The Saint Strikes Back

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

George Sanders and Wendy Barrie in The Saint Strikes Back (1939)

Simon Templar, the Saint, travels to San Francisco to solve crime mysteries within the police department.Simon Templar, the Saint, travels to San Francisco to solve crime mysteries within the police department.Simon Templar, the Saint, travels to San Francisco to solve crime mysteries within the police department.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.2/10

1.1K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos

More like this

6.4

The Saint in London

6.5

The Saint Takes Over

6.0

The Saint's Double Trouble

6.2

The Saint in Palm Springs

6.3

The Saint in New York

5.8

The Saint's Vacation

5.7

The Saint Meets the Tiger

6.7

6.9

6.5

6.5

6.4

A Date with the Falcon

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
The first film in the series to utilize the whistled "Saint Theme". The composer is unknown, but is held to be either Templar's creator Leslie Charteris or RKO's Roy Webb.

Goofs
The airport at "Fort Worth" as indicated in this film, does not have towering hills as shown in the background. In reality, it's basically flat terrain as far as the eye can see.

Quotes
Val Travers: Why are you telling *me* all this?
Simon Templar, aka 'The Saint': Because... well... because I love you. But don't let's get sticky about it - I'm really a very shallow person. I also love fireflies, mocking-birds and pink sunsets. I think, however, that we could find each other more diverting than a pink sunset, don't you?

Connections
Followed by The Saint in London (1939)

Soundtracks
Auld Lang Syne
(uncredited)
Music traditional
Lyrics by Robert Burns
Played at the New Year's Eve party

User reviews29

Review

Featured review

6/10

George Sanders takes over as "The Saint"...

You have to stay wide awake to follow the plot convolutions of THE SAINT STRIKES BACK and by the time it reaches its final scene you may lose your way keeping track of a number of undeveloped characters whose names are bandied about with such nonchalance that in the end it hardly matters when you discover who the main culprit is.

The plot revolves around hard-boiled dame WENDY BARRIE who's surrounded herself with gangsters in order to avenge the death of her father. Barrie gives the kind of performance that should have made her a femme fatale in a number of B-films, but nothing more than that. She's a one note actress if ever there was one.

Fortunately, the script is graced by the presence of GEORGE SANDERS, who can deliver a crisp line with so much bite and sarcasm that it's fun to see him using his verbal wit on some unsavory characters. NEIL HAMILTON makes no impression whatsoever in a colorless role as a man supposedly in love with Barrie, but BARRY FITZGERALD turns up to put some spice into the story, at least in the last half of the film.

It's strictly formula stuff intended to entertain as a programmer in the late '30s and offers nothing very original or new to make it anything more than something of passing interest.