This film is very typical of the Saint films starring George Sanders--offering few major surprises but also providing sold B-movie entertainment. As usual, the Saint is his dapper and entertaining self and he's assisted by Paul Guilfoyle as "Pearly Gates", his sidekick.
The film concerns trying to get some super-valuable stamps which to their rightful owner in Palm Springs. It seems that the person with the stamps in New York was killed by someone wanting the stamps for themselves. Why the stamps were smuggled out of Europe in the first place is quite interesting, though it's sad that RKO didn't want to offend the Nazis by ever mentioning that the country in question must have either been Germany or one of the nations conquered by Germany. This is because Hitler refused to allow anyone to take anything of value out of the country. Jews and other "undesireables" were forced to choose to leave with nothing or remain behind with their possessions and hope for the best. The film ALLUDED to this but never mentioned Germany or the Nazis. And, when agents of this unnamed country come to America to try to recover these stamps at any cost, once again Germany is never mentioned--even when this included murder. You must remember that this film came out just before the US entered WWII and a few film makers were still hedging their bets--not wanting to offend the Nazis. Sad, indeed, but this should help explain why this aspect of the plot is so vague. After all, it wasn't like the British or Portuguese or Swiss would send agents to another country to kill in order to recover property! The only other objection I have to the script is that with $200,000 in stamps, you'd THINK they'd come up with a better way to get them to their rightful owner than just having Simon Templer carry them all the way from New York to Palm Springs! Maybe arrange to have a police escort, or leave them in a safe in New York and then wire the heir about them--something other than to rely on one person to make it safely to California AND prevent the heir from also being murdered.
Now if you ignore all this, the film is entertaining. The dialog is the usual great dialog, the plot interesting and the conclusion very good indeed. While far from perfect, it's about what you'd expect from a B-movie of the era--watchable and exciting.
The film concerns trying to get some super-valuable stamps which to their rightful owner in Palm Springs. It seems that the person with the stamps in New York was killed by someone wanting the stamps for themselves. Why the stamps were smuggled out of Europe in the first place is quite interesting, though it's sad that RKO didn't want to offend the Nazis by ever mentioning that the country in question must have either been Germany or one of the nations conquered by Germany. This is because Hitler refused to allow anyone to take anything of value out of the country. Jews and other "undesireables" were forced to choose to leave with nothing or remain behind with their possessions and hope for the best. The film ALLUDED to this but never mentioned Germany or the Nazis. And, when agents of this unnamed country come to America to try to recover these stamps at any cost, once again Germany is never mentioned--even when this included murder. You must remember that this film came out just before the US entered WWII and a few film makers were still hedging their bets--not wanting to offend the Nazis. Sad, indeed, but this should help explain why this aspect of the plot is so vague. After all, it wasn't like the British or Portuguese or Swiss would send agents to another country to kill in order to recover property! The only other objection I have to the script is that with $200,000 in stamps, you'd THINK they'd come up with a better way to get them to their rightful owner than just having Simon Templer carry them all the way from New York to Palm Springs! Maybe arrange to have a police escort, or leave them in a safe in New York and then wire the heir about them--something other than to rely on one person to make it safely to California AND prevent the heir from also being murdered.
Now if you ignore all this, the film is entertaining. The dialog is the usual great dialog, the plot interesting and the conclusion very good indeed. While far from perfect, it's about what you'd expect from a B-movie of the era--watchable and exciting.