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Tom Anderson reviews
Episodes 1 & 2Distributed by
Carlton
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 37115 00813
- Running time: 96 minutes
- Year: 1962
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 8 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 1.0 (Mono)
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English for hearing-impaired.
- Fullscreen: 4:3
- 16:9-Enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £9.99
- Extras : Interactive menus, ‘Facts and Figures’, Trailer for DVD ‘CoolSpies and Private Eyes’ from Carlton, Picture of original ITC brochure cover
Word up.Carlton DVD is unleashing a torrent of budget 60’s “classics” onto the Region2 market. The likes of “The Champions”, “Danger Man” and “Jason King” are evennow nestling on the impersonal shelves of your local Virgin Megastore. I mustadmit to being partial to this kind of thing, and my favourite has to be‘The Saint’, starring acting hero Roger Moore.(DVDfever Ed: “I was more of the Ian Ogilvy era” 🙂
So, what do you get for your £10? Well, you get the first two episodesof ‘The Saint’ in black and white. The picture is at least as sharp and clearas broadcast standard and the sound is in digital mono. You get chaptering, afew facts and figures and a picture of a brochure with Mr Moore’s handsomemug on it.
Is your cash worth the 96 minutes on offer? Actually, yes, if you’re intothis sort of thing.
‘The Saint’ is essentially a gentleman adventurer to whom things happen,weekly. Leslie Charteris created the character in the 1920’s, when gentlemanadventurers were two-a-penny. When the Bond-inspired craze for modern day gentadventurers arrived in the early 60’s, the Saint was resurrected fortelevision.
In the first episode of this DVD, the Saint/Roger Moore explains why he is ahandsome righter-of-wrongs: “It’s very simple, I don’t like being a cog inthe machine. Being one of the millions of ants that devour the dragon is allvery noble- but, it’s not half as much fun as being St. George, is it?”
Hang on, I hear you say, do ants devour dragons? Anyway, you get his drift -it’s all very simple stuff. Like the portly Edward Woodward in ‘TheEqualiser’, Roger Moore is a modern-day St. George, slayingtwo-dimensional dragons.
The plots are simple. In episode 1, ‘The Talented Husband’ the Saintinvestigates failed thespian John Clarron in a sleepy English village. Inepisode 2, while taking a holiday in Rome, a blazered Moore bargains for therelease of a kidnapped American girl. It’s all simple, cartoonish hokum, setin a studio-bound 60’s, but then that’s the fun, isn’t it?
The picture and sound are at least comparable to broadcast standard – thesound being the original mono – and if you take my advice you’ll takeadvantage of Virgin’s “two for £15” at once, and enter a kind ofCult TV paradise.
Extras : Chapters :8 Chapters for both episodes. Languages/Subtitles :English for hearing impaired. And there’s more… :Bloody crikey! Carlton DVD actually has some extras shocker! Well, there aretwo pages of text, one of which has a few facts. Then there’s a picture of anITC brochure and a trailer for Carlton’s ‘Cool spies and private eyes’.Hmmm. At least it’s a step forward from the lazy bastards at Carlton DVD. Menu :A static menu with two animated televisions showing excerpts from theepisodes. Not bad 007, er… I mean Mr Templar.
Overall, if you’re a Roger Moore completist or the campy spy televisionsixties thing is your bag, then buy it, baby.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.