The Saint Strikes Back 1939

During a New Year’s party, the Saint Simon Templar—the eponymous hero known as Templar—spots an agent working for Valerie Travers lining up a shot at someone, and he fires first at the stroke of midnight. The act leaves witnesses, prompting the San Francisco police to request help from Inspector Henry Fernack of the NYPD. Before Fernack can depart, the Saint travels to New York and accompanies him back toward the West Coast.

Travers’ father had been a police inspector whose efficiency drew the attention of a shadowy mastermind named Waldeman. When a large sum of money is discovered in his safe deposit box, the father is fired on suspicion of working for Waldeman and ultimately commits suicide. Travers is determined to clear her father’s name by any means necessary, and the Saint agrees to help her in this dangerous quest.

The Saint wins the reluctant cooperation of the police commissioner, despite objections from Chief Inspector Webster and the criminologist Cullis, who puzzle over whether the Saint himself might be Waldeman in disguise. The case threads forward as Templar and Travers close in on a figure who appears to be the public-spirited philanthropist Martin Eastman, a man whose flawless public image masks a hidden association with Waldeman’s crime network. Eastman turns out to be only a front for Waldeman’s operation, and the duo must navigate this dangerous truth carefully.

Templar uses a bold gambit, forcing Travers and her gang to move on, and he even assists her burglar, Pinky Budd, in raiding Eastman’s safe to steal a substantial sum of money. The recovered cash bears serial numbers that match those from Waldeman’s earlier robbery, tying Eastman’s apparent generosity to criminal activity. Eastman, however, contacts Cullis rather than reporting the theft, tipping off the police that Cullis is in Waldeman’s pay. Templar and Fernack quickly deduce that Cullis is working for the mastermind.

With the trap set, Templar departs to warn Travers before Cullis can murder her, and he flees with Travers after a tense moment in which he is forced to kill one of Travers’ henchmen in self-defense. Fernack’s suspicions about the Saint intensify, and he becomes convinced that Templar is Waldeman, complicating an already tangled partnership.

The following morning, Templar replaces the stolen money in Eastman’s safe, ensuring that Eastman will be exposed as Waldeman’s front man even as the philanthropist is killed while trying to flee. Later that night, Travers and Templar return to his apartment, where Fernack awaits, and they anticipate Cullis’ next move. They lure him to Cullis’ own apartment, which the police have wired to trap the mastermind.

Travers crafts a deft ruse, forcing Cullis to admit that he framed her father for the crimes. Waldeman himself confronts Templar in the kitchen, but Fernack arrives just in time to shoot Waldeman dead. Cullis is arrested, and Travers and Templar part ways with a shared sense of relief and gratitude, knowing that her father’s name has been cleared and that Waldeman’s criminal empire has been toppled.**