Watch The Saint in New York For Free

Perfect cast and a good story

good back-story, and good acting

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Louis Haywards only entry as the Saint, this movie has some interesting legends. The biggest one is that Alfred Hitchcock was supposed to come to the United States and direct it. Hitch did not come to the US until 2 years after this was made, so that did not happen.If Hitchcock had come over, I doubt that he would have directed it at RKO Pictures. I mean this movie is good but it is an obvious "B" Picture made to fill out double features on Saturday afternoons. I think the picture would have had a different cast and star and been made by Selznick on a much bigger budget if it were introducing Hitchock.The changes of how this movie was made are not obvious on camera. What is obvious is that Hayward was not going to be the man down the road. He is okay, but George Sanders would be better. Sig Ruman, a talented supporting actor is among a pretty good supporting cast in this one.It did sell a lot of tickets, though I wonder what the main feature was in theaters in 1938? One interesting feature that year was Room Service starring the Marx Brothers and featuring an unknown Lucille Ball. This might have been the under card for that one.

Saint in New York, The (1938) *** (out of 4) The first in RKO's series of The Saint films features Louis Hayward in the title role. In this film, The Saint is tired of criminals getting away due to the judicial system so he sets out to get his own vengeance. I've seen a lot of these early mystery series from the Crime Doctor to Boston Blackie to The Falcon and so on but this one here, at least the first film, is a big change from those series because The Saint isn't a totally friendly character. Where those other series have the good guys trying to arrest the bad guys that's not the case here because The Saint wants them dead and will even kill in cold blood or kill an unarmed man to get his vengeance. I guess you could call this an early version of Death Wish because the vigilante theme runs very high here. I'm not sure what the rest of the series holds but this first film is very impressive even with its low budget. Hayward is very good in his role and his dry acting really adds a lot to the character. The supporting cast really isn't that impressive and that holds the film back some as does some ill-fated humor at the hands of two of the top gangster's gunmen but outside of that this is a very good movie and one that's unlike the others of its type that was out there around the same time.

Before George Sanders took over the role, it went to LOUIS HAYWARD for THE SAINT IN NEW YORK. Hayward was an interesting actor who should have had a better career than he did in Hollywood, proving that when he got a chance to play an interesting scoundrel ("Ladies in Retirement"), he was fearless in letting his bad side show.Too bad he didn't play "The Saint" more often in the string of films RKO came up with in the '40s. He's good, better than his material here which is strictly a by-the-numbers sort of thing."You should have a question mark after your name," he tells his romantic interest, KAY SUTTON, a dark beauty who looks somewhat like a softer version of Gail Patrick. She's an enigmatic woman and remains so since her character is never developed.Hayward joins the search for "The Big Fellow", head of a crime gang wanted by the NYPD and along the way encounters several misadventures with mob members being disposed of in his unorthodox way.Interesting to see JACK Carson, JONATHAN HALE and SIG RUMAN in the supporting cast.Modestly entertaining but nothing special in this series.

The first film in RKO's series (continued, successfully, with George Sanders, and unsuccessfully, with Hugh Sinclair), this features tiny, white-suited Louis Hayward, as the dangerous psychotic Simon Templar, law-enforcer of a kind (mainly by shooting people), on a mission to find the 'big fellow', head of a crime gang. Hayward is excellent in this, having just the right amount of repartee and daring (without making the role comedic as Sanders did or boring as Sinclair did), as is his love interest, Kay Sutton, who seemed to do very little in films despite her good looks and strong voice. One gripe about the film would be that the print currently available on video is poor as regards picture and sound - I understand this entry in the series was lost for a while and it really does cry out for restoration. Still, this aside it has many compensations. Hayward went on to be the man in the iron mask, the son of Monte Cristo, and the snipey son Oliver in My Son My Son. Jonathan Hale, introduced here as the Saint's cop foil, went on to other Saint entries and eventually committed suicide.