Search - The Saint - Set 5 on DVD

Moore was a perfect Saint

rampageous_cuss | Under Billy Penn's Hat | 10/27/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you're not familiar with "The Saint" series, Leslie Charteris' tough but debonair Robin Hood was slightly sanitized for tv and depicted with absolutely perfect panache by Roger Moore, the dress rehearsal for his version of James Bond. Whatever you may have thought of the latter, his tv peformance is spot-on and always carries off even the thinnest of plots; much as I loved George Sanders, Moore was a perfect Saint! Bear in mind, though, that these episodes are '60s tv, and therefore sometimes a trifle hokey by today's standards.

I'm in total agreement with "Trebe," the other reviewer, whose episode reviews are perfect; I'll just add this. "The Saint" series is not to be confused with "The Avengers," or other contemporary shows that went increasingly over-the-top as they progressed. I won't say "The Saint" ALWAYS kept his feet on the ground, but like "Mission Impossible" or "To Catch a Thief," the emphasis was always on a clever caper. Some capers were more clever than others, but for '60s caper entertainment, The Saint almost always trumps the competition!

Considered as a DVD collection, though, this is pretty slight. The recordings of the seven episodes are fine, but the extras are just a gesture. You get each episode's original tv trailers (for the U.S., apparently), a photo gallery of stills from each episode (why?) and a "History of The Saint" section that is just a little bit of text description. If you're just spending a couple of bucks trying to decide whether or not to buy the full collection, though, this is a decent introduction to the series."