The Saint In Palm Springs 1941

Simon Templar George Sanders is asked by his friend, Inspector Fernack Jonathan Hale to protect Peter Johnson, a man carrying three stamps worth $200,000 from New York City to his niece Elna Johnson Wendy Barrie, a tennis pro for a hotel in Palm Springs, California. Templar interrupts an attempted robbery on the way, but is too late to save Johnson. He strikes the unseen assailant in the face with his ring, which bears his distinctive Saint sign.

On the train west, Templar introduces himself to the attractive Margaret Forbes Linda Hayes, who will be staying at the same Palm Springs hotel. The stamps are stolen from Templar, which does not endear him to Elna Johnson. Templar’s friend, reformed pickpocket Clarence “Pearly” Gates Paul Guilfoyle, is employed by the hotel to provide security, so Templar persuades him to steal the belongings from every other hotel guest in an effort to identify the thief. The stamps are found in a pillbox, but Gates cannot remember who it belongs to. An attempt to trap the thief by allowing the guests robbed to reclaim their property fails and ends in the murder of a policeman, but Templar avoids losing the stamps again and returns them to Elna.

Templar sets a trap for the thief. Johnson is held up at gunpoint by Forbes, who turns out to be an agent for the country from which the stamps were smuggled. Forbes is killed by a rival thief while making her getaway, but the stamps are safe. Simon sets another trap at Joshua Tree National Park, where another hotel guest is revealed to be the mastermind of the other crooks. Templar tricks him into confessing to the murders of Peter Johnson, the policeman and Margaret Forbes in the presence of the Police Commissioner and his men, and the whole gang is arrested. The mark from Templar’s ring on his face is additional proof of the murderers’ guilt.

Elna Johnson shows her romantic interest in Templar, but he tells her that, while he is tempted, he prefers to play singles, rather than doubles.