The Saint Strikes Back

The Saint Strikes Back
Directed byJohn Farrow
Written byJohn Twist
Based on"She Was a Lady"
1931 story
by Leslie Charteris
Produced byRobert Sisk
StarringGeorge Sanders
Wendy Barrie
Jonathan Hale
CinematographyFrank Redman
Edited byJack Hively
Music byRoy Webb
Distributed byRKO Radio Pictures
Release date
  • March 10, 1939 (1939-03-10)[1]
Running time
64 min.
LanguageEnglish
Budget$128,000[2]
Box office$460,000[2]

The Saint Strikes Back is a 1939 American crime film directed by John Farrow. It marks the second cinematic incarnation of the antihero crimefighting character Simon Templar, alias "The Saint". George Sanders replaced Louis Hayward, who had played the Saint in The Saint in New York. The movie was produced by RKO and also featured Wendy Barrie as female gang leader Val Travers. Barrie would appear in two more Saint films, playing different roles each time, though not in the next film in the series, The Saint in London. This was the second of eight films in RKO's film series about The Saint, and the first of five with Sanders in the title role (Hugh Sinclair took over for the final two).

In the film The Saint foils an assassination attempt by a member of Val Travers' gang, but is wanted in connection to the killing before joining the police in their efforts to stop Travers and apprehend a shadowy criminal mastermind. The script was based on the Leslie Charteris novel She Was a Lady (Hodder and Stoughton, 1931) which was also published as Angels of Doom and The Saint Meets His Match. The screenplay was by John Twist, who set the story in San Francisco (the book is set in England). Robert Sisk produced and John Farrow directed.

  1. ^ "The Saint Strikes Back: Detail View". American Film Institute. Retrieved January 10, 2024.
  2. ^ a b "Richard B. Jewell's RKO film grosses, 1929–51: the C. J. Trevlin Ledger: a comment", Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Volume 14, Issue 1, 1994