Okay, okay, I admit it: I thoroughly enjoyed "The Careful Terrorist." Go ahead, shoot me, though I hope your aim is as sharp as was teary-eyed Jenny's. I watched this one and awarded it nine stars and then was shocked (shocked!) to read the reviews and find them all thumbing down this delightful show. What wasn't to like? A crusading journalist blown up at his typewriter? A beady-eyed union boss whose milk of human kindness long ago curdled? An evil genius who makes bombs and plays the organ at choir practice? A hot-headed Anglophobic police lieutenant hamstringing our hero? Oh, and a comic sidekick to boot!
I came to this episode like audiences did in 1962, wide-eyed and without the weight of later seasons to compare it unfavorably against. This was only the third episode of the series I've seen. A fellow reviewer noted the jarring discontinuity of the Saint living in New York, matching wits with the local police, and having "halfwit help" in the manservant Hoppy. But he acknowledges this was likely based on a Leslie Charteris source and thus not unfaithful to the creator's vision, even if the series grew and moved away from its roots as the character developed (and as a longtime fan of Roger Moore but a new fan of the Saint--thanks, Amazon Prime!--I'm eager to see that development unfold!).
Templar taking on the Big Apple is actually in the grand Charteris tradition. The first on-screen appearance of Simon Templar was in the 1938 film THE SAINT IN NEW YORK, based on the 1935 Charteris novel of the same name. Both that film and this episode boast a Lt. Henry Fernack--a parallel to Perry Mason's nemesis Lt. Trask--but that appears to be the sole similarity gleaned from a reading of the plot. Speaking of PERRY MASON, I wondered if this early formative story was experimenting with copying that popular series' winning formula, only shifting the emphasis to a Paul Drake figure.
This episode's lighthearted opening--Simon waxing eloquent about omelettes!--takes a dark turn when his friend, crusading reporter Lester Boyd, is blown up by the bomb-rigged typewriter. Simon's "this time it's personal" vendetta to finish the job Lester started gave the story an especial intensity. Simon knew only one man would walk away from his inevitable showdown with Nat Grendel.
The show moved along at a quick clip. Simon's taking to the airwaves to intimidate the cornered rat Grendel, rescuing the fainting fiancée of his fallen friend, and going into the belly of the beast by storming the gates of Grendel's lair. I confess I felt a few fleeting moments of sympathy for Grendel, like when Simon smashed his prized statuette (I didn't believe Simon that it was a cheap fake), and when Grendel described his hardscrabble climb and fight to get the liverymen--thick-headed cretins though they were--a decent wage. But those moments passed as Grendel revealed again and again what a heartless louse and unrepentant killer he was.
The intense moments were punctuated with lighthearted ones delivered right on time by Hoppy. Hey, why all the hate piled on poor Hoppy? "Unnecessary and annoying," wrote a fellow reviewer. Me, I loved the lug, and laughed whenever his flummoxed face filled the screen. Hoppy's booze-sneaking, kiddie-show watching, and girlie-mag leering were perfect complements to Templar's wit, style and sophistication. This odd couple had obviously been paired for some time since Simon suggests Hoppy knew him well enough to assure the lieutenant that he would never engage in so unartful an assassination attempt. The name Hoppy, surely a nod to movie cowboy Hopalong Cassidy, proved prescient when actor Percy Herbert went on to play a comic sidekick role strikingly similar to this one in the 1967-68 Western CIMARRON STRIP. Herbert needed the work, since his Hoppy character was a one-and-done, relegated to the ash heap of TV history, and never seen again after this episode (please hold your applause, ya haters!).
The dénouement of that dastardly duo in the climax was telegraphed by Simon's getting assurances from Lt. Fernack that he could not be held liable for the evil that men render unto themselves. Templar's wincing while on the phone with Grendel testified to the Saint's inherent goodness--he took no pleasure in seeing this trap sprung. Veteran viewers of THE TWILIGHT ZONE were likely struck by the parallels between this explosive ending and that in "The Jeopardy Room," a classic 1964 episode starring Martin Landau and John Van Dreelen. Was Rod Serling watching (and lifting from) THE SAINT back in the JFK years? And I suspect SAINT fans will already know how the plot device of a mad German mechanical genius creating remote-controlled bombs was also used to great effect in THE PRISONER episode "It's Your Funeral." The karmic justice plot device of "tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard"--as Simon fittingly quips to close out the show--dates back beyond the Bard to at least Haman and his gallows in the Bible's Book of Esther.
With a mere three episodes behind me, and 115 before me, will I look back someday and scorn this entertaining offbeat episode? I hope not, though I am guilty of suffering disappointment when revisiting early episodes of series such as THE WILD, WILD WEST and MANNIX, growing impatient with their early and often flailing attempts at getting steady on their feet when I already knew and loved what would come later at full maturity. But I've a long ways to go and many, many Saint adventures to enjoy before I have to worry about that--and I'm grateful I do!
I came to this episode like audiences did in 1962, wide-eyed and without the weight of later seasons to compare it unfavorably against. This was only the third episode of the series I've seen. A fellow reviewer noted the jarring discontinuity of the Saint living in New York, matching wits with the local police, and having "halfwit help" in the manservant Hoppy. But he acknowledges this was likely based on a Leslie Charteris source and thus not unfaithful to the creator's vision, even if the series grew and moved away from its roots as the character developed (and as a longtime fan of Roger Moore but a new fan of the Saint--thanks, Amazon Prime!--I'm eager to see that development unfold!).
Templar taking on the Big Apple is actually in the grand Charteris tradition. The first on-screen appearance of Simon Templar was in the 1938 film THE SAINT IN NEW YORK, based on the 1935 Charteris novel of the same name. Both that film and this episode boast a Lt. Henry Fernack--a parallel to Perry Mason's nemesis Lt. Trask--but that appears to be the sole similarity gleaned from a reading of the plot. Speaking of PERRY MASON, I wondered if this early formative story was experimenting with copying that popular series' winning formula, only shifting the emphasis to a Paul Drake figure.
This episode's lighthearted opening--Simon waxing eloquent about omelettes!--takes a dark turn when his friend, crusading reporter Lester Boyd, is blown up by the bomb-rigged typewriter. Simon's "this time it's personal" vendetta to finish the job Lester started gave the story an especial intensity. Simon knew only one man would walk away from his inevitable showdown with Nat Grendel.
The show moved along at a quick clip. Simon's taking to the airwaves to intimidate the cornered rat Grendel, rescuing the fainting fiancée of his fallen friend, and going into the belly of the beast by storming the gates of Grendel's lair. I confess I felt a few fleeting moments of sympathy for Grendel, like when Simon smashed his prized statuette (I didn't believe Simon that it was a cheap fake), and when Grendel described his hardscrabble climb and fight to get the liverymen--thick-headed cretins though they were--a decent wage. But those moments passed as Grendel revealed again and again what a heartless louse and unrepentant killer he was.
The intense moments were punctuated with lighthearted ones delivered right on time by Hoppy. Hey, why all the hate piled on poor Hoppy? "Unnecessary and annoying," wrote a fellow reviewer. Me, I loved the lug, and laughed whenever his flummoxed face filled the screen. Hoppy's booze-sneaking, kiddie-show watching, and girlie-mag leering were perfect complements to Templar's wit, style and sophistication. This odd couple had obviously been paired for some time since Simon suggests Hoppy knew him well enough to assure the lieutenant that he would never engage in so unartful an assassination attempt. The name Hoppy, surely a nod to movie cowboy Hopalong Cassidy, proved prescient when actor Percy Herbert went on to play a comic sidekick role strikingly similar to this one in the 1967-68 Western CIMARRON STRIP. Herbert needed the work, since his Hoppy character was a one-and-done, relegated to the ash heap of TV history, and never seen again after this episode (please hold your applause, ya haters!).
The dénouement of that dastardly duo in the climax was telegraphed by Simon's getting assurances from Lt. Fernack that he could not be held liable for the evil that men render unto themselves. Templar's wincing while on the phone with Grendel testified to the Saint's inherent goodness--he took no pleasure in seeing this trap sprung. Veteran viewers of THE TWILIGHT ZONE were likely struck by the parallels between this explosive ending and that in "The Jeopardy Room," a classic 1964 episode starring Martin Landau and John Van Dreelen. Was Rod Serling watching (and lifting from) THE SAINT back in the JFK years? And I suspect SAINT fans will already know how the plot device of a mad German mechanical genius creating remote-controlled bombs was also used to great effect in THE PRISONER episode "It's Your Funeral." The karmic justice plot device of "tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard"--as Simon fittingly quips to close out the show--dates back beyond the Bard to at least Haman and his gallows in the Bible's Book of Esther.
With a mere three episodes behind me, and 115 before me, will I look back someday and scorn this entertaining offbeat episode? I hope not, though I am guilty of suffering disappointment when revisiting early episodes of series such as THE WILD, WILD WEST and MANNIX, growing impatient with their early and often flailing attempts at getting steady on their feet when I already knew and loved what would come later at full maturity. But I've a long ways to go and many, many Saint adventures to enjoy before I have to worry about that--and I'm grateful I do!
