Simon Templar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Saint Character

The sign of the Saint, which appears on virtually every edition of every Simon Templar adventure.
Name: 	Simon Templar
Job: 	Thief, amateur detective,
occasional police agent
Portrayed by: 	Louis Hayward, George Sanders,
Roger Moore, Ian Ogilvy, Val Kilmer, Vincent Price, others
Weapons: 	Ebony Stick
Fists
Throwing Knives named Anna & Belle
Pistol
Swordstick

Simon Templar is a fictional character known as The Saint in a long-running series of books by Leslie Charteris published between 1928 and 1963. After that date other authors collaborated with Charteris on the books until 1983; two additional works without the participation of Charteris were published in 1997. The character has also appeared in motion pictures, radio dramas, comic strips, and three television series.

 Overview

Simon Templar is known as the Saint because of his initials (ST), and also because of his heroic exploits that fly in the face of an otherwise nefarious reputation. Templar uses a number of aliases, often using the initials S.T. such as "Sebastian Tombs" or "Sugarman Treacle". Blessed with a boyish sense of humor, he often makes humorous and off-putting remarks and frequently leaves a "calling card" at the scenes of his "crimes," consisting of a stick-figure drawing of a man with a halo, which is the logo of both the book series and the later 1960s TV series.

The books often allude to the possibility that Templar started his career as a criminal and suggest that he had somewhere developed the skills of a burglar. His origins remain a mystery, but it is made clear from the texts that, in the books, all of his income derives from the pockets of the "ungodly" (as he terms those who live by a less moral code than his own). There are several references to a "ten percent collection fee" that he collects to cover expenses when he extracts large sums of money from his victims, the remainder being returned to the rightful owners, given away to charity, shared amongst Templar's colleagues, or some combination thereof. Templar's targets often include corrupt politicians, warmongers, and other examples of the nastier forms of low life. "He claims he's a Robin Hood," bleats one of his victims, "but to me he's just a robbing hood." In fact, Robin Hood appears to have been one of the inspirations for the character; Templar stories were often promoted as featuring "The Robin Hood of modern crime", and this phrase to describe Templar appears in several of the stories. A term used frequently by Templar to describe his monetary "acquisitions" is "boodle" (a term which was also applied to the title of a Saint short story collection).

The Saint also has a dark side to his personality as he is willing to ruin the lives of certain members of the "ungodly", and even kill them, if he feels that, by doing so, lives can be saved. In several early books, Templar openly refers to this as murder, although he considers his actions to be justified and righteous, a view usually (but not always) shared by his partners and colleagues. Several of his adventures centre around his stated intention to kill/assassinate an individual (for example, the novella "Arizona" in The Saint Goes West has Templar planning to kill a Nazi scientist).

The Saint series often reflected the atmosphere of the time. During the first half of the 1940s, for example, Charteris changed the focus of the series, casting Templar as a willing operative of the American government fighting Nazi interests in the US during World War II. While the first of these novels, The Saint in Miami has Templar stumbling upon a Nazi plot, beginning with the aforementioned "Arizona" novella, Templar is clearly fighting his own war against Germany. The Saint Steps In reveals that Templar is operating on behalf of a mysterious individual known as Hamilton, who appears again in the next WWII-era Saint book, The Saint on Guard. The tone of these books moves away from the confidence games and murder-mysteries that had dominated the series, and moved the books closer to James Bond-style wartime espionage. According to Barer, Charteris made the conscious decision to remove Templar from his usual confidence-game trappings, the British setting, not to mention his usual co-stars Holm, Uniatz and Teal, as he felt they weren't appropriate for the tone of the War-era stories he was now writing.[1]

Although the Saint functions as an ordinary detective in some stories (figuring out puzzle-mysteries), according to fans and critics, the best of the stories depict ingenious plots to get even with vanity publishers and other consumer ripoff artists, greedy bosses who exploit their workers to an extreme degree, con men, etc.

The Saint has many partners in his escapades, though none that have lasted throughout the series. For the first half of the series (up until the late 1940s), the most recurrent is Patricia Holm, his girlfriend, who was introduced in the very first Saint story, the 1928 novel Meet - The Tiger! in which she shows herself to be a capable adventurer in her own right. Holm appeared erratically throughout the series, sometimes disappearing for books at a time. Templar and Holm had a relationship that was somewhat ahead-of-its-time for the 1920s and '30s: in a time when common law relationships were uncommon (and in some areas, illegal), they lived together. They also appeared to have an "open" relationship of sorts, as Templar is shown flirting with other women from time to time. However, his heart remained true to Patricia Holm in the early books, culminating in his considering proposing marriage in the novella "The Melancholy Journey of Mr. Teal", only to have Holm say she had no interest in it (another progressive attitude for the time). Holm disappeared from the series in the late 1940s, and according to Burl Barer's history of The Saint, Charteris thereafter refused to allow Templar to have a steady girlfriend, or for Holm to return (although according to the Saintly Bible website, Charteris did write a film story that would have seen Templar encountering a son he had with Holm).

Another recurring character, Scotland Yard Inspector Claud Eustace Teal, could frequently be found attempting to put the Saint behind bars, although in some books they can be found working in partnership. In The Saint in New York, Teal's American counterpart, NYPD Inspector Henry Fernack, was introduced, and he would become, like Teal, a Inspector Lestrade-like foil and pseudo-nemesis in a number of books, notably the American-based World War II novels of the 1940s.
Many Saint novels were reprinted in new editions in the 1960s to capitalize on the popular television series, starring Roger Moore.
Many Saint novels were reprinted in new editions in the 1960s to capitalize on the popular television series, starring Roger Moore.

The Saint had a veritable band of compatriots over the years, including Norman Kent, Peter Quentin, Archie Sheridan, Dicky Tremayne (a character name that later appeared in the 1990s TV series, Twin Peaks), Monty Hayward, Roger Conway, and his ex-military valet, Orace. In later stories, the dimwitted and constantly-soused, but reliable, American thug Hoppy Uniatz was frequently found at Templar's side.

Charteris gave Templar a number of interests and personality quirks that manifested themselves as the series went on. Early in the series, for example, his talents as an amateur poet and songwriter were frequently displayed, often to taunt villains, though the novella "The Inland Revenue" established that poetry was also a hobby. That same story also revealed that Templar once wrote an adventure novel featuring a South American hero not too far removed from The Saint himself. Templar also on occasion would break the fourth wall in an almost metafictional sense, making occasional references to being part of a story, and mentioning in one early story, how he cannot be killed off so early on; later, the 1960s television series would also have Templar similarly break the fourth wall and address viewers. Charteris as a writer breaks the fourth wall by making direct references to the "chronicler" of the Saint's adventures and in at least one instance (the story "The Sizzling Saboteur" within The Saint on Guard) inserts his own name into the narration.

[ Publishing history

The origins of The Saint can be found in several early works by Charteris, some of which predated the first Saint novel, 1928's Meet - The Tiger!, or were written after it but before Charteris committed to writing a Saint series. Saint historian Burl Barer reveals that an obscure early Charteris work, Daredevil, not only featured a heroic lead character who shared many "Saintly" traits (right down to driving the same brand of automobile), but he shared his adventures with Inspector Claud Eustace Teal -- a character later to be a regular in the Saint books. Barer writes that several early Saint stories were also re-written from non-Saint stories, including the novel She Was a Lady which originally appeared in magazine form featuring a different lead character.

Charteris utilized three formats for delivering his stories, each with its own supporters and critics within Saint fandom. Besides full-length novels, he also wrote shorter novellas that were for the most part originally published in magazines and later usually collected in volumes of two or three stories. He also wrote many short stories featuring the character, again mostly for magazines and later compiled into omnibus editions. In later years these short stories often carried a common theme, such as focusing on the women Templar meets or the exotic places he visits. With the exception of Meet - The Tiger!, chapter titles of Templar novels usually contain a descriptive phrase describing the events of the chapter; for example Chapter Four of Knight Templar is entitled, "How Simon Templar dozed in the Green Park and discovered a new use for toothpaste".

Although Charteris' novels and novellas had more conventional thriller plots than his confidence game short stories, both the novels and the stories are still admired by a significant fan community. As in the past, the central appeal lies in the vitality of the Templar character, a hero who can go into a brawl and come out of it with his hair still freshly combed, and who, when faced with imminent death, coolly lights a cigarette and taunts his enemy with the signature phrase, "As the actress said to the bishop..."

The time period of the books begins in the 1920s and moves through to the 1970s recognisably as the series of 50 books progresses (the character being seemly ageless). In the early books most of the Saint's activities are clearly illegal, although directed at villainous characters. In later books, this becomes less so. In the books written during the period of World War II, The Saint (in common with many fictional maverick heroes) was recruited by the government to help with the war effort by tracking down spies and similar undercover work.[2] Later he became a cold warrior fighting against Communism. The quality of writing also changes; early books have a freshness of spirit which becomes replaced to an extent by an air of cynicism in the later works. A few Saint stories crossed into the realms of science fiction and fantasy, with "The Man Who Liked Ants" and the early novel The Last Hero being examples. When early Saint books were republished in the 1960s through to the 1980s, it was not uncommon to see freshly written introductions by Charteris appended to the works, apologizing for the stories' out-of-date tone; according to a Charteris "apology" in a 1969 paperback edition of Featuring the Saint, he once attempted to revise and update some of his earlier stories when they were reprinted, but eventually gave up on the idea and let them sit unaltered as period pieces. The 1963 edition of the short story collection The Happy Highwayman contains examples of these abandoned revisions; in one story originally published in the 1930s ("The Star Producers"), references to popular actors of the 1930s were replaced for the 1963 printing with names of then-current movie stars; another 1930s-era story in the collection, "The Man Who Was Lucky" added updated references to atomic power for the reprint.

Charteris started to step back from writing the books in the early 1960s, retiring from writing the books following 1963's The Saint in the Sun. The next book to carry Charteris' name, 1964's Vendetta for the Saint, was written by science fiction author Harry Harrison, who had worked on the Saint comic strip, after which Charteris edited and revised the manuscript. Between 1964 and 1983 another 14 Saint books would be published, credited to Charteris but written by others. In his introduction to the first of these books, The Saint on TV, Charteris called these volumes a team effort, in which he oversaw the selection of stories, which initially consisted of adaptations of scripts written for the 1962-69 TV series The Saint, and with Fleming Lee writing the actual adaptations (other authors later took over from Lee). Charteris and Lee would also collaborate on two Saint novels in the 1970s, The Saint in Pursuit (based upon a story written by Charteris for the Saint comic strip) and The Saint and the People Importers. The "team" writers were usually credited on the book's title page, if not on the cover. One of these later volumes, Catch the Saint, was an experiment in returning The Saint to his period roots, being set prior to the Second World War (as opposed recent Saint books which had been set in the present day).

The last Saint volume in the line of books starting with Meet - The Tiger! in 1928, was Salvage for the Saint, published in 1983. According to the Saintly Bible website, every Saint book published between 1928 and 1983 saw their first editions issued by Hodder and Stoughton in the UK (ironically a company that originally published only religious books) and The Crime Club (an imprint of Doubleday that specialized in mystery and detective fiction) in the United States. For the first 20 years of the series, the books were first published in Britain, with the US edition sometimes following up to a year later. By the late 40s-early 50s this situation had been reversed. In one case, The Saint to the Rescue, a British edition did not appear until nearly two years after the American publication.

A series of French language books featuring the character were published over a 30-year period. This series included a number of translated volumes of Charteris originals, as well as novelisations of radio scripts from the English-language radio series, and comic strip adaptations. Many of these books, though credited to Charteris, were in fact written by others, including Madeleine Michel-Tyl

Charteris died in 1993. Two additional Saint novels appeared around the time of the 1997 film starring Val Kilmer: a novelisation of the film (which had little if any connection to the Charteris stories), and Capture the Saint, a more faithful-to-the-character work published by The Saint Club, the Club originated by Charteris himself in 1936. Both books were written by Saint historian Burl Barer, who in the early 1990s published a massive history of The Saint in books, radio, and television.

In total, between 1928 and 1971 Charteris wrote 14 novels (the last two being co-written with another writer), 34 novellas, and 95 short stories featuring Simon Templar. Between 1963 and 1997 an additional 7 novels and 14 novellas were written by others.
Many Saint adventures were reprinted in pulp editions, such as this 1943 edition.
Many Saint adventures were reprinted in pulp editions, such as this 1943 edition.

 The Saint on Radio

Several radio drama series based upon The Saint were produced in North America and Great Britain. The earliest known was produced for Radio Eireann in 1940 and starred Terence De Marney. Both NBC and CBS produced separate Saint series during 1945, starring Edgar Barrier and Brian Aherne, respectively. Many of these early shows were adaptations of published Saint stories, although Charteris himself later wrote several storylines for the series which, in due course, were novelised as short stories and novellas.

The longest-running and best known radio incarnation of Simon Templar was Vincent Price, who played the character in a long-running series that was broadcast between 1947 and 1951 on no fewer than three networks: CBS, Mutual and NBC. After Price left the series in May 1951, he was replaced by Tom Conway, who played the role for several more months. (His brother, George Sanders, played Templar on film.)

The next English-language radio series aired on Springbok Radio in South Africa between 1953 and 1957. These were fresh adaptations of the original stories and starred Tom Meehan as the Saint.

Around 1965-1966 the South African version of Lux Radio Theatre produced a single dramatization of The Saint.

The English Radio Service of South Africa produced another series of Saintly radio adventures which aired for 6 months in 1970-1971.

The next English-language radio series was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1995, starring Paul Rhys.