It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

THE SAINT'S GIRL FRIDAY is a low budget Hammer working of the famous Simon Templar character created by Leslie Charteris. It features, in the lead role, none other than an ageing Louis Hayward, who first essayed the role on screen back in 1953. Sadly, this murky potboiler is a lesser affair, lacking the wit and energy of, say, the Roger Moore TV series of the 1960s. What's interesting about it is the cast and the emphasis on making Templar a darker character, forever on the outskirts of the law and often in conflict with the police force. It's nice to see his American valet popping up. Fans of 1950s cinema will enjoy a substantial role for the great Sydney Tafler as well as bit parts for Diana Dors and Sam Kydd.

Louis Hayward returns to the character he helped launch on the big screen in the first of RKO's The Saint series back in the '30s. He portrayed a gritty and tough Saint in one movie before George Sanders took over and made the role his own, bringing a suaveness and sophistication to the part. It's a nice bookend for the character, I suppose, to have the same actor start and essentially finish the series. Hammer was probably hoping this might revive the series for them. Unfortunately it did not and the reason is this movie is lifeless. Whatever appealed to Hayward about the role of Simon Templar in 1938 that helped his performance there so much seems long gone here. This time around he seems to be just going through the motions and collecting a paycheck. No one else in the cast stands out in any noticeable way and the script is a cure for insomnia, so there really isn't much else to say about this. It's a dull movie that you'll probably forget a minute after the end credits appear.

This final picture in the Saint series is connected to the early 1940s RKO entries only by the presence of Louis Hayward, the original Simon Templar in 1938's The Saint in New York.This time around, the Saint seeks information about a girlfriend who cabled him for help—and then crashed her car into the river before his arrival on the scene. The police call it an accident, but….Hayward is a smooth-talking Saint whose smirk is alternately insolent and charming; caught red-handed snooping through an apartment, he merely removes the cigar from his mouth and asks politely, "Pardon me…do you have a match?" He can play rough, however, as well—he does not hesitate to slap around a crook who has sneaked into his own room and doesn't want to tell who sent him.The Saint is assisted by right-hand man Hoppy (Thomas Gallagher), a reformed pickpocket (of course) who doubles as valet and bodyguard. The "girl Friday" of the title is a woman named Carol (Naomi Chance), whose help Templar enlists in tracking the mob that killed his girlfriend and is threatening and manipulating Carol over gambling debts.The plot is okay but nothing extraordinary, although the identity of the secret mob "chief" did surprise me at the end. The mood is rather darker than that of the fairly breezy comedy-mysteries of a decade earlier; however, Louis Hayward's confident performance, a fair amount of droll humor, and some atmospheric London underworld settings combine for an entertaining and still essentially light-hearted adventure.

Louis Hayward is many people's preference as the Saint over George Sanders, precisely because he played him as a hard, cold hit-man in 1938's The Saint in New York. While this is, undeniably, a trait in Charteris's creation, it is not the most likeable one and it is intriguing to see too Hayward's performance has mellowed with age. The script here is a little trite, but on the whole this is a more than passable little preamble that predicts nicely the Saint the Roger Moore series would show, with the Saint a vaguely retired disreputable character who finds it hard to stay on the right side of the law. There is much humour, and a little padding, but the film is worth a watch for Saint fanatics. For Hammer Film fans (the film was shot for RKO by the British studio) a nice touch is the shot of a floor plan of a country house that is about to be burgled; the names of all the guests belong to Hammer regular cast and crew members, including cult director Terence Fisher.