The Saint Takes Over is the second Saint movie to come out in 1940 and the fifth of the RKO series. The screenplay was written by Lynn Root and Frank Fenton and Jack Hively is the director.
The Saint is New York bound on an ocean cruiser when he discovers that his old pal Inspector Henry Fernack has been framed by a syndicate of crooks. They planted 50,000 smackers on Fernack and he's been suspended from the force.
When the Saint arrives the bodies start to pile up. First the guy who set up the frame is gunned down by an unseen gunman. $90,000 disappears out of his safe. Two others in the syndicate die and the Saint is starting to suspect Fernack, who just happens to be there when the shootings happened. We know for sure that Henry didn't do one of those killings.
Wendy Barrie plays the romantic lead, she's naughty beneath that nice exterior, and she comes to a bad end. Jonathan Hale plays Inspector Fernack and he's just as much fun in this movie as he is in the others. He's one of my favorite characters in the series. He's more entertaining than the Inspector Teal character. Paul Guilfoyle plays a stray crook that the Saint blackmails to work for him. That guy sure has his way with people.
The Saint sets up the crooks and that's pretty much the end of them. It's a good story, bit of a sad ending. I enjoyed it, in the past, now, and in the future.
Comments