The Evolution of “The Saint” in Media

Don’t worry, this post is not about religion

Greetings, all, and welcome back. When I say “The Saint”, I mean a British version of Damon Runyon’s “gangster with a heart of gold”, whose initials are the abbreviation for “saint”: Simon Templar.

Templar was created in the 1920s by Leslie Charteris (1907–1993), a Chinese-British writer, who had published two books before. Templar is described as a pirate dressed in Savile Row, amused, cool, suave, blue-eyed with a “saintly” smile. He delights in taking from the “ungodly”, those crooks and thieves with lower moral codes than his own. His calling card always featured a stick figure with a halo above its head.

Charteris would not only write 100 more books featuring Templar, but also contribute screenplays for the movies based on his most famous character, from movies to TV. In the last nine decades, bringing Templar to life away from the page has had varying results. Some of the more famous (and one infamous) are here.

George Sanders starred in a series of movies (five in all) as the Saint, one of his few non-villain roles ( including the original voice of Shere Khan from Disney’s first Jungle Book). From 1939 to 1941, Sanders played a Templar who played on both sides of the law, breaking it when necessary, but also friendly with lawmen, as embodied by Chief Inspector Teal and NYPD Det. Farnack.

Roger Moore took over the character for the small screen in the 1960s. At that time, you can see shades of the super-spy he would become in the following decades, as well as three years as Maverick cousin Beau. This version of Templar was independently wealthy, a jet-setter, and anything from race-driver to amateur detective to freelance bodyguard. He never turned away from a friend in need or a wrong to be righted.

Ian Ogilvy is less known on this side of the pond, because his turn as Templar only lasted for a year. He was closer to what Templar was on the page: a thief who delighted in stealing from the corrupt and giving to those less fortunate.

Val Kilmer … what can you say about his attempt at Templar in 1997? I didn’t like it. While little was written about Templar’s early life, the orphanage scenes offended me. Abusive priests did exist, but despite news reports they were few and far between. Instead of Robin Hood, Templar is a straight-up thief and conman. His nickname of “Saint” is from his use of saints’ names as aliases. Worse of all, the best part of the story was only in the novelization.

In the epilogue of the book, Simon returns to the orphanage where he has lost his childhood sweetheart and taken the name Simon Templar (a mashup of Simon Magus from the Bible and the Templar comic book he read). He discovers his old friend Bartolo has grown up to become a priest himself; there’s a memorial garden for his lost love; and his childhood tormentor has become something smaller and simpler than he remembers.

This wasn’t the best portrayal of Simon Templar, in any medium.

Adam Rayner is the most recent actor to step into the character on the small screen, also closely related to his literary beginnings. In 2013, a pilot was attempted for a new, updated version of Templar. This time, the Saint makes it his mission to rob terrorists and other criminals and giving to children’s charities, due to his very “Batman”-like beginning. He witnesses the murder of his parents, just before young Simon’s father was about to tell him how the Templar family made its fortune.

Unlike previous films and TV shows, Templar has a partner: Patricia Holm (Eliza Dushku), who playfully calls herself the “brains” to Templar’s “brawn”. (In the original books, Pat was the Saint’s girlfriend, the one person he could trust outside of his usual gang.) Having met in the Middle East (Simon finished the rescue job Pat was doing for herself), Pat is as tough as she is beautiful and always has Simon’s back.

In meta moments, you catch both Ian Oglivy and Roger Moore here, one as the Fixer and the other as Jasper, the Fixer’s boss.

Sadly, the pilot didn’t catch enough interest. Additional scenes were filmed, and the re-edited movie was released for TV in 2017. (You can find it on Netflix.) While I agree that, on the strength of the pilot, it wouldn’t have made a good, weekly TV series, but a series of movies a la “Jesse Stone” or “Columbo” would work even better. (Quick! Someone petition Netflix to put up the money!) See the movie for yourself; if nothing else, it’s fun!

Thank you for reading my ramblings, my dears, and I hope to hear from you. If you’d like to recommend a book for me to read and review, or even need me as an editor for your own work, please leave a comment or contact me.

In the meantime, keep reading, keep writing, and never give up making your own magic. Be well, my dears.