The Saint on TV by Ian Dickerson

The path to TV Heaven for the Saint and Leslie Charteris started in 1952, but the signposts to it had been planted in the 1940s: Vincent Price, during his spell as the Saint on the radio, had observed that the Saint’s creator Leslie Charteris “wanted to play it in every media” and in late 1948 Charteris had been approached by an Argentine company wishing to produce a series of Spanish-language Saint shorts—that is to say a series of films lasting twenty-five minutes, not an item of Saintly apparel. He refused them point blank. Even in the media intensive 21st Century Argentinean film and television productions are not know for the international sales and recognition that Charteris felt his creation deserved.

It wasn’t until 1952, with the American TV industry still very much wearing its nappies, that Charteris began to seriously study ways to put the Saint on television; the blossoming small screen industry seemed the perfect next step for the adventures of Leslie Charteris, as creator of the Robin Hood of Modern Crime.

Earlier that year he’d renegotiated the contract for the Saint radio shows retrieving control of the TV rights, which had previously been bundled alongside the radio rights as TV hadn’t really kicked into gear. He was now determined to develop a TV show for the Saint and penned a number of scripts, designed to show how a half-hour Saint TV show would run.

He set to work with an LA based producer packaging the scripts and offering them as “a series or program of motion pictures for use exclusively on television and radio” targeting David Niven for the lead. It never made it in to production and with the benefit of hindsight it can be suggested that no one was willing to risk engaging Charteris, who had absolutely no experience in producing or directing a TV show.

Some verification of this theory was offered over a year later when Ted Ashley, of the Ashley-Famous Agency had tried to sell the Saint on TV. He summarized the problems they were encountering;

I regret having to advise you that the general opinion has been that the scripts are not sufficiently interesting and particularly, not of the proper type, in terms of general content for a motion picture television film.

...we have indicated that you would write scripts or have them written under your supervision...

...there are many indications that a pilot film and possibly a commitment assuring the production of a minimum of 13 pictures can be obtained, if you would be willing to limit your relationship to that of general advisor on scripts, casting, direction and production...

By 1960 the Saint was still to conquer television.

Labels: 2010, Ian Dickerson, Leslie Charteris, TV, Vincent Price

Labels: 2010, TV

A defining moment in the career of the film producer Robert S Baker, who has died aged 93, was the day he met Leslie Charteris, the author of a series of novels featuring the gentleman thief Simon Templar, alias the Saint. It was 1961 and Baker, in conjuction with the producer Monty Berman, had already made dozens of British B-movies of varying quality, including several films in the Hammer horror tradition, the most commercially successful being Jack the Ripper (1959), which the pair also directed.

Charteris had been seeking a tele-vision deal for the Saint for some time, but nobody had managed to persuade him that they would do the stories justice. As Baker acknowledged: "He protected the Saint like a bulldog – and many offers had fallen flat on their face." But thanks to a recommendation from John Paddy Carstairs, who had struck up a friendship with Charteris when he directed The Saint in London (1939) for RKO Pictures, the writer agreed in principle to give Baker and Berman the rights for a series.

The deal was clinched after Lew Grade of Associated Television agreed to allow a healthy budget of £30,000 an episode and to shoot the series on film rather than the cheaper teleciné, which would make it easier to sell to the US. In fact the series was eventually sold to 63 countries and reaped a profit in excess of £350m.

For the lead role, Grade suggested Patrick McGoohan, who had been a great success as the secret agent John Drake in Danger Man (1960-61). But Baker and Berman felt McGoohan lacked the lightness of touch that the character of Templar needed, and opted for 34-year-old Roger Moore, who had taken the title roles in the TV series Ivanhoe (1958-59) and Maverick (1959-61).

Moore starred in 118 episodes of The Saint (1962-69). Return of the Saint (1978-79) revived the suave and witty character, this time embodied by Ian Ogilvy, and was reprised in a few different guises over the years, with Baker profiting from holding the rights.

Baker was born in London and became interested in photography from an early age, winning several competitions. When the second world war broke out, he joined the Royal Artillery in north Africa during the El Alamein campaign. He then got himself transferred to the Army Film and Photographic Unit, becoming a combat cameraman in Italy, Belgium and Germany. During that time he met Berman, who was also filming battles.

After the war, the pair set up Tempean Films, their first production being A Date with a Dream (1948), a modest comedy about a wartime concert party's reunion. It starred Terry-Thomas and Jeannie Carson, with Norman Wisdom making his screen debut in a small role.

The company was soon turning out second features at a rate of about four a year to fill up programmes during the 1950s, most of them directed briskly by John Gilling or Henry Cass, and starring what seemed like a Who's Who of washed-up American actors, including Forrest Tucker, Mark Stevens, Alex Nicol, Scott Brady, Arthur Kennedy, Rory Calhoun, Rod Cameron, Dale Robertson and Larry Parks.

Then, from 1958, the duo moved into slightly more mainstream territory with Sea of Sand, a familiar north African war adventure, directed by Guy Green and starring Richard Attenborough; The Siege of Sidney Street (1960), which vividly recreated the London of 1911; and The Treasure of Monte Cristo (1961). The latter two were directed by Baker and Berman, along with the period swashbuckling adventure The Hellfire Club (1961), which was written by Jimmy Sangster and featured Peter Cushing, both regular Hammer habitués.

In fact, Baker and Berman, inspired by the success of Hammer, made their own gothic horror movies. However, these were released in two versions, one for the UK and US markets with their strict censorship and ratings systems, and another for the more liberal, continental European and Japanese markets, where audiences enjoyed extra blood and sex.

They had that aplenty in Blood of the Vampire (1958), with Donald Wolfit hamming it up as Dr Callistratus, who has returned to life to run a lunatic asylum after being executed, and Jack the Ripper, both films written by Sangster. The poverty and filth of 19th-century Edinburgh is well evoked in the atmospheric The Flesh and The Fiends (1960), with Cushing as Doctor Knox, and Donald Pleasence and George Rose as the grave-robbers Burke and Hare. After Gideon's Way (1964-66), a workmanlike police drama series based on the John Creasy books, with John Gregson as the Scotland Yard detective, Berman branched off to produce and write several of his own television series.

Baker and Moore then formed Bamore, a company that produced The Persuaders (1971-72), starring Moore and Tony Curtis as wealthy playboy adventurers, and the film Crossplot (1969), a swingin' London thriller with Moore finding himself in a psychedelic disco, a vintage car race and a helicopter chase. Baker and Moore had a long association, with the actor describing his friend as "one of the kindest men I have ever had the privilege of working with".

Baker is survived by his two daughters.

Labels: 2009, Robert S. Baker, Roger Moore, TV

Labels: 2009, Dougray Scott, Roger Moore, TV, William J. MacDonald

Simon Templar is part of a secret organization known as 'Knights of the Templar'. He's responsible for enforcing the group's code of ethics against the criminal underground of the world. Those familiar with 'Knights' know Simon Templar by one name: The Saint. His current assignment has him in Montenegro, rescuing captive children from being sold on the black market. When the operation is finished, Templar discovers that one of the children is missing. An orphan once himself, he vows to rescue the lost boy, no matter what the cost. Waiting for him in Paris is Patricia Holm, an intelligence specialist and Templar's lover. She has information that a crooked businessman named Carger is responsible for the children's abductions; however, the Knights learn that Carger is now into much bigger things. The Saint is ordered to find Carger and steal a treasured relic that, if made public, could ignite a spectacular holy war. When he discovers Carger has also been keeping the missing orphan as his own son, Templar must decide between his own personal convictions and his duties as The Saint.

Labels: 2008, Barry Levinson, James Purefoy, TV

Labels: 2007, James Purefoy, TV

Labels: 2007, Geoffrey Moore, James Bond, James Purefoy, Jorge Zamacona, TV, William J. MacDonald

Hodder & Stoughton will be publishing two Saint anthologies in the Autumn of 2008. Unoriginally entitled The Best of the Saint (volumes 1 and 2) they'll feature a selection of stories from across the Saint's career (including one which has never appeared in an English paperback before); each volume will also have an introduction from a notable Saint (or Saint fan) plus some additional material by me. Current plans are for each book to have a yellow jacket cover, along the lines of the old H&S style.

Next year will also see the publication of the definitive history of the Saint's television adventures. Currently and unoriginally entitled The Saint on TV, it's written by me (Ian Dickerson) and if you thought the story of the Saint on TV started with Roger Moore, well this book will show you otherwise. It starts in 1940s Hollywood and this book follows the Saint on TV right up to the present day and the new show in development.

Amongst other things it provides a unique episode guide to all three Saint TV series detailing plots, cast, crew, filming locations and critical reaction. It also comprehensively details what many of the cast and crew have been up to since they met the Saint. And perhaps of more interest to you lot, tells the full story behind The Saint in Manhattan and The Saint (with Simon Dutton) using exclusive interviews with many of the cast and crew involved on the productions to analyse what went wrong.

There's loads more in it but I'm not spilling all my beans here. If you want to know more about it, or the two reprints, keep checking www.lesliecharteris.com because that's where the latest news will be.

Labels: 2007, Ian Dickerson, Ian Ogilvy, Roger Moore, Simon Dutton, The Saint Club, TV

Labels: 2007, Bill Krzastek, Return of The Saint, Roger Moore, TV

Labels: DVD, Finnish, Foreign Language, Roger Moore, TV

QUESTION:
Hello Sir Roger, Any idea how the new Saint project is coming along? Is your son still attached to it? As the Saint?

ANSWER:
My son Geoffrey co-owns the rights will Bill Macdonald. He will produce, not star. It's nudging along, but like everything else in this business, it takes an age to get things going. So time, patience and determination are the watch words...

Labels: 2007, Geoffrey Moore, Roger Moore, TNT, TV, William J. MacDonald

Labels: 2007, ITC, Roger Moore, TV

Labels: 2007, Roger Moore, TNT, TV, Val Kilmer

Labels: 2007, eBay, Leslie Charteris, Roger Moore, Roy Ward Baker, TV

If I have anything to say about it, and supposedly I do, the new SAINT TV project for TNT will retain the flavor of Charteris' original.

The Roger Moore series that began in 1962 used the "glob trotting celebrity" character found in Charteris later short stories, and due to the restrictive TV codes of the time, Charteris lamented that the Saint on TV bore as much similarity to his creation as Winnie the Pooh did to Captain Blood.

Times have changed -- restrictions have relaxed. Soooo...this version of The Saint will be the more dangerous and picaresque adventurer, having way too much fun as he takes on recalcitrant and contumacious oppressors while bedding the requisite bevy of beauties -- including the mercurial and romantic Ms Patricia Holm. As all Saint fans know, Simon Templar parks his shoes in numerous international locales, but Holm is where he hangs his hat -- or halo.

Bill Macdonald asked me to serve as "consultant" to the project, and has honestly taken my suggestions to heart (and page). The show should be really cool, faithful to the character, and won't have Charteris getting what he termed Graveyard Torque from spinning in his metaphoric grave. What I like best about the project, of course, is that I'm supposedly getting paid for my wit and wisdom. As with any TV or film project - or publishing for that matter -- I will be 100% convinced when the check clears the bank. As Bill has never deceived me in the past, I trust it will all come out in the wash, even if the spin cycle makes me crazy.

Labels: 2007, Burl Barer, Ian Ogilvy, Leslie Charteris, Roger Moore, Simon Dutton, TNT, TV, William J. MacDonald

TNT's development slate includes Leverage, a Mission: Impossible-like action series; Mrs. America, about a woman valiantly juggling career and family; a remake of the 1960s series The Saint; and a family drama tentatively titled A.D.

Labels: 2007, TNT, TV

Glenn Hauman of ComicMix has news about a new TNT series in development:

The Saint? Again?

Simon Templar debuted in 1928 and Leslie Charteris continued writing about him until1960 when he began using ghosts to help him. Movies, TV, comic books, radio, pulps, slicks over and over in various countries...This is one durable dude.

My favorite Charteris story dates back to when George Sanders was playing the Saint at the RKO B-movie unit. Charteris bombarded the suits with letters insisting that they try getting Cary Grant for the part. Grant was by then an enormous international star...and he was going to do a series of B movie? Doubtful.

When Sanders left his younger and more vulnerable brother Tom took over. Fifteen years later Tom was aboard a bus taking him to a body pile where indigent alcoholics went to die. He didn't make it. He died en route.

The Saint may not be Tarzan or Superman or Sherlock Holmes...but he's certainly a creation who adapts well to each generation.

Read full story...

Labels: 2007, George Sanders, Leslie Charteris, Roger Moore, TNT, TV, William J. MacDonald

TNT drama series in development

They may know drama, but do they know genre?

TNT has a new series in development that could be of interest to us all:

The Saint – a new one hour series based on the Leslie Chateris classic character – the famous Simon Templar. From executive producer William J. MacDonald and producer Jorge Zamacona. The Saint was featured in movies dating back to the late 1930s (starring the great George Sanders) and the British television series from the 1960s starring Roger Moore. I can hear the theme song now...

Published Wed Mar 14, 2007 12:31PM

Labels: 2007, Jorge Zamacona, Roger Moore, TNT, TV, William J. MacDonald

Variety reports today a bit of news that I've known for months: TNT is developing a new, TV series version of THE SAINT. The producer is William J. McDonald and even though he was involved in the horrendous movie version with Val Kilmer a few years ago, I'm told by sources in-the-know that this project will be more loyal to the character immortalized in the novels by Leslie Charteris. Jorge Zamacona (HOMICIDE, WANTED) is writing the script.

Labels: 2007, Jorge Zamacona, Lee Goldberg, Leslie Charteris, TNT, TV, William J. MacDonald

Labels: 2007, Jorge Zamacona, Return of The Saint, TNT, TV, William J. MacDonald