The Saint's Vacation

The Saint's Vacation is the title of a 1941 British-American adventure film produced by RKO Pictures. The film starred Hugh Sinclair as Simon Templar, a.k.a. "The Saint" a world-roving crimefighter who walks the fine edge of the law. This was one of a series of films based loosely upon the character created by Leslie Charteris for a series of novels and novellas. It was Sinclair's first appearance as Templar, having taken over the role from George Sanders.

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 Nazis. 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. Unlike the previous Saint films, which were produced in Hollywood, The Saint's Vacation was produced and filmed in Great Britain.

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 Cecil Parker) 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 here 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!, a.k.a. The Saint Meets the Tiger.

External links

• The Saint's Vacation at the Internet Movie Database