The Saint Takes Over (1940). Simon Templar (George Sanders) is a British sleuth who helps the police catch the bad guys when they can't quite figure it out themselves. He's an Adrian Monk of the yesteryear only without the neurosis. In The Saint Takes Over, he helps a woman Ruth Summers from getting ripped off $460.00 in a bridge game from a well known hustler. Templar clears a NYPD detective's name who has been framed for a crime he didn't commit by a group of mobsters. But the mobsters--Eoghan, Weldon, Sloan--are getting killed one-by-one. Who is doing all the killing? It was Ruth Summers whose brother Johnny Summers was a witness for the police but was died of lead poisoning.
The Saint in London (1939). Simon Templar assists Inspector Teal of Scotland Yard to arrest a group of Romanian foreigners who deal in counterfeit currency--over a million pounds. Templar was victimized by a pickpocket Doogan in the beginning of the film, but he turned the tables on him. Doogan had served time in San Quentin and wants to turnover a new leaf. Simon is trusting of the guy and hires him as his personal go-fer, similar to Batman having Alfred as his personal butler. Together, they go after the bad guys.
I couldn't find myself interested in either movie. I like that Templar is helping a criminal turn over a new leaf and they, as a gesture of returning the favor, assist him in catching the bad guys. In the Saint Takes Over, it was Pearley, a mob safecracker now turned informant for the police. In The Saint in London, it's Doogan, a low-class Brooklyner who spent much of his life engaging in petty crimes. But the plot for both movies are convoluted and the ending to The Saint in London was silly as Bruno Lang, the mastermind of the whole counterfeit operation, walks in elegantly into the police station, shares a cigarette with Simon Templar, and turns himself over to the police.
