AniInterview
Sorry, this movie sucks
Marva
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Geraldine
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Prismark10
Louis Hayward plays the Saint, rather less suave than Roger Moore would play him a few decades later in the television series but more of a dapper thuggish charm.This Saint is not a copper or a sleuth but more of a Robin Hood type vigilante who is not prepared to mask himself like Zorro and work incognito.This Saint is prepared to break the law and serve justice his own way as he has been hired to clean up the city and find the Big Fellow with Kay Sutton helping out and adding romantic interest.The adventure is a potboiler with plenty of fisticuffs but the mystery element is lacking as a modern audience will easily guess who the Big Fellow will turn out to be.
Michael_Elliott
Saint in New York, The (1938) *** (out of 4) The first in RKO's series of The Saint films features Louis Hayward in the title role. In this film, The Saint is tired of criminals getting away due to the judicial system so he sets out to get his own vengeance. I've seen a lot of these early mystery series from the Crime Doctor to Boston Blackie to The Falcon and so on but this one here, at least the first film, is a big change from those series because The Saint isn't a totally friendly character. Where those other series have the good guys trying to arrest the bad guys that's not the case here because The Saint wants them dead and will even kill in cold blood or kill an unarmed man to get his vengeance. I guess you could call this an early version of Death Wish because the vigilante theme runs very high here. I'm not sure what the rest of the series holds but this first film is very impressive even with its low budget. Hayward is very good in his role and his dry acting really adds a lot to the character. The supporting cast really isn't that impressive and that holds the film back some as does some ill-fated humor at the hands of two of the top gangster's gunmen but outside of that this is a very good movie and one that's unlike the others of its type that was out there around the same time.
Neil Doyle
Before George Sanders took over the role, it went to LOUIS HAYWARD for THE SAINT IN NEW YORK. Hayward was an interesting actor who should have had a better career than he did in Hollywood, proving that when he got a chance to play an interesting scoundrel ("Ladies in Retirement"), he was fearless in letting his bad side show.Too bad he didn't play "The Saint" more often in the string of films RKO came up with in the '40s. He's good, better than his material here which is strictly a by-the-numbers sort of thing."You should have a question mark after your name," he tells his romantic interest, KAY SUTTON, a dark beauty who looks somewhat like a softer version of Gail Patrick. She's an enigmatic woman and remains so since her character is never developed.Hayward joins the search for "The Big Fellow", head of a crime gang wanted by the NYPD and along the way encounters several misadventures with mob members being disposed of in his unorthodox way.Interesting to see JACK Carson, JONATHAN HALE and SIG RUMAN in the supporting cast.Modestly entertaining but nothing special in this series.
Chris Gaskin
The Saint In New York is the first of the Saint movies and of the ones I've seen, one of the best.In this one, The Saint is sent to New York to investigate gangsters in the underworld there. There are plenty of shootings and killings and he gets involved in some quite dangerous situations. He is after one particular gangster known as The Big Fellow who is the leader of a gang. He also falls in love.The cast features Louis Haywood as the Saint, Kay Sutton and Jonathan Hale.The Saint In New York is worth watching if you get the chance. A treat.Rating: 3 stars out of 5.
