Customer Reviews

The Saint: A Complete History in Print, Radio, Film and Television of Leslie Charteris' Robin Hood of Modern Crime, Simon Templar, 1928-1992

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Burl Barer's book on the history of The Saint is "the source" for Saint fans yearning for more information about The Saint. It is a must-have for Saint fans, and makes for an excellent read, even for those detectivish fans who don't really know much about Simon Templar or Leslie Charteris to start with...

Even if you aren't a fan of the Saint, you should still buy this book. It's a remarkable, inside account of how a character is translated into books, comics, radio, tv and film. A must-have for anyone thinking of breaking into publishing, tv or film

Burl Barer's examination of Leslie charteris' THE SAINT in books, TV, comics and film, more than deserved the Edgar Award it was given by the Mystery Writers of America. If you are a fan of Simon Templar, you have to buy this book

Burl Barer really captures everything about the Saint in this book. It is a huge source of information, and everytime I read it I find out something new!

As other reviewers have said, this is a remarkable work. Burl Barer has covered a tremendous amount of ground organizing and sifting all the various appearances of the Robin Hood of Modern Crime "in print, radio, film, and television" between the publication of The Saint Meets the Tiger in 1928 and this book's own publication in 1993. Merely sorting out all the different titles under which creator Leslie Charteris' Saint novels were published would be achievement enough, but Barer also gives us a chronology of all printed Saint stories, cast and story synopses of Saintly radio and television dramas, and even -- thorough to the point of ridiculousness -- verbatim production company press releases for six made-for-TV Saint movies in the late 1980s.

But this book is far more than bibliography, impressive thought the bibliography is. What I found far more interesting was Barer's portrait of Charteris himself, and what struck me as his somewhat ambiguous relationship with his creation Simon Templar. On the one hand, he was a spirited defender of Templar's biography, personality, and distinguishing characteristics, keeping a close eye on the way the Saint was portrayed in all his various media incarnations over many decades. As a writer myself, I particularly enjoyed reading his comments to various scriptwriters about the poor job they were doing on plot or characterization.

At the same time, however, Charteris was more than willing to let those other writers do the heavy-lifting of producing new Saint stories for his approval and to be published under his name. If a story, movie, or radio drama ended up being, frankly, not very good then, as Charteris said in reference to those 1989 TV movies, "The old joke about crying all the way to the bank is my only consolation" (p. 230).

There are some things this book is not, and one of them is a character study of the Saint. Although Templar's biography comes through in these pages, Barer does not devote to the novels the same attention he does to the radio plays or movies, which I regret. But that may be a reflection of my own tendency to think of the Saint primarily as a literary character who was then translated, often not very well, to other media. Barer takes a more holistic view, I think, in which the Saint as portrayed by Roger Moore, the extravagantly betrousered Ian Ogilvy, or the "Thomas Magnum by way of Matt Houston" Andrew Clarke (p. 222) is as definitive a part of the Saintly canon as are the novels.

I don't know if I would call this book "essential reading for the Saint fan," simply because it is possible to enjoy the stories without needing to know the information contained here. But for readers interested not only in the stories but in all the Saint's many manifestations and interpretations -- and most valuable, I would think -- a fascinating look at the author behind it all, then Burl Barer's book has stood the test of 15 years and is worth keeping handy today.

The book is a thorough review of Simon Templar's complicated history on film and television. I do wish more attention had been paid to his origins and development in print, though. He is, and always will be, Leslie Charteris' idealized alter ego.

This book is indeed a good buy if you want to learn more about the character of The Saint and his creator Leslie Charteris. Most of the other reviewers already touched on the positive aspects of the book, but beware: It is not perfect!

The author had extensive access to Charteris' archives and at times comes across too much like the voice of The Saint's creator and takes his side too much. On the one hand, the Roger Moore TV series e.g. is not that bad; on the other hand - and quite frankly - the original Saint novels aren't always that good! A little bit of critical distance would have served the author much better.

Also, the book has an amazing 419 pages, though only 243 are proper text about the character in all its incarnations. The remaining 176 are appendices that primarily deal with extensive plot summaries of TV and radio shows. I am not a great fan of books that rely too heavily on synopsis to fill their pages.

Mind you, overall this *is* a book that can be recommended to anyone interested in this pulp hero, but please beware of the caveats.