The
lowdown: Roger Moore starred as Simon Templar, otherwise known
as 'The Saint' in six seasons of the ITV
show between October 1962
and February 1969. The Saint often found himself in exotic locations, coming
to the
assistance of people in
peril, helping old friends or assisting the wronged to get justice. Templar
often ran afoul of
the local law, but in the
TV series he generally worked with the police rather than against them.
In the original books
by Leslie Charteris, The
Saint was portrayed as a gentleman villain.
'The Romantic Matron' was
the 18th episode of the second season, first broadcast in 1964, and featured
Patrick
Troughton as a police inspector
(his character was simply titled 'Police Inspector' in the credits, and
had no name).
The episode is set in Buenos
Aires, and sees Templar helping a widow, Beryl Carrington, who is being
used to smuggle
gold of the country after
a million-dollar bullion robbery. Templar comes under suspicion as
the Inspector investigates
the crime, but the two eventually
work together to bring the criminals to justice. Troughton only appears
in a few scenes
of this episode, and his
Latin American accent is not all that convincing, but he again demonstrates
his strengths as a
character actor.
The
verdict: Like many TV shows from the 1960s, 'The Saint' is showing
its age; Roger Moore seems impossibly young,
not surprising given that
it would be 10 years before his debut as James Bond (and he looks soooo
young in his early
James Bond films,
too!) and the pace of the action is very slow compared with modern TV production.
Moore's practice
of talking directly to the
camera at the beginning of each episode during the early seasons may have
seemed innovative
in the 1960s, but it tends
to be very annoying after a while. However, 'The Saint' has much more realistic
plots than some
shows of the era (such as
'The Avengers') and is still very enjoyable for fans of British action-adventure
shows of the 1960s.
Trivia:
This
was the first of Patrick Troughton's two appearances in 'The Saint'. He
also featured in a season five episode,
'Interlude
in Venice', which was first broadcast in 1966.
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