THE SAINT STRIKES BACK (1939)

Director: John Farrow

Writers: John Twist and A.C. Edington (uncredited) adapting Leslie Charteris’ Saint novel Angels of Doom, aka She Was a Lady, The Saint Meets His Match

Producer: Robert Sisk

Cast: George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, Jonathan Hale, Neil Hamilton, Jerome Cowan, Barry Fitzgerald, Gilbert Emery, Robert Elliott, Russell Hopton, Edward Gargan, Robert Strange, James Burke. Nella Walker, (and uncredited cast) Willie Best, Paul E. Burns, Tristram Coffin, Robert Homans, Gerald Hamer, Ray Turner, Kernan Cripps, Jack Gargan, Tex Brodus, Tom McGuire, Howard M. Mitchell, Frank O’Connor, Ted Oliver, Tom Quinn, Bob Reeves, Ben Taggart, Dale Van Sickel 

In San Francisco, California at the Colony Club New Year’s Eve party, a gunshot rings out at the stroke of midnight. The victim is a notorious gunman that was drawing a bead on another guest at the party. He was shot by Simon Templar (George Sanders), an adventurer, amateur sleuth, and criminal-robbing thief better known as the Saint. Templar is in San Francisco to expose Waldeman, the mysterious leader of a group of criminals. Templar is also at odds with Val Travers (Wendy Barrie). She is the beautiful blonde that was accompanied by the gunman Templar shot. Travers’ father was a police inspector framed for robbery involving the Waldeman gang. That disgrace led to his suicide. Travers has allied herself with underworld characters to help her avenge her father. Simon Templar tries to charm the vengeful Val Travers at the same time he is trying to expose the criminals that she wants to destroy, though she may also be associating with them. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review 

Simon Templar, alias the Saint, was introduced in Leslie Charteris’ 1928 novel Meet the Tiger. This led to an ongoing series of stories written by Charteris until 1963. Charteris collaborated with other writers for more Saint adventures that were published until 1983. Simon Templar was an English antihero often seen as something of a precursor to James Bond. The popularity of the character’s stories led to more Saint adventures in radio shows, comic strips, comic books, movies, and television. 

RKO Radio Pictures produced the first film presentation of the Saint, 1938’s The Saint in New York starring Louis Hayward. The film was very successful, and a series soon followed. Due to commitments to appear in other films, Hayward was unable to continue playing Simon Templar, so George Sanders began his five-film stint as the Robin Hood of Modern Crime. Until Roger Moore starred as Leslie Charteris’ hero in the 1960s television series The Saint (1962-69), George Sanders was the actor most identified with the role. 

The Saint Strikes Back provides a striking introduction for Sanders as Simon Templar. No sooner are we presented with the perceptive gaze of Templar spotting an assassination in the offing during a ritzy New Year’s Eve party, then the would-be assassin gets shot, the dead man’s beautiful accomplice makes for the exit, she is intercepted on the street by Templar, and during his smooth barrage of quips he reveals that he is the assassin’s assassin, and none other than the Saint, while he does his brash best to charm and tease her at the same time. 

That scene perfectly demonstrates what the George Sanders style of his Saint is all about. I find Sanders’ somehow-relaxed, rapid-fire delivery of witty banter mingled with his one-step-ahead-of-everyone-else trickery to be as amusing as a great Marx Brothers routine. Even if my head is spinning trying to keep track of the alliances and deceptions between characters in the story, Sanders’ wry manner ensures that I still enjoy the ride on this mystery merry-go-round. 

Of course George Sanders had a long acting career, often playing smooth-talking cads, and he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1950’s All About Eve. The Saint’s creator, author Leslie Charteris, was often very critical of the various media adaptations of his hero. He seemed quite unhappy with George Sanders as Simon Templar. As is often the case, film adaptations take liberties with their source material and must succeed with the audience on their own merits. Perhaps Charteris felt that both Sanders’ performance and Hollywood’s Motion Picture Production Code smoothed over the most ruthless edge of his character. Nevertheless, we are still provided with a hero in the Sanders films that often operates just outside the law, even as he aids it to see justice done. 

Returning from the previous Louis Hayward starring film is the character of New York Police Inspector Henry Fernack played by Jonathan Hale. Fernack provides a lot of humor, usually at his own expense, as he is alternately assisted and confounded by the daring and elusive Simon Templar. While Fernack is always suspicious of the Saint’s true motives, he is also an admirer of the Saint’s abilities used to defeat criminals in the past. No matter how irritated Fernack becomes with some of the Saint’s subterfuge, he can always be convinced one more time to aid the Saint’s crime-busting schemes. 

Wendy Barrie co-stars as the vengeful Val Travers. She is allying herself with crooks to expose and kill those who framed her father and drove him to suicide. Not only her beauty, but also her outside-the-law determination to see that her father is avenged appeals to Simon Templar. Her steely determination is initially immune to Templar’s charm, and she is only slowly won over by his efforts to expose the criminals she is also after. Barrie would appear in two more of the Sanders-starring Saint films as different characters. When RKO shifted George Sanders into the hero role of Gay Laurence/The Falcon in a similar series of mystery films, Wendy Barrie would also star as his love-interest in two of them. 

Another very familiar face to lovers of crime fighter series is Neil Hamilton as Valerie Travers’ smitten accomplice, Allan Breck. Hamilton would gain lasting fame late in his acting career as Police Commissioner Gordon on the Batman television series (1966-68). In two episodes of that show’s first season, Hamilton would be joined by George Sanders as the first actor to play the villain Mr. Freeze. 

The 1930s launched many film series featuring sleuths of all sorts. Many probably considered the Saint films just more of the same. Yet these jaunty flicks were distinguished by George Sanders’ assured performance as a witty and quick-witted hero that dealt with crime as if it was just a lark.

THE HAND (1981)

Director: Oliver Stone

Writers: Oliver Stone adapting Marc Brandel’s novel The Lizard’s Tail

Producer: Edward R. Pressman; Cast: Michael Caine, Andrea Marcovicci, Annie McEnroe, Bruce McGill, Mara Hobel, Viveca Lindfors, Rosemary Murphy, Charles Fleischer, Pat Corley, Nicholas Hormann, John Stinson, Ed Marshall, Richard Altman, Sparky Watt, Oliver Stone, Tracey Walter, Brian Kenneth Hume, Lora Pearson, Jack Evans, Scott Evans, Randy Evans, Patrick Evans 

When comic strip artist Jon Lansdale (Michael Caine) loses his right hand in a freak driving accident, he not only loses his drawing ability; he also is losing the bond with his family and may be losing his mind. Lansdale has blackouts and hallucinations of hand imagery. He also senses that his missing hand has a life of its own and that it can kill those who offend him. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review 

The response that writer-director Oliver Stone’s second feature film usually gets from the audience is the sound of one hand clapping, but The Hand gets a hearty round of applause from me. It has fine performances from a small cast in a story dealing with the mental turmoil of its main character. When none other than Michael Caine plays that character, it results in a moving, intriguing, and gripping film. 

The spectacle of a severed hand scuttling about to kill people is what the audience was probably primed to see, yet it is also a phenomenon that we are constantly challenged to decide just how literally to accept. We experience the story almost completely from the viewpoint of the Michael Caine character of Jon Lansdale. He would qualify as the cinematic version of the unreliable narrator in prose fiction. He has suffered an injury that has not only cost him his right hand; it has ruined his career as a comic strip artist and is a blow to his male ego. He is no longer as complete a physical man as before, he is self-conscious of his appearance and lack of dexterity, and his ability to earn a living is now hindered. Since his wife, Anne (Andrea Marcovicci), was driving the car when his maiming accident occurred, that can only exacerbate Lansdale’s resentment of her in their troubled marriage. All of these stressors take a toll on Lansdale’s temperament, and we are left to ponder if Lansdale’s sanity is also damaged. 

Jon Lansdale’s comic strip, Mandro, was about the fantasy world adventures of a sword-wielding barbarian. Lansdale seemed to be venting his own single-minded and macho tendencies through his art. Once he loses the hand he needs to draw his Mandro stories, his inner barbarian has nowhere to go. This sudden handicap would traumatize anyone, but Lansdale’s own sense of his manhood and control in his family is the chink in his psychological armor that has been breached. In a great performance, Michael Caine brings an appealing humanity, vulnerability, and intensity to his role as Jon Lansdale. We always identify with the poor guy’s plight, even if we are unsure of his grip on reality and whether he can be blamed for the horror he senses. 

While we also ponder the responsibility that Jon Lansdale has for the dysfunction in his relationship with Anne, it becomes clear that she is not being entirely upfront with her husband about what she really wants to do. She says that she has discussed things with him, but one always gets the feeling that there is something more she has in mind that she won’t tell her unreceptive husband about. Anne is not just a one-note victim or a bitch. She seems like a reasonable person that is probably afraid to be completely open with Jon about her dissatisfaction in their relationship. In her defense, Anne tries to be comforting to Jon after the loss of his hand, but it also seems that she is ready to move on. 

Once the Lansdale couple separates so that Jon can move to California to take a teaching job for a community college art class, we can appreciate Jon Lansdale trying to make a new life for himself. We still hold out hope that he can mend his relationship with Anne, who is staying in New York City with their daughter. However, it becomes more apparent that his family is drifting apart. 

Therefore, we can’t help but be happy for Lansdale when he gets the chance to fool around with Stella Roche, one of his sexier students. We don’t find out a lot about Stella, but Annie McEnroe’s performance makes us care about this directionless and impulsive young lady. She may just be a free spirit doing what ever feels good in the moment, but she is also just the ego boost the estranged Jon Lansdale needs. It probably helps that Stella seems to fetishize Lansdale’s prosthetic hand during their lovemaking. Lansdale seems to develop an immediate bond with Stella, but whether this can ever approach real love or is just Lansdale’s possessiveness is uncertain.

One of Lansdale’s fellow faculty members, Brian Ferguson (Bruce McGill), teaches psychology at the community college. Over beers at the local bar, Ferguson hands out insight on Lansdale’s mental blackouts. Of course, this does nothing to dispel Lansdale’s concerns, or ours, about his mental state. Drinking pal Ferguson also soon becomes another antagonist in Lansdale’s lonely existence. 

The pattern in our one-handed hero’s life seems to be that no one ever really gets close to him. The one person we ever saw Jon Lansdale mutually, truly happy with was his daughter, Lizzie (Mara Hobel), before his estranged wife separated her from him. Once the family reunites in Jon’s cabin in the woods for the yuletide season, it becomes clear that Anne is making other arrangements for her life and Lizzie’s. This ends up being one of those unbearable, just-going-through-the-motions, Christmas family get-togethers. They better crank up the carols and keep spiking the eggnog. 

As Lansdale gets more stressed and offended, he not only has more hallucinations, he also imagines that his severed hand is lurking about and can snuff out his enemies. That lost limb had manifested Lansdale’s machismo by illustrating his Mandro stories. Now that it is no longer attached to Lansdale, that missing hand may be acting out darker aggressions from the frustrated Lansdale’s id. 

Writer-director Oliver Stone’s first feature was his 1974 horror film, Seizure. After this second effort, Stone decided that he wasn’t suited to the genre. I think he does a fine job with The Hand. Stone was probably disappointed with the generally poor reception that the film received. That reception was probably due to the ambiguity that it leaves us with. You may have a handle on what is going on here until you get to the film’s final scene. Then you are presented with a bit of sleight-of-hand that tosses our assumptions back in our faces to make us try to sort things out all over again. Audiences probably found it maddening, but that is the theme running throughout the entire film. I have learned to appreciate it more over time because there are two interpretations one can arrive at, and either one works. The Hand deserves a lot more thumbs up.

PLAY MISTY FOR ME (1971)

Director: Clint Eastwood

Writers: Jo Heims, Dean Riesner

Producer: Robert Daley

Cast: Clint Eastwood, Jessica Walter, Donna Mills, John Larch, James McEachin, Don Siegel (as Donald Siegel), Clarice Taylor, Jack Ging, Irene Hervey, Britt Lind (as Brit Lind), Duke Everts, Jack Kosslyn, George Fargo, Tim Frawley, Otis Kadani, Mervin W. Frates, Paul E. Lippman, Ginna Patterson, Malcolm Moran, (and jazz musicians as themselves) Cannonball Adderley and Johnny Otis 

Dave Garver (Clint Eastwood) is the evening disc jockey at KRML, a jazz radio station in Carmel, California. One of his frequent callers is a woman who always requests that Garver play the song “Misty.” After his shift one night, Garver stops at his favorite local bar and meets a woman named Evelyn Draper (Jessica Walter). Garver takes Evelyn home and she reveals that she went to the bar hoping to meet Garver since he had mentioned on his program that he hung out there. Garver realizes that Evelyn is the listener who always requests “Misty.” The two spend the night together. What Garver thought would be just a casual fling leads to Evelyn obsessing over him and disrupting his life. Garver soon reunites with Tobie Williams (Donna Mills), a past lover that he feels serious about. This drives Evelyn to increasingly erratic and dangerous behavior. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review 

Clint Eastwood’s directorial debut is one of this Eastwood fan’s favorites. In Play Misty for Me, we see Eastwood’s typical manner applied to a character and situation much different than the crime thrillers and Westerns he is most associated with. This movie delivers a different kind of tension due to Eastwood’s character not being accustomed to a life of violence. 

During a 17-year acting career, Clint Eastwood had learned a few things behind the camera and knew how to relate to actors. Eastwood formed Malpaso Productions in 1968 and had begun starring in his own film projects. Everything really seemed to come together for his directorial debut, Play Misty for Me. Eastwood had been in the business long enough to have established some industry relationships for the talents he needed to collaborate with, he had made a marketable international name for himself as an actor, and Universal Pictures had already distributed three of his Malpaso Productions’ films. Therefore, Eastwood was able to secure a deal with Universal Pictures to distribute his first film with him as director. 

Play Misty for Me is far more than just a vanity project. Eastwood really delivers with an intimate and leisurely paced film that continues ratcheting up the complications and suspense to make for an intense and entertaining movie. 

This story’s role for Clint Eastwood gives him a chance to be a guy with an ideal lifestyle. He seems a bit more carefree at the start of the film than most of his other film characters, yet we are still treated to some of Eastwood’s typically terse wit. It is fun to see Eastwood play someone who is not an action hero get ensnared in an increasingly dangerous situation. His Dave Garver character is just a promiscuous disc jockey that has one too many one-night stands. You can’t blame the guy for being tempted by so much opportunity. With his looks, a classic Jaguar, and a real swingin’ bachelor pad, the Carmel-by-the-sea jazz DJ is bound to land plenty of ladies who are begging to be on his playlist. 

Casual sex quickly turns into crazy stalking from Dave Garver’s number one fan, Evelyn Draper. As the groupie from hell, Jessica Walter gives one helluva performance. She displays sentimentality and devotion that is so desperate it ultimately makes her seem rather pathetic. Initially, Evelyn seems sweet and naive, but she manages to manipulate confident stud Dave Garver. At first, Garver thinks that he is the one in control, but hooking up with Evelyn was just what she intended and she reels him in with her seemingly casual attitude about having sex immediately. There is always the risk of emotional entanglements when physical intimacy is involved. When Garver’s latest catch does not want to be released, she goes off the deep end and tries to capsize his entire life. Before long Garver feels “smothered.” 

Donna Mills plays Tobie Williams, the lady with whom Dave Garver had a recent relationship that he wants to renew. She is reserved, levelheaded, and a bit reluctant to start up again with the randy disc jockey, but Garver is persistent, has a way with words, and looks like Clint Eastwood, so he just can’t miss. Unfortunately, Garver had started taking more requests than just playing records from Evelyn Draper… 

This film’s main cast is pretty small, but there are other characters that help to dilute the tension before it starts to build again. Their humorous interaction with Eastwood’s Dave Garver not only entertains; it also helps to expand the audience perception of Eastwood as more than just a badass movie hero. Frequent Eastwood director Don Siegel takes the role of Murphy, the bartender at Dave Garver’s favorite hangout. James McEachin is full of witty banter, on-air and off, as Sweet Al Monte, Garver’s fellow disc jockey. Garver gets more teasing from Clarice Taylor as his cleaning lady, Birdie. Police officer Sgt. McCallum, played by John Larch, is the authority figure that has to help deal with Garver’s stalker problem and reminds us that Eastwood’s character is just another citizen in trouble. 

This film takes its time to establish the picturesque Carmel, California setting, Dave Garver’s lifestyle, and the gradual renewal of love between Garver and Tobie. Director Eastwood indulges in what amounts to a musical intermission with Roberta Flack’s song “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face“ playing during a lengthy montage of Dave Garver and Tobie Williams strolling and making love in the solitude of nature. This is followed up with attendance at the Monterey Jazz Festival. Some probably thought that first-time director Eastwood was just being self-indulgent, but this musical recess brings us down from an outbreak of insanity and makes us happy that Eastwood’s character has started to find some new joy in his life. We are given time to relax and become comfortable and hopeful that things are going Garver’s way after the conflicts he has had with Evelyn, which were becoming evermore alarming. 

Play Misty for Me spins us a twisted love triangle that has a little added bite in the midst of the sexual revolution era. At that time, people became more upfront about indulging their lust and openly skipped the responsibility of attachment before getting it on. Once some of them had been making it with the right person, they may have sought something more meaningful and lasting. The ongoing problem is that not all sexual partners evaluate feelings the same way or have the same motives. Play Misty for Me deals with the free love scene’s worst-case scenario: Hell hath no fury like a groupie scorned.