The Saint's Double Trouble (1940)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Fourth film in the Saint series from RKO has George Sanders playing dual roles: Simon Templar and his evil doppelganger, Duke! The Saint has 48 hours to prove it was Duke and not he that committed a murder. Guess what? He'll only need 47. This is a good entry in the series with Sanders having fun playing bad. It's very amusing to hear him say things like "You mugs," even if he makes little effort to hide his accent. Bela Lugosi is also in this but, unfortunately, he's not given much to do. He's just an associate of the evil double. Still it's cool seeing Lugosi playing in a non-horror role with an actor you don't normally see him with. Pretty Helene Reynolds is the obligatory would-be love interest. The camera is in love with her. After being absent in the last film, Jonathan Hale returns as the likable police inspector frenemy of the Saint. The rest of the cast includes Donald MacBride, Byron Foulger, Thomas W. Ross, John F. Hamilton, and Elliott Sullivan. Those last two play the evil double's henchman. They have some funny lines.An enjoyable movie, mostly due to Sanders. The story isn't much to get excited about. It's never really explained why Saint has a double or what led Duke to know about him in the first place. Also, the Saint not seeming upset about the killing of the kindly old man who was a friend of his didn't sit right with me. Oh, and how cool is it that apparently back in the old days a guy could mail a mummy to another guy halfway around the world. And we think we have progress!

George Sanders, in fact two George Sanders, arrive in the City of Brotherly Love to investigate a nice little diamond smuggling racket. But what a place to smuggle diamonds, in the sarcophagus of a long dead Egyptian mummy. What interests Simon Templar however is the fact that the head of the racket is a dead ringer for him and also played by George Sanders. He might well be responsible for the unsavory reputation the Saint has in some quarters.Jonathan Hale as Inspector Fernack is in from New York and as the most authoritative expert on the activities of Simon Templar is drafted by the Philadelphia police in the person of Donald MacBride. In fact Fernack knows of a telltale scar on the wrist of the real Templar and can tell them apart. That fact proves most handy.Bela Lugosi has an inexplicably small role as 'the partner' in the smuggling activities. I'm betting the editors at RKO probably left a lot of Lugosi on the cutting room floor. The film would have been better had Lugosi been left in.As it is it's an OK B programmer and a plus for fans of Leslie Charteris's modern Robin Hood.

There's a dead ringer for Simon Templar operating as a crime kingpin in Philadelphia…and he's started leaving the Saint's calling card at crime scenes. Will the real Simon Templar please come investigate?Meanwhile, the Saint's old friend Inspector Fernack (Jonathan Hale) is on vacation in—you guessed it—Philadelphia. He stops at the department to visit old friend Deputy Chief Bohlen (Donald MacBride)—and tags along with him on a murder case that turns up the Saint's calling card. Fernack is on the job.George Sanders pulls double duty as both Simon Templar and his counterpart, "The Boss" of Philadelphia crime, in this far-fetched but entertaining mystery. The hero's look-alike, and a single actor playing both roles, is not an especially unique idea; and this particular version of that old plot doesn't offer any special twists or turns. Basically, the Saint encounters mistaken identity, sets out to clear his name, runs into danger….Sanders is, of course, very good. Hale is also fine as Inspector Fernack, and the picture's best scenes are mostly those between Sanders and Hale, as once again outward gruffness partly veils their mutual respect and admiration.Bela Lugosi is a henchman with a thick accent; somewhat disappointingly, his role here is rather bland and Lugosi becomes just another actor. Helene Whitney is fine as an old flame of Simon's whose professor father is unwittingly drawn into the bad guys' plot; again, her performance is good but the role is rather predictable. A rather slow middle section is redeemed by an exciting final third, culminating in a neat and clever resolution…. Overall: nothing exceptional but smoothly produced and certainly easy to take, especially for fans of the Saint or Sanders or B mysteries in general.

I generally enjoy watching these old films with George Sanders because he was such a super-smoothie that one never tires of seeing him glide through a film with the effortless ease of a champion ice skater, carrying the very concept of urbanity to undreamt-of extremes. But sometimes the stories are just too silly! Of all the 'Saint' series where he plays Simon Templar the detective (the character invented by Leslie Charteris), this must be the weakest and most pathetic. (It is the fourth in a series of nine.) No efforts whatsoever were made to make the film even remotely believable, and the age level of the viewer must have been calculated to be about six, since after that even a child would refuse to believe this ludicrous story. Essentially, we are meant to believe that George Sanders has a lookalike (hence the 'double trouble' of the title, i.e., he has a double and that is trouble). The only difference between them is that they wear different suits. Otherwise they look and talk exactly alike. And there is not even the pretext that they are related. One is good and one is bad. Well, it's as simple as that really. It is sad to see Bela Lugosi here relegated to the status of a bit player. The pretty girl in the film is 23 year-old Helene Whitney, in one of only two credited roles which she played in films; she retired the same year, married, or died, one doesn't know which. What happens to people who disappear from the screen? Do they go to some celluloid paradise? If so, they will leave this silly film behind, that's for sure.