''The Saint's Vacation'' is a 1941 adventure film produced by the British arm of

RKO Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the major film studios, "Big Five" film studios of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood's Clas ...

. The film stars

Hugh Sinclair Admiral Sir Hugh Francis Paget Sinclair, (18 August 1873 – 4 November 1939), known as Quex Sinclair, was a British intelligence officer. He was Director of British Naval Intelligence between 1919 and 1921, and he subsequently helped to se ...

Simon Templar The Saint is the nickname of the fictional character Simon Templar, featured in a List of works by Leslie Charteris, series of novels and short stories by Leslie Charteris published between 1928 and 1963. After that date other authors collaborat ...

, also known as "The Saint", a world-roving crimefighter who walks the fine edge of the law. This was the seventh of eight films in RKO's

film series A film series or movie series is a collection of related films in succession that share the same fictional universe, or are marketed as a series. It is a type of series fiction. This article explains what film series are and gives brief examples ...

about the character created by

Leslie Charteris Leslie Charteris (; born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin; 12 May 1907 – 15 April 1993), was a British-Chinese author of adventure fiction, as well as a screenwriter.George Sanders George Henry Sanders (3 July 1906 – 25 April 1972) was a British actor and singer whose career spanned over 40 years. His heavy, upper-class English accent and smooth bass voice often led him to be cast as sophisticated but villainous charac ...

, who then stepped into RKO's "

Falcon Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Some small species of falcons with long, narrow wings are called hobbies, and some that hover while hunting are called kestrels. Falcons are widely distrib ...

" series. The film was based upon Charteris' 1932 novel, '' Getaway'' (also known as ''The Saint's Getaway'') and, like all the other films in the RKO Saint series, considerable liberties were taken with the original story. Most notably, the time frame of the story has been moved up to the Second World War, with the villains of the piece being

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

s. The film also disregards the fact that ''Getaway'' was in fact the third chapter of a trilogy which included the earlier works '' The Last Hero'' and '' Knight Templar''. Unlike other films in the Saint series, Charteris himself co-wrote the screenplay. Also, unlike the previous Saint films, which were produced in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

, ''The Saint's Vacation'' was produced and filmed in the United Kingdom.

Plot

Most of the story takes place in Switzerland, where Templar interrupts his holiday to retrieve a missing secret code. The key to the mystery is a Swiss music box with a most unusual tune, diligently sought after by enemy agent Rudolph and British secret service operative Valerie. Templar is aided in his investigation by reporter Mary Langdon and Monty Hayward, with Inspector Teal of

Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's London boroughs, 32 boroughs. Its name derives from the location of the original ...

Cast

, aka The Saint * Sally Gray as Mary Langdon * Arthur Macrae as Monty Hayward *

Cecil Parker Cecil Parker (born Cecil Schwabe; 3 September 1897 – 20 April 1971) was an English actor with a distinctively husky voice, who usually played supporting roles, often characters with a supercilious demeanour, in his 91 films made between 1 ...

as Rudolph Hauser * Leueen MacGrath as Valerie (as Leueen Macgrath) * John Warwick as Gregory * Manning Whiley as Marko *

Felix Aylmer Sir Felix Edward Aylmer Jones (21 February 1889 – 2 September 1979) was an English stage actor who also appeared in the cinema and on television. Aylmer made appearances in films with comedians such as Will Hay and George Formby. Early life ...

as Charles Leighton * Ivor Barnard as Emil * Gordon McLeod as Inspector Teal * Eric Clavering as Reporter (uncredited) *

Roddy Hughes Rhodri Henry Hughes (19 June 1891 – 22 February 1970) was a Welsh theatre, film and television actor, who appeared in over 80 films between 1932 and 1961. Selected filmography * '' Mr. Bill the Conqueror'' (1932) * '' Reunion'' (1932) * '' Sa ...

as Valet (uncredited)

Notes

In June 1939

John Farrow John Villiers Farrow, Order of the Holy Sepulchre (Catholic), KGCHS (10 February 190427 January 1963) was an Australian film director, producer, and screenwriter. Spending a considerable amount of his career in the United States, he was nomina ...

was announced to direct the film before being replaced by Leslie Fenton. Several characters from ''Getaway'' do appear in the film adaptation, most notably Templar's friend Monty Hayward (the only time this recurring character from the early novels appeared on film). The villain of the film, Rudolf Hauser (played by

) is an adjustment of the book's villain, Prince Rudolf, who had also been the villain in the early Saint novels '' The Last Hero'' and '' Knight Templar''. One notable omission from the character list is Templar's literary girlfriend, Patricia Holm, who is replaced by another character, Mary Langdon, played by Sally Gray. This was the first of two appearances by Sinclair as The Saint; he would later return in the film adaptation of '' Meet – The Tiger!'', also known as ''The Saint Meets the Tiger.''

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint's Vacation, The 1941 films The Saint (Simon Templar) American black-and-white films Films directed by Leslie Fenton RKO Pictures films American World War II propaganda films 1941 adventure films Films set in Switzerland American adventure films British adventure films British black-and-white films Films scored by Bretton Byrd