Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

JohnHowardReid George Sanders (Simon Templar/The Boss), Helene Whitney (Anne Bitts), Thomas W. Ross (Professor Bitts), Jonathan Hale (Inspector Fernack), Bela Lugosi (Partner), Donald MacBride (Chief Bohlen), John F. Hamilton (Limpy), Elliott Sullivan (Monk), Pat O'Malley (express man), Byron Foulger (receiver), Donald Kerr (card player), Stanley Blystone (Detective Sadler), Ralph Dunn (uniformed policeman at final round- up), William Haade (Dutchman), Walter Miller (Mac, the bartender), Jack O'Shea (pedestrian), Lee Phelps (police sergeant at Bohlen's office), Lal Chand Mehra (Cairo express clerk), Pat McKee (card player), Edward Gargan (turnkey), Sammy Stein (policeman). Director: JACK HIVELY. Screenplay: Ben Holmes. Based on characters created by Leslie Charteris. Photography: J. Roy Hunt. Film editor: Theron Warth. Art director: Van Nest Polglase, Albert S. D'Agostino. Music composed and directed by Roy Webb. Special effects: Vernon L. Walker. Costumes designed by Renié. Assistant director: Doran Cox. Production executive: Lee Marcus. Sound recording: Hugh McDowell, jr. RCA Sound System. Producer: Cliff Reid.Copyright 26 January 1940 by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Rialto: 12 February 1940. U.S. release: 26 January 1940. Australian release: 28 March 1940. 6,215 feet. 68 minutes. SYNOPSIS: A look-alike gangster plants the Saint's card at several murders.NOTES: Number four of the nine-picture "The Saint" series. Film debut of socialite, Helene Whitney.PRINCIPAL MIRACLE: George Sanders has a dual role in which he confronts himself through a clever use of the process screen.COMMENT: Unlike other actors who embarked upon dual roles, Mr. Sanders has chosen not to differentiate his performances. It's impossible to tell one character from the other. Both have the same accent and mannerisms; the same walk; they even dress the same way.Halfway through, one of the characters tells us that he can tell the look-alikes apart because they are wearing different suits. By this time, however, the rest of us are all hopelessly confused. And anyway, who's looking at suits? They seem to be identically designed, though they do have a different pattern or shade.Fortunately, other members of the cast try to make up for Mr. Sander's lapse, particularly Jonathan Hale as the ambivalent detective, John F. Hamilton as a lopsided crook, and the lovely Miss Whitney as the star-crossed heroine. Fans of Bela Lugosi, however, are likely to be very disappointed. Mr. Lugosi not only has very little to do, but the few scenes he shares with such distinguished players as Lal Chand Mehra, he handles in a spiritless and surprisingly low-key fashion. Lively's (sorry, Hively's) direction is anything but.

TheLittleSongbird While some are better than others, pretty much all of the Saint films starring George Sanders are watchable at least once, even the lesser efforts. 'The Saint's Double Trouble' is a contender for the weakest of the series, and somewhat of a let-down after one of the best of the series with 'The Saint Takes Over'.There are good things here. The sets are suitably atmospheric, it is one of the better looking films of the series and jauntily scored. The best thing about the film is Sanders, not just playing the title role but also his criminal double. He is super-suave, sophisticated and wonderfully caddish, while also giving a charming and humorous edge and delivering some cutting lines with aplomb.Jonathan Hale is also very good, while the ending is effective.On the other hand, the script is a complete mess and is enough to bring the film down more than one notch. It is just too underdeveloped and has too many loose ends, with a lot of corn and very little mystery. The story is also one of the series' least involving, it fails to maintain momentum and gets needlessly over-complicated with very few twists and turns.It is interesting for featuring Bela Lugosi, who tries to depart from his horror roles to prove that he could do more than that. However he makes very little impact in a role with nothing to it whatsoever, a real waste. The characters are just not interesting at all and sometimes confusingly written.In summary, a contender for weakest of the Saint films with Sanders. Sanders and Hale are fine but the script and story certainly aren't and bring the film down significantly. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Prismark10 George Sanders was suave as the not quite wholesome gentleman adventurer The Saint but this B movie took the biscuit with its lacklustre, silly and confusing plot.Things start of well with Bela Lugosi popping up in Egypt and it seems an exact double has been smuggling diamonds involving a mummy from Egypt.We are unsure when Sanders pops up whether he is the Saint or the double. One plot point is that the Mummy has been to sent to his old lecturer who and his daughter have been friends with the real saint but who is this man who looks and sounds like him. How convenient.It might be that the real saint whistles his tune before he shows up or the villainous double has a tattoo.Jonathan Hale is Inspector Fernack who is just as confused as everyone else as. Nothing more is made of Lugosi who is wasted in a nothing roles and he is as confused as the audience and he no need to his stock of opium to get there.There is a nice sequence at the end as the Saint escapes from a leaking motorboat when he is all tied up but further silliness ensures that the Saint and his double swap places in his prison cell. This is not the best plotted or enjoyable of the Saint series.

csteidler 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.