History Literature / TheSaint

* FloweryInsults: Occasionally, when Templar is in an especially Saintly mood and you are starting to annoy him or piss him off or he wants to annoy and piss you off. Sometimes, the Saint even waxes poetic, as in ''The Wonderful War'':

* ComicBookTime: As Charteris himself notes in ''The First Saint Omnibus,'' Templar was aging at a practically normal rate in the first decade or so. His aging process began to slow as The Saint dealt with ThoseWackyNazis. Then, from the time Charteris retired from primary authorship in 1963 through the end of the series 20 years later, Simon showed his age almost exclusively by a much more world-weary attitude than his exuberant pre-war years.

* RichIdiotWithNoDayJob: Played with: The Saint's skill at ''[[ObfuscatingStupidity pretending]]'' to be an UpperClassTwit is one of his most effective tactics against the Ungodly. However, it's strongly implied that Simon was not born into wealth and privilege, and compared to [[ComicBook/IronMan some of]] [[Franchise/{{Batman}} the examples]] of this trope, he's practically impoverished.
** In the post-WWII stories, especially the stories written by other authors and only supervised by Charteris, Simon more fully becomes this. No longer driven to intentionally seek out danger and punishable villains, he's simply drifting round the world enjoying his wealth, unless he stumbles into a situation where his interest or sense of justice is aroused... [[CoincidenceMagnet which happens a lot]].

This unusual relationship to law enforcement is because Simon's unique moral philosophy places him completely on the side of the, well, saints. His usual targets are referred to collectively, by him, as the "Ungodly". Some are obvious evildoers, including gangsters, murderers and, from roughly 1939-1945, [[ThoseWackyNazis the agents of the Axis]]. Others of the Ungodly, however, are known as such only to the Saint and his friends; these include corrupt politicians, crooked business men, and (''before'' 1939) warmongering arms dealers. The fortunate Ungodly escape merely with vastly-reduced ill-gotten fortunes; the Saint donates a percentage of his score to charity, and the remainder to himself and his partners in crime. This obviously leads to comparisons, both favorable and otherwise, to Myth/RobinHood. As for the ''un''fortunate Ungodly -- well, when his singular code of ethics demands it, Templar is willing to go ''much'' further, all the way up to VigilanteExecution when necessary.

* PercussivePickpocket: Simon uses this to save a young man from a prison stretch in ''The Man Who Was Clever''. His pickpocket skills also come in handy in ''The Gold Standard'' and ''The Man from St. Louis.'

* [[AwesomeMcCoolname Awesome McCoolname]]: Simon Templar.

* ThrillSeeker: Simon takes this UpToEleven, at least before the Second World War.

* KnifeNut: Templar prefers knives to guns, and is an expert with them. He is particularly fond of, and [[TheBladeAlwaysLandsPointyEndIn adept at,]] throwing them.

* CorruptPolitician: Another frequent type of target for the Saint, but one set is worthy of special note. ''The Simon Templar Foundation'''s [[note]]An actual and legitimate charity, created to care for wounded veterans of WW I and the widows and orphans of servicemen KIA or MIA[[/note]] initial endowment of one million pounds (more than 72 million pounds or $93 million in 2019!) is extracted from a quintet of examples from His Majesty's Government. Considering what Simon hints that he's learned about them in Rayt Marius's [[SecretDiary journal]], they got off easy:

* ShotgunWedding: In ''The Damsel in Distress'', Simon is enlisted to help bring one of these about. An Italian financier in England seduces and abandons the beautiful daughter of a fellow countryman. In fairness, his [[CorruptCorporateExecutive business practices]], when uncovered by the authorities, force him to flee the UK at approximately the same time. Since this is just the type of [[AssholeVictim Ungodly]] that usually attracts Simon's attention, he is more than happy to serve as the pilot in a scheme to illegally extract the cad from Italy and return him to England -- gratis! In the end, Simon discovers that [[spoiler: the "family" may not even be related, and is in fact a {{CaperCrew}} who is exacting precisely the same kind of financial justice that Simon himself would usually dispense. Naturally Simon relieves them of their ill-gotten gains,]] which he would not have done had they only been up front with him.

* WitlessProtectionProgram: In the short story ''The High Fence'', a captured criminal agrees to turn Queen's Evidence and tell the police who the High Fence (an underworld buyer of stolen goods) really is. He's murdered in his cell by being fed poisoned food. When another criminal is taken into custody and agrees to tell Inspector Teal the High Fence's address, he's [[NotQuiteDead shot (apparently) dead]] before he can do so.... but Teal and his (temporary) partner chase after the shooter just long enough for [[NeverFoundTheBody the "corpse" to vanish]] and be replaced by the Saint.

** DefiniteArticleTitle: Of course, the series is named after ''The'' Saint; non-Saintly titles include ''The Last Hero'' (also TheLastTitle, though it isn't even close to the last of the series), ''The Holy Terror,'' ''The Brighter Buccaneer,'' and ''The Misfortunes of Mr. Teal'' (also a SecondaryCharacterTitle)

* CementShoes: Narrowly averted in ''The High Fence''. The BigBad has kidnapped the Saint with a clever use of KnockoutGas, and gotten all the info he needs using [[TruthSerums scopolamine]]; he has no reason to keep Simon alive. At that point, rather than [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim act with the same efficiency]] he's shown throughout, he [[VillainBall delegates the disposal]] to his [[PunchClockVillain career criminal henchman.]] Said henchman doesn't take the time to make actual cement shoes; he just ties the Saint to an iron weight and drops him in the Thames. Of course the Saint always has [[NothingUpMySleeve a final trick up his sleeve...]].

Initially, Templar was usually depicted as working with a number of other adventurous young men: right-hand-man Roger Conway, lady-killer Richard "Dicky" Tremayne, technical wizard Archie Sheridan, and [[spoiler:doomed hero]] Norman Kent. Occasionally, the team included his OldRetainer Orace, though mainly in a background/support role. And, very often, Templar heavily relied on his true love, Patricia Holm, who was far more competent than the average heroine of her day. During this period, although the Saint could and did operate internationally, the series was strongly centered around UsefulNotes/GreatBritain, and especially UsefulNotes/{{London}} -- the closest thing the Saint has to a home town.

** In ''The Man Who Was Clever,'' the Saint makes use of some exploding ''cigarettes''; not only do they explode, they emit an [[SmokeOut obscuring cloud of smoke]]. Curiously, this is the only time in the stories they are used -- curious because they would have been useful on a number of occasions.

* StealingFromThieves: The standard plot for the stories in the series have Simon Templar (AKA The Saint) stealing from or tricking criminals, thus obtaining their ill-gotten wealth. He usually gave most of the money back to the criminals' victims, keeping only a small percentage for himself.

* ToThePain: As mentioned above under "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques," the Saint excels at this when questioning mooks, to the point that usually all he has to do is talk to get the subject to do likewise. Some examples of going further:

** ''Third degree'' -- In ''The Appalling Politician,'' working solo, pressed for time and with British national security at stake, his work would [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique makes the Counter Terrorist Unit proud:]]

** Hoppy Uniatz and Scotch whiskey.

* RichIdiotWithNoDayJob: Played with: The Saint's skill at ''[[ObfuscatingStupidity pretending]]'' to be an UpperClassTwit is one of his most effective tactics against the Ungodly. However, it's strongly implied that Simon was not born into wealth and privilege, and compared to [[Franchise/IronMan some of]] [[Franchise/{{Batman}} the examples]] of this trope, he's practically impoverished.

* FloweryInsults: Occasionally, when Templar is in a poetic mood and you are starting to annoy him or piss him off or he wants to annoy and piss you off. Sometimes, the Saint even waxes poetic, as in ''The Wonderful War'':

* DirtyCop: ''The High Fence'' reveals an example at the very end.

** TheTheTitle: Of course, the series is named after ''The'' Saint; non-Saintly titles include ''The Last Hero'' (also TheLastTitle, though it isn't even close to the last of the series), ''The Holy Terror,'' ''The Brighter Buccaneer,'' and ''The Misfortunes of Mr. Teal'' (also a SecondaryCharacterTitle)

* WitlessProtectionProgram: In the short story "The High Fence", a captured criminal agrees to turn Queen's Evidence and tell the police who the High Fence (an underworld buyer of stolen goods) really is. He's murdered in his cell by being fed poisoned food. When another criminal is taken into custody and agrees to tell Inspector Teal the High Fence's address, he's shot dead before he can do so.

This unusual relationship to law enforcement is because Simon's unique moral philosophy places him completely on the side of the, well, saints. His usual targets are referred to collectively, by him, as the "Ungodly". Some are obvious evildoers, including gangsters, murderers and, from roughly 1939-1945, [[ThoseWackyNazis the agents of the Axis]]. Others of the Ungodly, however, are known as such only to the Saint and his friends; these include corrupt politicians, crooked business men, and (''before'' 1939) warmongering arms dealers. The fortunate Ungodly escape merely with vastly-reduced ill-gotten fortunes; the Saint donates a percentage of his score to charity, and the remainder to himself and his partners in crime. This obviously leads to comparisons, both favorable and otherwise, to Myth/RobinHood. However, when his singular code of ethics demands it, Templar is willing to ruin the lives of the Ungodly or even kill them, justifying these admitted murders as necessary to defend the lives of the innocent.

By the mid-1930s, Conway, Tremayne, Sheridan, and Kent had left the field. Templar carried on with Patricia, Peter Quentin -- who first appeared as a con victim whom Templar saves from a long prison term -- and his most unusual associate, good old Hoppy Uniatz. Mr. Uniatz was a not-overly-bright but unswervingly loyal and courageous, not to mention [[QuickDraw handy with a Colt 1911 semi-auto]], veteran of the [[TheRoaringTwenties Prohibition-era]] [[BigRottenApple NYC underworld]]. He was also (according to Charteris) the first BreakoutCharacter in the series, to the point that as the series went on, Simon would appear with only Hoppy as support. The Saint also left the UK more often during this time, especially as his wartime exploits demanded.

Beginning in the 1960s, Charteris occasionally updated stories for reprints, replacing outdated references to topical matters such as pop culture and politics with more modern examples. By the 1970s, he stopped doing that; as with Literature/SherlockHolmes, to which series he directly referred, Charteris believed that part of the charm of the stories was their evocation of their time period.

* DirtyCoward: As the Saint earns his reputation, his [[Calling Card little stick figure]] gains the power to strike terror into the hearts of most evildoers. Beyond this, twice in the same collection of novellas (entitled ''Once More the Saint'' or ''The Saint and Mr. Teal'') Simon encounters paragons of poltroonery. Galbraith Stride, in ''The Death Penalty,'' and Ronald Nilder in ''The Man From St. Louis'' reveal themselves to be thoroughgoing dastards. It is an indication of how low Simon thinks they are that, although they are now [[DeadlyEuphemism chatting each other up in a super-tropical climate]], the Saint doesn't personally dirty his hands on either of them.