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The Saint #47
The Saint In Trouble
The book consisted of the following stories:
The Imprudent Professor (teleplay by Terence Feely) - based on a Return of the Saint episode
The Red Sabbath (story by John Kruse) - based on the Return of the Saint episode "One Black September"
The Imprudent Professor (teleplay by Terence Feely) - based on a Return of the Saint episode
The Red Sabbath (story by John Kruse) - based on the Return of the Saint episode "One Black September"
- GenresMystery
312 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1978
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 20, 2023
These two novellas were adapted by Graham Weaver from original teleplays by Terance Feely & John Kruse, whihc made up episodes of the TV series Return of the Saint starring Ian Ogilvy as Simon Templar.
The Imprudent Professor started off well & had the feel of a Leslie Charteris story, but soon became a routine action adventure that was quite bland.
The Red Sabbath has the Saint hunting a terrorist across London. It's an average story, but the noevlla sees Templar driving his old Hirondel once again which was a nice touch. Although the story & the episode have different endings both show a more ruthless side to the Saint.
The Saint in Trouble passed the time, but there are far better Saint stories out there.
The Imprudent Professor started off well & had the feel of a Leslie Charteris story, but soon became a routine action adventure that was quite bland.
The Red Sabbath has the Saint hunting a terrorist across London. It's an average story, but the noevlla sees Templar driving his old Hirondel once again which was a nice touch. Although the story & the episode have different endings both show a more ruthless side to the Saint.
The Saint in Trouble passed the time, but there are far better Saint stories out there.
October 3, 2020
Read initially on first publication.
Re-Rating 3
These two novellas adapted from the 1970’s Saint tv series for me show why an updated or current Saint story do not generally work very well.
In these ST acts as an agent for hire essentially and that role could be taken by any number of characters from fiction, or indeed a new one. These could just as easily have been stories from any number of tv shows set in any decade from the 1970’s to the present. I didn’t particularly feel any Saint/Leslie Charteris -isms about them.
The Red Sabbath story at least had a few tinges of older Saint stories assuming that the reader had read them of course. The Professor story being set in Cannes should have felt like a classic Saint story but just didn’t, at least for me.
The 1960’s stories that were adapted from tv to novella had been moved back in time 10 years or so, to ensure they could fit into the Saint-Leslie Charteris milieu and overall I did enjoy the majority of them.
These being set in present times (at time of publication) do not work so well.
Perhaps the Saint is one of those characters who only work in a time period when laws, police, society or whatever was more restricted or suppressed.
For a newer vision of the Saint you would have to look at shows such as Leverage, Equalizer or perhaps Hustle. Nothing too political but still keeping the basic ethos of the Saint.
Anyway overall this two novella collection is an okay read that passed the time but is nothing special.
Probably one for completists only
Re-Rating 3
These two novellas adapted from the 1970’s Saint tv series for me show why an updated or current Saint story do not generally work very well.
In these ST acts as an agent for hire essentially and that role could be taken by any number of characters from fiction, or indeed a new one. These could just as easily have been stories from any number of tv shows set in any decade from the 1970’s to the present. I didn’t particularly feel any Saint/Leslie Charteris -isms about them.
The Red Sabbath story at least had a few tinges of older Saint stories assuming that the reader had read them of course. The Professor story being set in Cannes should have felt like a classic Saint story but just didn’t, at least for me.
The 1960’s stories that were adapted from tv to novella had been moved back in time 10 years or so, to ensure they could fit into the Saint-Leslie Charteris milieu and overall I did enjoy the majority of them.
These being set in present times (at time of publication) do not work so well.
Perhaps the Saint is one of those characters who only work in a time period when laws, police, society or whatever was more restricted or suppressed.
For a newer vision of the Saint you would have to look at shows such as Leverage, Equalizer or perhaps Hustle. Nothing too political but still keeping the basic ethos of the Saint.
Anyway overall this two novella collection is an okay read that passed the time but is nothing special.
Probably one for completists only
March 19, 2019
Another compilation of stories which originally were TV episodes of Return of the Saint, The Saint in Trouble comprises The Imprudent Professor (by Terence Feely) and The Red Sabbath (by John Kruse), both adapted from the TV scripts by Graham Weaver.
In the first story, Simon Templar is asked to look out for the safety of Professor Maclett by his daughter, in the glamorous setting of Cannes. Maclett is the centre of a lot of attention, being of interest to both British and Russian spies, and the story is a hectic series of encounters between the various parties involved and the Saint. Even if only ranked against the other TV adaptations, The Imprudent Professor is not a high quality story. It seems to be Saint-by-numbers - a location which would have been exotic in 1978, beautiful women, Saintly tricks, and Simon sorting everything out in the end.
The Red Sabbath is better. It follows on directly from The Imprudent Professor, as Simon disembarks in London from the plane he took in Cannes at the end of the first story, and is accosted by men who take him to talk to an Israeli intelligence officer. This leads to Simon hunting an Arab terrorist through London, a task he invests in personally. It is perhaps more typical of other thrillers of the second half of the seventies than of the Saint oeuvre, though the nature of the story reminds the reader that Arab terrorists are not new in fiction post 9/11.
In the first story, Simon Templar is asked to look out for the safety of Professor Maclett by his daughter, in the glamorous setting of Cannes. Maclett is the centre of a lot of attention, being of interest to both British and Russian spies, and the story is a hectic series of encounters between the various parties involved and the Saint. Even if only ranked against the other TV adaptations, The Imprudent Professor is not a high quality story. It seems to be Saint-by-numbers - a location which would have been exotic in 1978, beautiful women, Saintly tricks, and Simon sorting everything out in the end.
The Red Sabbath is better. It follows on directly from The Imprudent Professor, as Simon disembarks in London from the plane he took in Cannes at the end of the first story, and is accosted by men who take him to talk to an Israeli intelligence officer. This leads to Simon hunting an Arab terrorist through London, a task he invests in personally. It is perhaps more typical of other thrillers of the second half of the seventies than of the Saint oeuvre, though the nature of the story reminds the reader that Arab terrorists are not new in fiction post 9/11.
December 22, 2007
read 06.11.84
read 06.08.85
read 06.08.85
July 18, 2008
Read this only if you are a Saint fanatic. It's taken from two episodes of the television series, and really not worth reading otherwise.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews