released in the US as The Saint's Girl Friday) is a British crime thriller from 1953, produced by Hammer Film Productions in London. It premiered in London under the original title on 12 October 1953[2] and was distributed in the UK by Hammer Films own distribution company, Exclusive Films.[3] It was released in the US by RKO under the US title on 15 April 1954.[2] The Saint's Return saw Louis Hayward, who had been the first actor to play Simon Templar in The Saint in New York in 1938, return to the role one last time.

Although based upon Charteris' character, the film was an original work by British screenwriter Allan MacKinnon and not based directly on any of Charteris' stories. Charteris, however, had a percentage in the film.[4] It is the first and, to date, only filmed Saint production to feature the character of Hoppy Uniatz, Templar's assistant in the 1940s-era Saint books.

This was the first Saint film to be released in ten years, following RKO's The Saint series 1938-1943, and Hammer Films had hopes to revive the series, but this did not occur. In 1960, a French-Italian film entitled Le Saint mène la danse, with Felix Marten playing The Saint, was released with very limited success. It wasn't until 1962 and the TV series The Saint, starring Roger Moore, that the character achieved lasting success beyond the literary world. The next English-language cinema film featuring the character wouldn't be released until 1997, with Val Kilmer playing the character in The Saint.

Cast

Notes

  1. ↑ "The Saint's Girl Friday: Detail View". American Film Institute. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
  2. 1 2 www.saint.org: The Saint in Movies and Films Retrieved 2012-07-25
  3. ↑ IMDb: The Saint's Return - Company credits Retrieved 2012-07-25
  4. ↑ p. 105 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
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