This Tuesday, October 12, TCM will air a marathon of the original black and white Saint movies, titles which remain stubbornly unavailable on DVD in the United States. (This marathon had originally been scheduled for last June, but it was pre-empted due to one of their daylong tributes to someone recently deceased. I forget who now.) The line-up, from TCM's website, is as follows:
10:00 AM The Saint In New York (1938)
The Saint goes undercover to get the goods on New York's mob kingpins. Cast: Louis Hayward, Kay Sutton, Jonathan Hale. Dir: Ben Holmes. BW-72 mins, TV-G, CC
11:15 AM The Saint Strikes Back (1939)
The Saint helps a young beauty take vengeance on the mobsters who ruined her father. Cast: George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, Barry Fitzgerald. Dir: John Farrow. BW-64 mins, TV-G, CC
The Saint's investigation of a counterfeiting ring uncovers a nest of spies. Cast: George Sanders, David Burns, Sally Gray. Dir: John Paddy Carstairs. BW-72 mins, TV-G, CC
1:45 PM The Saint's Double Trouble (1940)
Reformed jewel thief Simon Templer lands in hot water when a look-alike smuggles stolen goods out of Egypt. Cast: George Sanders, Jonathan Hale, Bela Lugosi. Dir: Jack Hively. BW-67 mins, TV-G, CC
3:00 PM The Saint Takes Over (1940)
Reformed jewel thief Simon Templar tries to help a police inspector who's been framed on bribery charges. Cast: George Sanders, Jonathan Hale, Wendy Barrie. Dir: Jack Hively. BW-70 mins, TV-G, CC
4:15 PM The Saint In Palm Springs (1941)
Reformed jewel thief Simon Templar's efforts to deliver a fortune in rare stamps are complicated by murder. Cast: George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, Jonathan Hale. Dir: Jack Hively. BW-66 mins, TV-G, CC
Reformed jewel thief Simon Templer vies with Nazi agents for possession of a mysterious music box. Cast: Hugh Sinclair, Sally Gray, Arthur Macrae. Dir: Leslie Fenton. BW-61 mins, TV-G
6:45 PM The Saint Meets the Tiger (1943)
The Saint infiltrates a small English village run by smugglers. Cast: Hugh Sinclair, Jean Gillie, Clifford Evans. Dir: Paul L. Stein. BW-69 mins, TV-G, CC
The cable channel will also show Who Was that Lady? (review here) and another movie I discussed in my Tony Curtis obituary, Don't Make Waves (not a spy movie, but lots of Sixties fun) as part of another one of those tributes to the recently deceased, this time in honor of Curtis, on Sunday. There are a whole bunch of great Curtis movies in that line-up, but, not surprisingly, no other spy titles.
