Simon Templar, aka “The Saint”, the character created in 1928 by Leslie Charteris (British author Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin, 1907-1983)   soon became immensely popular. His adventures were published by Hodder & Stoughton, under the famous yellow jackets.  They spread to continental Europe in the early  thirties. They were so popular in France at the time, that translations were not  enough. To  meet the demand of the public, apocryphal stories of “Le Saint” were written directly in French (by translators Edmond and Madeleine Michel- Tyl ) . After the war his popularity would be supported by  film and television adaptations. Again, there would be in France, alongside the official, international production,  domestic films  with the Saint played by  famous French actors : Félix Marten (in Le Saint mène la danse  by Jacques Nahum, 1959 ) and Jean Marais ( Le Saint prend l’affût, Christian-Jaque, 1966) Continue reading →