The Saint - The Early Episodes: Set One (3DVD)

A&E doesn't list the episodes on the outside of the Set 1 box, or on their website, so here goes:

DISC ONE

The Talented Husband

The Latin Touch

The Careful Terrorist

The Covetous Headsman

DISC TWO

The Loaded Tourist

The Pearls Of Peace

The Arrow Of God

The Element Of Doubt

DISC THREE

The Effete Angler

The Golden Journey

The Man Who Was Lucky

The Charitable Countess

If you enjoy The Saint and Secret Agent Man/Dangerman, you will love this B&W first season of The Saint. Roger Moore is at his best. I love the way he talks to the viewer at the beginning and end of every episode. Very personable.

If you are a fan of the B&W, gritty, 60's spy genre, you will enjoy this series better than the later "color" Saint episodes. These earlier shows are based on the Leslie Charteris, creator of The Saint, original stories. You also get to see the famous white Volvo.

I watched this and the second set both on DVD in three days (released earlier on another website). This is the good stuff. Please release more of the early episodes.

The first series of black and white episodes of the Saint apppear to be more gritty and realisitc compared to the later color series also available thru A&E and Amazon. In this set Simon Templar is less the cocky, errant playboy and more akin to a hardened private investigator outswindling the swindlers and working for the little guy.

This was Roger Moore's first starring role in a series that earned him a place in movie history as the longest-playing actor to portray Ian Fleming's 007. It has been said that the first series represents Leslie Charteris' protagonist more accurately than the later color episodes.

As with other series produced by ITC, expect to see many of the same fine English supporting actors from other popular programs like "Secret Agent," "Man in a Suitcase," "Gideon's Way," and "The Baron." It is astounding how many quality programs were produced thru the ITC Network in the UK during the 60's.

The episodes in both sets I and II are nicely remastered and the audio quality is excellent--A&E has done a fine job here as usual. Sadly, some extras would have been more welcome. The Carlton DVD set (in Region 2 encoding) of the b&w episodes offer interviews with Robert Baker, the director of the series, as well as original publicity documentation from ITC promoting the series.