Apr 1, 2022
The Saint: The Covetous Headsman (1.4, ITC, 1962)
"Inspector Quercy, how nice to see you."
"Ah, Monsieur Templar, how very nice to see you - provided you have come to France only as a tourist."
"Now what does that mean?"
"That means that there are servants of the Republic, of whom I am one, whose job is to concern themselves with crime. We do not allow private individuals to take over the duties of the police."
#the saint#the covetous headsman#leslie charteris#itc#John Roddick#Michael Truman#roger moore#barbara shelley#eugene deckers#george pastell#esmond knight#carole gray#robert cawdron#josephine brown#michael spear#andre boulay#natalie benesh#barbara roscoe#peter brace#1962#ah what a cast! personal fave George Pastell (made up to be playing older than his actual age)‚ good old Esmond Knight and of course the#ever lovely Barbara Shelley; Simon meets Babs on the plane to Paris where she's meeting her long lost brother. she pulls out a picture to#show him and it's of stuntman and background player Peter Brace‚ so immediately this bodes not well. indeed Brace doesn't actually get any#real screen time that isn't below a sheet on a marble slab. to find the villain Simon must piece together a mystery dating back to ww2; in#the process we learn he fought with the resistance (making ST at the very least in his late 30s here‚ a little older than Moore himself).#the wartime hangover was a fairly common trope in early ITC stuff (see also eps of Interpol Calling and Ghost Squad) and tho it became less#used it still popped up in later shows like Strange Report and The Zoo Gang. Simon seems to be at peace with allowing the execution of a#wartime collaborator‚ fitting in with that darker energy i mentioned last time which is more in the spirit of the books (and which im#fairly certain gets watered down over time). Simon begins the ep being awful about a complaining lady on his plane but later he's much more#charming to an elderly landlady (deliberately shown to be at odds with the way the police talk to her). no location work in Gay Paris tho
