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Post by dem bones on Aug 23, 2011 9:48:52 GMT
Calling killercrab! Calling killercrab! You know how The Avengers includes a number of episodes with horror/ "supernatural" themes? well did The Saint have any brushes with haunted houses, vampires, black magic cults, etc? doesn't matter if he didn't as I like the Simon Templar & dolly bird versus the murderer format well enough. Any recommendations gratefully received! Have watched and thoroughly enjoyed two episodes now, The Talented Husband (love interest: the drop dead gorgeous Shirley Eaton who I'd just watched in What A Carve Up) which, correct me if I'm wrong, was the first ever episode? Also, the much later To Kill A Saint with Jeannie out of Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) aka Annette Andre and Valerie Leon. And seeing Vault is all about books and that, wouldn't you say this cover is among the most desperate concessions to "swinging london"/ psychedelia ever? Can't make my mind up whether I love it or loathe it. Leslie Charteris - The Saint Plays With Fire (Hodder & Stoughton, 1967) Blurb: How Simon Templar handled a fire, led Chief Inspector Claud Eustace Teal up the garden path, bewildered the constabulary" eloped with a lady, incarcerated a Cabinet Minister and in many other ways bettered his lot without burning his fingers.
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Post by Dr Strange on Aug 23, 2011 10:10:31 GMT
I seem to vaguely remember reading a Saint short story that involved the Loch Ness monster... I think it was also a TV episode.
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Post by pulphack on Aug 23, 2011 11:55:27 GMT
it isn indeed the best AND worst cash-in cover, and all the more wonderful for that...
worth noting, although not supernatural - is The Fictionmakers, a Saint episode that was also a feature length with extra padding for cinemas (though not sure it made it there) which has speccy Sylvia Sims as a crime writer who tries out her own escapes and murders (acting, of course), where ST stumbles upon her seemingly in distress. of course, she's lovely behind the specs, and then a gang of crooks who love her books turn up to kidnap her and get them to plot a perfect crime for them. naturally, as a girly she writes under her initials and the silly sexists mistake her for the secretary and ST for the writer. shennanigans ensue as ST tries to plot a seemingly perfect crime that will get the captured without them seeng the flaw...
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Post by killercrab on Aug 23, 2011 19:14:19 GMT
I seem to vaguely remember reading a Saint short story that involved the Loch Ness monster... I think it was also a TV episode.
It's a colour episode called The Convenient Monster , stars Vampire Circus' Laurence Payne and Dracula Prince Of Darkness' Suzan Farmer! I was convinced it was a b/w episode for years until I got the colour boxset. I'll try and find time to hunt up some more genre episode titles for Dem - The House On Dragon's Rock involves Templar fighting giant ants though any epsisode of the The Saint is a good one really. I really like the more surreal colour series best.
KC
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Post by dem bones on Aug 23, 2011 22:06:38 GMT
Much obliged, gents. kc, The House On Dragons Rock sounds like it could well be an adaptation of the Leslie Charteris short The Man Who Liked Ants. I read it in Lee Wright & Richard G. Sheehan's anthology Wake Up Screaming: 16 Chilling Tales Of The Macabre, can't say I remember it as particularly horrific but a decent read. Have procured The Convenient Monster plus the two parter The Fictionmakers. Will report my oh so worthwhile findings once I've watched 'em. *pulphack, will get back to you tomorrow*
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Post by Dr Strange on Aug 24, 2011 8:32:41 GMT
That's it. I've been trying (and failing) to remember where I read the short story - I know I haven't read any other Saint stuff, so I can only assume that The Convenient Monster must have appeared in some "horror" anthology at some point.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 24, 2011 21:42:42 GMT
Would it have been an "Alfred Hitchcock" anthology? the editors usually went in for a mix of crime, macabre and supernatural stories so Charteris wouldn't have been out of place. Watched The Convenient Monster late last night. Forty-odd minutes of pure escapist entertainment like I hoped it would be, even a proper horror ending (admittedly, you could see it coming a mile off). Shame the budget didn't run to including a massive Loch Ness monster with blood dripping from its fangs, but that's just me wanting the world. An earlier episode, Sibao, looks promising. Templar to the rescue of a beautiful girl ensnared in a voodoo cult!
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Post by Dr Strange on Aug 25, 2011 9:24:02 GMT
would it have been an "Alfred Hitchcock" anthology? Very possibly, but it's too long ago for me to be sure.
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Post by severance on Aug 25, 2011 11:31:05 GMT
It was in a 1981 anthology with the unwieldy title of Creature: A Chrestomathy of "Monstery"
The Terror of Blue John Gap by Arthur Conan Doyle Creature of the Snows by William Sambrot Waziah by Joe R. Lansdale Barney’s Bigfoot Museum by Richard Laymon Survival Exercise by Talmage Powell The Convenient Monster by Leslie Charteris A Tropical Horror by William Hope Hodgson Daniel Webster and the Sea Serpent by Stephen Vincent Benét Terror in Cut-Throat Cove by Robert Bloch Notes Leading Down to the Events at Bedlam by Barry N. Malzberg In the Straw by Edward D. Hoch Where Do You Live, Queen Esther? by Avram Davidson Wriggle by John Lutz The Pond by Nigel Kneale
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Post by dem bones on Aug 26, 2011 12:44:27 GMT
that looks well good. is it one of Bill Pronzini's? i've got that bulky Book Of The Dead which collects three of his anthologies, Voodoo!, Mummy and Ghoul! and note he's partial to including the word "Chrestomathy" in his subtitles ( Mummy! A Chrestomathy of Crypt-ology, etc.). meanwhile .. "These Welsh bumpkins are too tiresome for words". i like The Convenient Monster plenty but i had an even cheerier time with the wonderful House On Dragon's Rock which pits Simon Templar and this weeks love interest Carmen (the ever gorgeous Annette Andre again, a vision in a lab coat) versus her father, top mad scientist Dr. Sardon (Anthony Bate) and a f**k**g enormous ant! A something has brought terror to Devil's Gorge, a something capable of overturning trucks, destroying a stable - killing four horses in the process - uprooting trees and mutilating cattle! Dylan, Owen and all the other superstitious regulars at The Prince Of Wales suspect a vampire, werewolf, or monster from outer space walks among them, but most of all they point the finger at "them scientists calling themselves doctors up at the big house" and they are right to do so. Sardon, who gets shirty if you call him "Dr. Frankenstein", is bent on breeding a colony of mutant formicidae to conquer mankind!
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Post by dem bones on Aug 30, 2011 10:30:34 GMT
Sibao: Templar in Haiti for a full-on supernatural episode played completely straight. The beautiful Sibao (Jeanne Roland) is a powerful voodoo priestess whose father has naively promised her hand to megalomaniac English gentleman, Theron Netford (John Carson), unaware that he is a murderer who has designs on ruling the Caribbean. Should the wedding go ahead, Sibao and her father will be obliged to teach the wannabe dictator every last secret of the dark arts. Luckily The Saint happens to be knocking about the island for no apparent reason. Baron Samedi, voodoo, deadly snakes, hint of zombie, a Houngan's beautiful daughter and bongos, lots of bongos. Adapted from the Leslie Charteris story The Questing Tycoon ( The Saint on the Spanish Main, Hodder & Stoughton, 1956) Simon and Delilah: No horror-supernatural content but a jolly romp concerning the kidnapping of Serena Harris, obnoxious screen starlet, from the set of Samson and Delilah. There are no shortage of people who wish ill on Serena, but Templar has soon whittled down his list of suspects to include anyone who ever spent five seconds in her company. Suzanne Lloyd enjoys herself as the demanding diva.
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Post by andydecker on Aug 30, 2011 17:56:01 GMT
Simon and Delilah: No horror-supernatural content but a jolly romp concerning the kidnapping of Serena Harris, obnoxious screen starlet, from the set of Samson and Delilah. There are no shortage of people who wish ill on Serena, but Templar has soon whittled down his list of suspects to include anyone who ever spent five seconds in her company. Suzanne Lloyd enjoys herself as the demanding diva. I remember this ep. Ms Lloyd sure was ... well, impressive in some regards. This was lightweight, but it was fun. A relief from those dull heavies in garages episodes.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 3, 2011 10:35:36 GMT
I remember this ep. Ms Lloyd sure was ... well, impressive in some regards. This was lightweight, but it was fun. A relief from those dull heavies in garages episodes. Ain't that the truth? lucky ST worked his way through entire harems of damsels in distress but she's been among the most impressive to date. Where The Money Is: Paris, Elstree. Fresh from his manic turn as Z. Z. Schnerk in The Avengers episode Epic, Kenneth J. Warren returns as yet another movie producer, Ben Kersh, who "makes big money and bad pictures." Kersh has been sent a visual ransom note showing some creep in a skull mask threatening his daughter Jenny with all sorts unless he comes up with $1million. Cue more frantic mopping of sweat from that splendid bald head. Another kidnap caper, played straight this time, but after a promising start it runs out of steam. Never fear, because next up is: The Man Who Gambled With Life: Cornwall, Elstree. A serious heart condition could kill off multi-millionaire industrialist and mad scientist Keith Longman (Clifford Evans) at any moment, so he's opted to be frozen alive until such times as transplants have a 100% success rate. Working around the clock in his secret underground laboratory, Longman's experimental cryogenics are at a tricky stage. When trial runs on a mouse and a bloke in regulation unconvincing gorilla suit meet with only a 50/50 success rate, it's time to test the process on a perfect human specimen - Simon Templar. Longman's henchmen, dressed as undertakers, deliver a coffin containing a wax replica of Templar to his flat but when this surprisingly fails to convince him to volunteer his services, he's offered a £1 million pay cheque instead. Still no joy, so next it's the turn of Longman's gorgeous daughters, Stella (Jayne Sofiano) and Vanessa (Veronica Carlson), the former a flighty wannabe nympho, the latter daddy's loyal little ice maiden. If they can't turn his head we might as well all give up and go home (incidentally, the girls matching sky blue trouser suits steal the episode and are a must for the When Flares Were Elephantine museum). Longman's patience finally snaps. He gives the order to take The Saint by force! "Correct, Mr. Templar. I do have a pair of tits." Templar is duly captured snooping about the lab, but Stella, who can't bear to see Simon die before she's given him a good seeing to and vice versa, mutinies against her father and helps him escape, flooring one poor stooge with a nifty karate chop in the process. "I saw that on television!" she exclaims, all happy. "That's very good, but keep your voice down, Mrs. Peel", quips Templar. A too abrupt ending perhaps, but this is a return to form after the aforementioned Where The Money Is and distinctly average 'Hitler's daughter' episode, Little Girl Lost.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 9, 2011 19:36:18 GMT
Leslie Charteris - The Saint to the Rescue (Charter, 1980: originally The Crime Club US 1959, Hodder & Stoughton, 1961) The Ever-Loving Spouse The Fruitful Land The Percentage Player The Water Merchant The Gentle Ladies The Element of DoubtBlurb Six For The Saint or Simon's Seventh Heaven In which The Saint finds that capital punishment is a fine cure for blackmail - and what leads to that discovery is just enough to whet his appetite for adventure on his devilish tour of the U. S. A. From Florida's gold coast to San Francisco's wharf, the home of the brave and the free finds some of its residents a bit more brave and some quite a lot less free by the time Mr. Simon Templar's sated.Landed this earlier, my first The Saint short story collection. Doesn't look as if it contains anything the least weird but beggars can't be choosers and besides, at least three of the above were adapted for the TV series, though i've not seem those particular episodes. If anyone can tell me which of the collections includes the Charteris original of Sibao (provided there was one: i think Terry Nation may have come up with that himself) or any of the other vaguely supernatural/ SF episodes i'd be grateful.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 10, 2011 8:44:47 GMT
Leslie Charteris - The Saint on the Spanish Main (Hodder & Stoughton, 1955) Bimini: The Effete Angler Nassau: The Arrow of God Jamaica: The Black Commissar aka The Man from Moscow Puerto Rico: The Unkind Philanthropist The Virgin Islands: The Old Treasure Story Haiti: The Questing Tycoon To answer my own question (watched the episode through to the final credits), the original for Sibao appears in the above as The Questing Tycoon. The Weird Saint: The story so far. House On Dragon's Rock is adapted from The Man Who Liked Ants in Leslie Charteris's The Happy Highwayman (Hodder & Stoughton, 1939), reprinted in Lee Wright & Richard G. Sheehan's anthology Wake Up Screaming (Bantam, 1967) Sibao is adapted from The Questing Tycoon in Leslie Charteris's The Saint on the Spanish Main (Hodder & Stoughton, 1955) The Convenient Monster is adapted from the story of the same name in Leslie Charteris's Trust The Saint (Hodder & Stoughton, 1962), reprinted in Bill Pronzini (ed.) Creature!: A Chrestomathy of "Monstery" (Arbor House, 1981) Also, The Saint Goes On (Hodder & Stoughton, 1934) includes the potentially strange The Case of the Frightened Innkeeper but i haven't seen or read that one yet. any more?
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