The Saint, Set 1

SAINT, THE: SET 1

Nineteen actors have portrayed Simon Templar, the gentleman adventurer created by Leslie Charteris in 1928. Among the most memorable incarnations were George Sanders (in a series of 1930s films) and Vincent Price (who voiced the character on radio in the 1940s). But for baby boomers, there is only one Simon: Roger Moore, who starred in this classic 1960s British TV series. Moore makes a better Templar than he did a Bond (and he is certainly better than Val Kilmer, who stared in the 1997 feature film). This eagerly awaited boxed set contains three entertaining episodes, beginning with the gem "The Queen's Ransom," which launched the series' 1966 season and was the first episode in color. "The infamous Simon Templar" (who is also called "arrogant, smug, self-important, and impertinent") teaches a queen (Dawn Addams, who starred in Charlie Chaplin's last film, A King in New York) honesty and dignity as he accompanies her on a mission to sell her jewels to finance her deposed husband's coup. In the 1967 color episode "Interlude in Venice," Simon comes to the aid of an American heiress who becomes a pawn in a blackmail plot. Lois Maxwell (better known as James Bond's Miss Moneypenny) costars as her (wicked?) stepmother. In the 1966 color episode "The Russian Prisoner," Simon comes to the aid of a Russian scientist who has had "an attack of revisionism" and whom the KGB will stop at nothing to keep from defecting. Except for the gadgets, The Saint has all the pleasures of the Bond films: a real international man of mystery, exotic locations, cold war intrigue, sparkling bons mots, and beautiful (albeit chaste) women. --Donald Liebenson