The Saint Goes West
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| Author | Leslie Charteris |
|---|---|
| Publisher | The Crime Club |
| Released | 1942 |
The Saint Goes West is a collection of three mystery novellas by Leslie Charteris, first published in the United States in 1942 by The Crime Club, and in the United Kingdom the same year by Hodder and Stoughton.
This book continues the adventures of Charteris' creation, Simon Templar, alias The Saint, and is the first of several volumes of Saint stories that would follow the theme of the Saint travelling around the world, although in this case all the stories take place in the United States (and can be said to follow on from the previous book, The Saint in Miami). All three stories centre around Templar visiting the southwestern US. Charteris would continue this "travelogue-mystery" theme a decade later with The Saint in Europe and successive volumes.
[edit] Stories
The book consisted of the following stories:
- Arizona
- Palm Springs
- Hollywood
Some editions, such as the 1948 printing by Avon Books, omit the story "Arizona".
[edit] Film adaptations
The story "Palm Springs" is based upon a story treatment Charteris wrote for RKO Pictures. The resulting film, The Saint in Palm Springs, was released in 1941 and starred George Sanders in his final appearance as Simon Templar. The script used in the film was substantially different than the original storyline. Charteris later novelized his original story for The Saint Goes West, making this, in essence, the first Saint novelization (more would follow based upon the television series).
In 1960, "Palm Springs" was adapted very loosely for the French film Le Saint Mene la danse which was produced by Films Du Cyclope and Lux Films and starred Felix Marten as Templar. This marks, to date, the only time a Charteris story has been used as source material by two different productions.
