Resumo de Not So Saintly

No doubt most people would have seen the various T.V showsand movies of the character, ?The Saint.? Played by a host of actors includingsuch names as George Sanders and Roger Moore. In my opinion, Sanders had thecorrect demeanour but not the right build. Moore, on the other hand, was justthe opposite, right build but not the demeanour. I would like to have seen SeanConnery play the part; I think he would have been perfect. This character was created by ?Leslie Charteris? an authorborn in Singapore to a Chinese father and an English mother. . He began writingin England and published a few books with different heroes. He decided that heshould concentrate on and develop just one of these. He chose ?The Saint? because he liked the character.In the 1930s he moved to America and worked as ascreenwriter. I am afraid the transition of the Saintly character from lonewolf to Robin Hood is largely Charteris? own fault as he wrote and adapted manyof the screenplays himself. He was a man of vision and he realised that the ?Saint?character would outlive him so he collaborated with a variety of other authorsso that he would still have a say in how the character would develop even afterhis death. The saint is depicted in these shows as a modern Robin Hood,There to help the poor and the distressed usually, of course, a fair damsel washeavily involved. He will risk life and limb to see justice served. All verynoble.However, the real Saint was of a different ilk. Simon Templar, ?The Saint? first appeared in 1928 in a booknamed. ?Meet the Tiger.? And progressed through a vast series of adventures. Charteris was not happy with Ward Lock who published thisbook and changed publishers. He didn?t acknowledge the publication and, in a listhe published later, he put, ?Enter the Saint? (1930) as his first book. Helater republished ?Enter the Tiger as ?The Saint meets the Tiger.? Published by Bond-Charteris in America in1945The Saint was not a crusader, he was an adventurer who wasout to help himself. He came up with this clever concept, if he stole moneyfrom crooks who had stolen the money in the first place, or from con men, hewould never be reported to the police. A gang of crooks would rob, say, a bank. Simon would goafter them and steal what they had stolen. This left a lot of crooks lookingfor them but no police. Well, so the theory went. Each morning he would read the paper researching possiblevictims. When he found one he would send them the famous stick figure with thehalo as a warning that he was coming after them. When he had stolen their loothe would leave another figure so that they had no doubts about who had got it. He was a tough and resourceful warrior but never robbed,maimed or killed anybody that didn?t absolutely deserve it. He would killwithout hesitation or remorse if it was necessary. We have no idea where hecame from or what caused him to embark on the life he lived. These things arenever explained and, probably, it is just as well as it adds to the mystery ofthe character. Of course, in the execution of his interests, he did comeacross injustice and would often work to right the wrong. He was even known togive some of his loot to the poor. He was assisted in his adventures by a couple of charactersmostly forgotten in the transition fromthe books to the screens big and small. The most important of these was Patricia Holm whom we meetin this first book and appears in most of the other adventures, she is Simon?sconstant companion and love. In this publication we also Meet ?Orace?, Simon?s manservant who laterdisappears. Another character that assists in a lot of Simon?senterprizes is ?Hoppy Unitez.? A hit man for an American gangster whose lifeSimon saved so Hoppyh was, thereafter, entirely devoted to Simon and constantlyoffers to ?Bop on the Head? succeeding villains. Unfortunately? Hoppy?, to the best of my knowledge, nevermade it to the screen which was a pity as he was a very colourful andentertaining character. Simon?s desire togo un-noticed by the police didn?t quitehappen. Through various frame-ups and other events, he came to the attention ofScotland yard and thus we meet ?Claude Eustace Teal? the long sufferinginspector who was the butt of a lot ofSaintly humour. He was convinced that Simon was a crook but could never proveit. Claude Eustace did make some appearances on the screen butone could not help feeling sorry for this born loser. Our hero enjoyed many adventures and stole lots of loot, butas we read the books we realize that, when all is said and done, ?The Saint? was not so saintly.

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