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Post by dem bones on May 15, 2013 8:25:27 GMT
Two from The Happy Highwayman, both reprinted in The Second Saint Omnibus
Leslie Charteris - The Man Who Liked Ants: "The human race, said the Saint somberly, "is a repulsive, dull, ill-conditioned and ill-favoured mass of dimly conscious meat, the chief justification for whose existence is that it provides a contrasting background against which my beauty and spiritual perfection shine with a lustre only exceeded by your own."
Templar is staying at the Devonshire home of Ivar Nordsten, another of his impossibly wealthy friends. Nordsten introduces him to Dr. Sandon, entomologist supreme, who believes that ants are the rightful rulers of Earth, cheated of their heritage by a cruel trick of nature. As their brains evolved, their bodies remained tiny. The mischievous Nordsen, fully aware of Sardon's obsession, steers the conversation toward the supremacy of insect over mankind, and after a good deal of foaming at the mouth, the Doctor agrees to show Templar his prize specimens.
After a guided tour of the laboratory (it's essentially a big garden shed), the Saint correctly identifies Sardon as a madman, but is he dangerous? Fortunately the Doctor has a beautiful daughter, Carmen, and Templar resolves to pay her a visit that evening. As it is he almost runs her down, as she's so busy fleeing "something gross and swollen, a dirty grey-white, shaped rather like a great bleached sausage, hideously bloated," she fails to notice the Rolls bearing down on her.
I won't blow the ending in case there's anybody plans to read it for themselves, but the Saint of the TV adaptation, (The House On Dragon's Rock), is far more of a gentleman than this desperado.
Leslie Charteris - The Star Producers: London theatreland. Mr. Homer Quarterstone, an occasional actor and failed playwright, teams up with stage-hand Waldermar Urlaub to launch the Supremax Academy in Soho, an 'acting school' for wannabe thespians with zero talent and more money than sense. When Templar's glamorous girlfriend Rosalind Hale comes sobbing to him that she's been fleeced of her inheritance, he enrols under his favourite alias, Sebastian Tombs. Mr. Urlaub, knows star quality when he sees it and offers Mr. Tombs the lead in the "amorous masterpiece," Love - The Redeemer. Trouble is, Urlaub needs £3000 to produce it. Tombs has no hesitation in bankrolling the enterprise, but when he comes to read the script he realises that it is so terrible it might actually prove a big hit with the day's equivalent of the Golden Turkey crowd. Subsequently, a Mrs. Wohlbreit, London representative of Paragon Pictures, Inc. Hollywood, approaches Quarterstone with a cash offer for the movie rights.
Unusually, on this occasion the Saint outsmarts himself but has so much fun in the process that he can afford to laugh it off.
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Post by dem bones on May 15, 2013 17:34:40 GMT
Something else I like about the 2nd Saint Omnibus - the introduction and extensive story notes by Charteris himself. At close of the former he reminds us that the first Saint novel Meet -The Tiger! (Ward & Lock, 1928) was published 22 years earlier and:
"A whole generation has grown up while I have been writing this stuff, who never even knew the world in which the Saint first lived.
Pretty soon those first books will practically rank as historical novels, and we shall be able to reprint them with pictures of busty women on the jackets, and probably sell a lot more copies."
Far as I'm aware, I don't think this really happened to the Saint, certainly not to the extent it did with Dennis Wheatley's black sorcery novels, but then Wheatley's paperback publishers, Arrow, were going through a bawdy phase at the time whereas Hodder & later Pan didn't really go in for that kind of thing. What might have been, eh?
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Post by dem bones on Oct 28, 2013 8:37:59 GMT
Leslie Charteris - Follow The Saint (this edition, Mulholland Books, 2013: originally Hodder & Stoughton 1938) Design by Andrew Howard The Miracle Tea Party The Invisible Millionaire The Affair of HogsbothamBlurb: Simon Templar is the Saint, daring, dazzling, and just a little disreputable. On the side of the law, but standing outside it, he dispenses his own brand of justice one criminal at a time.
`The Saint's conspiracies always seemed to work out, in defiance of reasonable argument.'
In these three stories, everyone's favourite criminal follows his nose and finds yet more trouble. In The Miracle Tea Party, an attack on Inspector Teal leads Simon to discover a packet of Miracle Tea with truly miraculous properties. In The Invisible Millionaire the Saint and Hoppy agree to meet a woman with information on a major swindle - only to find her dead. And finally, in The Affair of Hogsbotham, Simon is irritated by the self-appointed guardian of the nation's morality Ebenezer Hogsbotham and decides to take him down a peg or two. But though he sets out for some light-hearted fun, he soon stumbles into the middle of a bank-robbing conspiracy...
`A useful introduction to anyone new to this character, serving as a form of short-hand to Leslie Charteris' loveable rogue and the world he inhabits' Adrian MagsonHodder & Stoughton have recently reissued 35 Saint novels and collections in both paperback and ebook under their Mulholland imprint, although sadly, The Fantastic Saint is not among them. If you've yet to read any Charteris and fancy a sampler, The Uncritical Publisher, is available to read on their site. Originally included in Boodle (AKA The Saint Intervenes) (1934), the subject matter so annoyed Hodder's then directors that it was dropped from UK editions. Have just completed The Affair of Hogsbotham, an 80 pager which doesn't appear to have been dramatised for the TV series, mores the pity as it could have made for a lively sex farce. will try write something vaguely coherent about it all later.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 28, 2013 15:43:41 GMT
Leslie Charteris - The First Saint Omnibus (Hodder and Stoughton , 1939)
Introduction The Man Who was Clever (Enter the Saint, 1930) The Wonderful War (Featuring the Saint, 1931) The Story of a Dead Man (Alias the Saint, 1931) The Unblemished Bootlegger (The Brighter Buccaneer, 1933) The Appalling Politician (The Brighter Buccaneer, 1933) The Million Pound Day (The Holy Terror, 1932) The Death Penalty (Once More the Saint, 1933) The Simon Templar Foundation (The Misfortunes of Mr Teal, 1934) The Unfortunate Financier (Boodle, 1934) The Sleepless Knight (Boodle, 1934) The High Fence (The Saint Goes On, 1934) The Unlicensed Victuallers (The Ace of Knaves, 1937) The Affair of Hogsbotham (Follow the Saint, 1938)
The Affair of Hogsbotham:
"Ebenezer Hogsbotham ....., having been born with a name like that and a face to match it, if you can believe a newspaper picture, has never had a chance in his life to misbehave, and has therefore naturally developed into one of those guys who feel they have a mission to protect everyone else from misbehaviour. He has therefore been earnestly studying the subject in order to be able to tell other people how to protect themselves from it. For several weeks, apparently, he has been frequenting the bawdiest theatres and the nudest nightclubs, discovering just how much depravity is being put out to ensnare those people who are not so shiningly immune to contamination as himself; as a result of which he has come out hot and strong for a vigorous censorship of all public entertainment. Since Comrade Hogsbotham has carefully promoted himself to be president of the National Society for the Preservation of Public Morals, he hits the front-page headlines while five hundred human beings who get themselves blown to bits by honourable Japanese bombs are worth a three-line filler on page eleven. And this is the immortal utterance that he hits them with: "The public has a right to be protected," he says, "from displays of suggestiveness and undress which are disgusting to all right-thinking people." "Right-thinking people", of course. means people who think like Comrade Hogsbotham, but it's one of those crushing and high-sounding phrases the Hogsbothams of this world seem to have a monopoly on. Will you excuse me while I vomit?'
Unusually for a fictional crusader on the side of decency, Mr. Ebenezer Hogsbotham is no hypocrite, but Templar won't let that stand between him and an opportunity to involve a self-appointed Guardian of public morality in a scandal. Lacking a decent plan, Templar decides to burgle the Hogsbotham residence for no other reason than to cause him annoyance. But Greenleaf Road, Chertsey, is not the best signposted, and Templar and Hoppy Uniatz (a deranged sometimes-accomplice) break into the wrong house. As luck would have it, the maid is unable to raise the alarm - she's been neatly bound and gagged prior to their arrival. From the next room they can hear angry voices. And screams. A double-crossing bank manager is facing torture by electric fire!
As has been stated before, the Leslie Charteris Templar is far from the chivalrous knight of the TV series. In this adventure he's quite happy to fit up an innocent man, bury a case of manslaughter and ignore a woman in peril if it means trousering the proceeds of a bank robbery. He also relies upon quite an entourage, including girlfriend Patricia Holm, Orace his ever-loyal batman, arch-enemy Chief Inspector Teal, and the aforementioned Hoppy, a gangster without portfolio who has taken so many beatings that thought actually causes him physical pain. Consequently, Hoppy is content to let the Saint decide their next lunatic course of action while he sits it out with yet another bottle of Vat 69. Glamorous guess starlet is Miss Angela Lindsay, a bad girl who runs with the crooks but can't bring herself to allow Simon's death (by time bomb). If Simon gets his way, it's her taste in flimsy lingerie will cause the sanctimonious Mr. Hogsbotham's undoing.
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Post by dem bones on Jun 19, 2014 11:26:07 GMT
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... Leslie Charteris - The Saint & The Fiction Makers (Coronet 1972; originally Hodder & stoughton, 1969) Blurb Simon Templar! The Saint Description: Age 31. Height 6ft. 2ins. Weight 175lbs. Eyes blue. Hair black, brushed straight back. Complexion tanned. Special Characteristics: Immaculately dressed, always. Luxurious tastes. Carries firearms, expert knife—thrower. Licensed air pilot. Speaks several languages fluently. Amos Klein's thrillers were such hot property that his publisher kept his whereabouts a complete secret. Someone desperately wanted lo find him for reasons even more fantastic than those the author himself could have devised - perhaps to prove that truth is just as strange as fiction? But you don't knock the Saint on the head and expect him to forget it — nor do you heighten your chances of success by mistaking Simon Templar for Amos Klein.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 18, 2014 11:03:52 GMT
Hans Stefan Stantesson (ed.) [ Leslie Charteris (supervising ed.)] - The Saint Mystery Magazine (April 1964) Leslie Charteris - Editorial
Leslie Charteris - The New Swindle Ernest Brammah - The Last Exploits of Harry The Actor Wenzell Brown - Don't Call Me Fido! Cornell Woolrich - If The Dead Could Talk Charlotte & Dan ross - Mei Wong and the Shakespeare Festival August Derleth - A Village Borgia Stewart Sterling - Homicide; Hot off The Griddle The Saint on TVFirst time a copy has come this way, and it's a treat. Beside the fiction, Charteris' editorial reveals how the famous stick figure logo came to be, and there's an update of Saint Club business (see below). Cornell Woolrich - If The Dead Could Talk: "I seemed to see a death's head in the glass, where our two faces were, his and mine. I'm not kidding, i actually saw it there - some trick of the lighting shadows, I guess. It came on slow, until I could see the deep, greenish holes where the eye-sockets were, and the grinning rows of teeth, and the shiny white dome of the skull. I couldn't see whose face it covered most, his or mine ..." Best friends Joe Crosby and Tommy Sloane, teenage runaways who found a home and a profession as trapeze artists in a travelling circus. Both men are madly in love with a third high-wire act, Natalie, and when she finally chooses between them, it hits the disappointed party like a bereavement. His thoughts turn to murder. Never trust a man with a tube of hair gel stuffed down his trunks. Leslie Charteris - The New Swindle: The Saint has bested career criminals Reverend 'Broads' Tillson and 'Happy' Fred Jorman on a previous occasion and they are determined to get even, preferably by caving in his skull with an iron bar and throwing him in a canal. Templar learns of their ingenious plan to part a jeweller from a £1000 necklace and is quite impressed. Soon the bogus Priest and his pal have greater reason to hate him. August Derleth - A Village Borgia: Richland Center, a sleepy Wisconsin town, 1891. Pretty, headstrong Rose Zoldoske has designs on Dr. Mitchell, but, after going to the trouble of disposing of his wife, up steps Ella Maly to steal his heart. The strychnine-laced chocolate creams make another appearance. Apparently true.
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Post by dem bones on Jan 18, 2017 8:09:36 GMT
Yet another reason why The Affair of Hogsbotham (see above) is among the finest non-"Fantastic" Saint stories. Emmett Watson's glorious cover painting for Detective Fiction Weekly (August 6, 1938) where the novella made its initial appearance as The Saint At Bay. Thanks to the wonderful Pulp Covers for providing the original scan.
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Post by dem bones on Jan 24, 2017 14:02:31 GMT
W. O. G. Lofts & Derek Adley - The Saint & Leslie Charteris: A Biography ( Hutchinson Library Services, 1971. Originally Howard Baker, 1970) Foreword
1. Singapore Days 2. Schooldays and Early Years 3. The 'Thriller' Days 4. The 'Empire News' and Off To America 5. The Saint in Films 6. The War Years 7. The Saint on Television 8. The Saint Pot-Pourri
W. O. G. Lofts & Derek Adley - Bibliography AddendaBlurb: For more than forty years The Saint has been giving continuous pleasure to enthusiasts — in novels, story-magazines, films, on radio and television. Here is the first complete biography and bibliography of his creator, Leslie Charteris.
It follows Charteris from his early years in Singapore through his lean and hungry 'do-anything‘ days to his subsequent beginnings as a writer in London and his eventual conquest of the United States. It charts the incredible success of the author's alter ego, Simon Templar, through the adventures which made him world-famous, including the highly-controversial film portrayals and the eventual television series, featuring Roger Moore.
No one who has ever thrilled to the danger-charged escapades of the suave Saint will want to miss this essential biography and full bibliography of Leslie Charteris's work — and anyone who, by some unfortunate mischance, has not yet met Simon Templar will find it an invaluable introduction, guide and companion. Because The Saint is much more than just a fictitious crook who stays on the right side of human decency even when overstepping the law. He is a legend of our times, a character who has given pleasure to millions - and with whose cool acceptance of danger thousands of law-abiding citizens have secretly sought to identify.Landed this earlier today at Spitalfields market. The biography, from my understanding , written entirely by Lofts, is instructive and entertaining, particularly the rag-bag of entries that constitute the "pot pourri" if not particularly weighty. The eight chapters run to a mere 58 pages before we get to the real meat, 64 pages of bibliography covering the books, individual stories, magazine, newspaper and anthology appearances, miscellaneous writings, and the films though, sadly, not the TV series.
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Post by pulphack on Jan 24, 2017 14:41:04 GMT
Great find - Lofts and Adley were pioneers of this sort of thing. Bill Lofts I knew very vaguely and very briefly before his death around 1998/9. He was an extremely eccentric bloke, but very friendly and a complete enthusiast. If he could have been bothered to write about anything other than old books he would have had a good journalistic nose, but he preferred to keep things confined to his hobbies. Lucky to get the bio and scrapbook bits, as their excellent Edgar Wallace bibliography dives straight into the meat, and is thus strictly for hardcore EW fans.
Bill also had an endearing (?!) habit of sitting serene and oblivious while his hearing aid fed back with an increasing volume to the dismay of those sitting near him. It was funny how many anecdotes started with his hearing aid feeding back when he was remembered after his passing!
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Post by dem bones on Jan 24, 2017 20:15:14 GMT
Great find - Lofts and Adley were pioneers of this sort of thing. Bill Lofts I knew very vaguely and very briefly before his death around 1998/9. He was an extremely eccentric bloke, but very friendly and a complete enthusiast. If he could have been bothered to write about anything other than old books he would have had a good journalistic nose, but he preferred to keep things confined to his hobbies. Lucky to get the bio and scrapbook bits, as their excellent Edgar Wallace bibliography dives straight into the meat, and is thus strictly for hardcore EW fans. Bill also had an endearing (?!) habit of sitting serene and oblivious while his hearing aid fed back with an increasing volume to the dismay of those sitting near him. It was funny how many anecdotes started with his hearing aid feeding back when he was remembered after his passing! It took less than an hour to read the biography. As mentioned, no listing of the tv episodes, but the original stories dramatised for the series' are marked with an asterisk, so that's handy. Bet it was brilliant meeting Mr. Lofts. If I remember right, he was also an authority on penny dreadfuls with an incredible collection of same?
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Post by helrunar on Jan 25, 2017 22:26:44 GMT
Lovely to see this. Mr. Lofts occasionally contributed to The Rohmer Review, for which I myself submitted a few trifles back in the mid 1970s. His articles seemed tremendously erudite but were written in a very workmanlike, no-nonsense manner.
H.
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Post by dem bones on Jan 26, 2017 9:16:35 GMT
Lovely to see this. Mr. Lofts occasionally contributed to The Rohmer Review, for which I myself submitted a few trifles back in the mid 1970s. His articles seemed tremendously erudite but were written in a very workmanlike, no-nonsense manner. H. Pulphack advises that Lofts' Edgar Wallace biblio is strictly for fans and that's also true of The Saint & Leslie Charteris: A Biography. It's entirely celebratory. Mr. Lofts makes no secret of either his enthusiasm for all things Simon Templar or his personal friendship with the author, so we're in no danger of scathing literary criticism. I should also mention that the bibliography is restricted to the UK editions.
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Post by pulphack on Jan 27, 2017 5:55:49 GMT
Bill Lofts was an eccentric chap - he once tried to save a load of Fleetway artwork that was being flooded in the basement of Fleetway House because the Fleet itself had risen and seeped into the building. This allegedly involved him rushing up and down stairs with loads of artwork that he dumped on people's desks while they looked on bemused, failing to see what he was getting excited about.
As a young man, he had been a prisoner of war under the Japanese in - I think - Malaya (it's many years since I heard this story)and discovered Sexton Blake whilst a prisoner as a tattered old SBL was literally the only reading matter in the camp, and he was desperate. Apparently he had no idea as a lad of the kind of fiction he went on to write about for the rest of his life, but the sense of relief and escape that the one book gave him seemed to sear into his psyche (ooh, get me!).
He was a nice guy, by all accounts, and seemed as such: I wish I'd had the chance to get to know him better.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 28, 2017 10:03:54 GMT
Lovely to see this. Mr. Lofts occasionally contributed to The Rohmer Review, for which I myself submitted a few trifles back in the mid 1970s. H. In that case, this helpful page on The Page of Fu Manchu site should bring back pleasant memories. The Rohmer review.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Feb 28, 2017 14:52:30 GMT
Lovely to see this. Mr. Lofts occasionally contributed to The Rohmer Review, for which I myself submitted a few trifles back in the mid 1970s. H. In that case, this helpful page on The Page of Fu Manchu site should bring back pleasant memories. The Rohmer review. This is radio actor John C. Daly as Fu Manchu. Or is it Arthur Askey again?
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