FFB: The Saint in Europe

I was browsing through the library a few years ago and came upon the Leslie Charteris (1907 - 1993) section and pulled out a collection of short stories featuring "The Saint." David Cranmer once tackled a Charteris novel for Friday's Forgotten books, adding that he'd only read Charteris short stories and never a full-length novel. Since it's the reverse situation in my case, I brought the collection home.

Born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin in Singapore, he was half-Chinese, half-English, which would later come to haunt him when he was excluded from permanent residency in the U.S. due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, a law prohibiting immigration for anyone with "50 percent or greater" Oriental blood. Eventually, after his success in literature and in Hollywood, an act of Congress personally granted him and his daughter the right of permanent residence in the United States.

Charteris is, of course, one of the more colorful crime fiction authors in the genre. Before his literary succes, he worked variously on a freighter, as a bartender, prospecting for gold, fishing for pearls, working in a tin mine and on a rubber plantation, toured England with a carnival and drove a bus. He also rode on the Hindenburg on its successful maiden voyage.

His success lies almost entirely upon his famous literary creation, Simon Templar, known as "The Saint," featured in over 50 novels, novellas and short-story collections, as well as several TV and movie incarnations, and a long-running comic strip.

As to the genesis for the character, Charteris once said,

"Who knows where an idea comes from? The Saint was just originally a character who came to life in my head not so long after I started writing, but he was not the first character I thought of. He was, as a matter of fact, the fifth...I looked back over the characters I had created so far and picked the Saint, liked him the best, and decided to go on with him."

The books and stories never disclose Simon Templar's origins, other than the the possibility he started his career as a criminal. He was suave, mysterious, a daredevil, a gentleman thief or, as often called, a "modern day Robin Hood." In the earlier novels he was more violent than in later outings, such as the various short stories.

The Saint in Europe collection was first published in 1953, the 29th book to feature the character, and it marked not only a resumption of the book series after a five-year hiatus, but the 25th anniversary of the the Templar series. All seven stories in the collection were used as plots for episodes of the 1962-69 TV series, The Saint, starring Roger Moore (later James Bond).

The theme that ties all these stories together, if you can call it that, is the Saint travelling to different parts of Europe where he has runs into trouble of one kind or another. Or as Templar says, he "seldom went anywhere with the intention of getting into trouble. But trouble had that disastrous propensity for getting into him."

The first story is set in Paris and titled "The Covetous Headsman," in which the body of a young, honest, hardworking Parisian shipping clerk is found murdered and decapitated. Templar steps in to help when a web of money and betrayal dating back to the resistance during WWII threatens to make the naive sister of the victim the murderer's next target.

"The Rhine Maiden" is probably the best of the lot, harkening back to the Templar of the earlier novels, where he was "judge and executioner." Templar gets drawn into the plight of a pitiable man and his daughter traveling with him on a train who have been swindled by the man's boss, also a passenger on the same train. The man, his daughter, and the boss remind Templar that

"the Saint has been something of a crook sometimes, even if that didn't hurt anybody but specimens like you. And since I reformed I've become rather sophisticaed. Maybe it's a pity. Once loses sight of some simple elemtentary things that were very good."

The stories have some of the same flair as in the novels, with Templar's wit and imperturbability shining through. They're a good introduction to the character and Charteris style, and a pleasant enough way to while away an hour or so (it's a fairly short book).

Saint fans should check out the Leslie Charteris fan club site that has news of CD releases of episodes from the old radio series of The Saint (starring Vincent Price and Barry Sullivan), as well as other goodies, and also visit the Saint Club Facebook page. Back in 2010, there were talks with Scottish actor Dougray Scott to play The Saint in a new TV series, although that project fell through. The latest incarnation may be a movie starring Chris Pratt, although time will tell if that production ever sees the light of day.