Episode #99 - 6-2

The Best Laid Schemes

CAST:
Sylvia Syms - Arlene
Paul Daneman - Dr. Ormsby
Gabrielle Drake - Diana
Norman Bird - Insp. Mitchell
Fulton Mackay - John Everett
John Tate - Skinner
Godfrey Quigley - Ballard
Francis de Wolff - Capt. Flemming
Olive Milbourne - Mrs. Haggerty
Jonathan Elsom - Andrew
Fredric Abbott - Joe Carney
Geoffrey Lumsden - Coroner
John Ringham - Dr. Russell
Joanne Dainton - Nurse
Erik Mason - Sailor

Directed by John Llewelyn Moxey; Screenplay by Joseph Morhaim & A. Sandford Wolf

STORY:
Old captain Flemming is found dead by his niece at the beach - drowned. Simon witnesses this and offers his help.
Templar delves into a story of deceit around the captain's fishing company.
What more - the dead captain seems suddenly not so dead anymore!

OPINION: When first seen this episode is really creepy! Turn down the lights!

NOTES:
* Sylvia Syms also appears in Episodes #29 "The Noble Sportsman", #42 "Jeaninne" and #109/110 "The Fiction Makers"
* Gabrielle Drake was later a regular of the series "UFO"
* Norman Bird also appears in Episodes #24 "The Well Meaning Mayor", #59 "The Frightened Inn-Keeper" and #103 "The Organization Man"
* Fulton Mackay also appears in Episodes #77 "The Convenient Monster" and #113/114 "Vendetta for the Saint"
* John Tate also appears in Episodes #46 "The Loving Brothers" and #65 "The Crooked Ring"
* Godfrey Quigley also appears in Episodes #25 "The Sporting Chance", #57 "The Sign of the Claw" and #74 "The Russian Prisoner"
* Fredric Abbott also appears in Episodes #22 "The Rough Diamonds" (uncredited) and #78 "The Angel's Eye" (credited as Frederick Abbott)
* Geoffrey Lumsden also appears in Episode #116 "The Man Who Gambled with Life"
* Eric Mason also appears in Episode #85 "Escape Route"
Note the stand-in on the beach and Roger Moore in front of the blue screen. (0:01)
Seems like almost the whole funeral was filmed in the studio. (0:05)
The double doors were frequently used as a set item in the colour episodes. In this episode a version without gold inlays was used.
If we already know the solution of the story - why does the captain's wife react like she does in the nightly "appearance"? Nobody's watching her!? (0:19)
* Niece Diana arrives much too fast after the scream in the nightly "appearance" of the captain. Seems like she waited at the top of the stair.
Look closely at the scene with the knife thrown at the Saint: You'll notice the string and also that it was filmed backwards. (0:29)

Leslie Charteris, 11th March 1967: <<I have to note that this is yet another script in which the Saint gets involved by sheer wild coincidence, just happening to be on the spot when a body is washed up. The Saint in the stories is always looking for trouble. Are all your writers incapable of devising a plot in which the Saint is intrigued by something he hears, or reads about in the paper, and deliberately sets out to investigate?>> (Barer, p.147)

AIRDATE:
UK: 29th September 1968

GERMAN TITLE:
S.T. und der tote Kapitän

AVAILABLE ON:
* DVD (NTSC): AAE-70465 (2002)

THE SAINT
www.simontemplar.de

Last Updated: 03/23/2018