Fourth film in the Saint series from RKO has George Sanders playing dual roles: Simon Templar and his evil doppelganger, Duke! The Saint has 48 hours to prove it was Duke and not he that committed a murder. Guess what? He'll only need 47. This is a good entry in the series with Sanders having fun playing bad. It's very amusing to hear him say things like "You mugs," even if he makes little effort to hide his accent. Bela Lugosi is also in this but, unfortunately, he's not given much to do. He's just an associate of the evil double. Still it's cool seeing Lugosi playing in a non-horror role with an actor you don't normally see him with. Pretty Helene Reynolds is the obligatory would-be love interest. The camera is in love with her. After being absent in the last film, Jonathan Hale returns as the likable police inspector frenemy of the Saint. The rest of the cast includes Donald MacBride, Byron Foulger, Thomas W. Ross, John F. Hamilton, and Elliott Sullivan. Those last two play the evil double's henchman. They have some funny lines.An enjoyable movie, mostly due to Sanders. The story isn't much to get excited about. It's never really explained why Saint has a double or what led Duke to know about him in the first place. Also, the Saint not seeming upset about the killing of the kindly old man who was a friend of his didn't sit right with me. Oh, and how cool is it that apparently back in the old days a guy could mail a mummy to another guy halfway around the world. And we think we have progress!

While some are better than others, pretty much all of the Saint films starring George Sanders are watchable at least once, even the lesser efforts. 'The Saint's Double Trouble' is a contender for the weakest of the series, and somewhat of a let-down after one of the best of the series with 'The Saint Takes Over'.There are good things here. The sets are suitably atmospheric, it is one of the better looking films of the series and jauntily scored. The best thing about the film is Sanders, not just playing the title role but also his criminal double. He is super-suave, sophisticated and wonderfully caddish, while also giving a charming and humorous edge and delivering some cutting lines with aplomb.Jonathan Hale is also very good, while the ending is effective.On the other hand, the script is a complete mess and is enough to bring the film down more than one notch. It is just too underdeveloped and has too many loose ends, with a lot of corn and very little mystery. The story is also one of the series' least involving, it fails to maintain momentum and gets needlessly over-complicated with very few twists and turns.It is interesting for featuring Bela Lugosi, who tries to depart from his horror roles to prove that he could do more than that. However he makes very little impact in a role with nothing to it whatsoever, a real waste. The characters are just not interesting at all and sometimes confusingly written.In summary, a contender for weakest of the Saint films with Sanders. Sanders and Hale are fine but the script and story certainly aren't and bring the film down significantly. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Saint's Double Trouble, The (1940)** (out of 4) Fourth film in the popular RKO series is perhaps the weakest. This time out The Saint, aka Simon Templar (George Sanders), is wanted by the police for a string of robberies. He didn't actually commit the crimes and must prove his innocence by tracking down the thief who is his double. I made a major mistake by watching this film first from the series and I say mistake because after watching this many might not want to try the others out, which would be a shame as the series actually delivered some pretty good movies. This one here is without question one of the weakest as even Sanders appears to be bored out of his mind. The biggest problem is that the actual story is just too far fetched to be believed. Yes, I know all of these detective films require some wild things to happen but what goes on here, in terms of the double, is just silly and will have your rolling your eyes. Helene Whitney is also quite boring in her part but Jonathan Hale delivers some nice work. He also gets the best scene in the movie when The Saint is daring him to shoot him. The payoff here is quite nice. Bela Lugosi is wasted in his fourth-billed role. It's a shame they couldn't have spiced his part up just a bit. If you're new to the series you certainly won't want to start here. If you're a Lugosi nut just wanting to see him, forget about it because he isn't here long enough to do much. An all around disappointing entry.

One reviewer said this film is strictly for fans of the series and I tend to agree, though non-fans could still watch it and enjoy it if they aren't overly critical of the film's silly plot. Now as for me, I love old B-detective series films and don't mind the silliness too much--after all, if you think too much, films about Charlie Chan, Boston Blackie and the like are pretty tough to believe. Suspending disbelief and just enjoying them for the fun of it is definitely how you need to approach most of these films. In a way, they were like the modern detective TV show (such as "Murder She Wrote" or "Columbo")--predictable, sure, but still engaging.This film starts off pretty well, as we see that one of the supporting characters is Bela Lugosi--that's a definite plus. However, a bit later, the silliness of the plot becomes very apparent when viewers are expected to believe that there is an exact double of Simon Templer AND this double is evil and wanted by the police. Additionally, Lugosi isn't really given much to do and is wasted. Also, considering how famous Templer is supposed to be, don't you think the cops would have realized the crook was an exact double for Templer a long time before? While "The Patty Duke Show" and other TV shows and movies have given us the concept of identical doubles, this is just silly and impossible to believe. Now had this double deliberately gotten plastic surgery to make himself look like Templer, this COULD have been a decent plot idea (like was done in a classic episode of "Hawaii 5-0"), but we are to assume that they are exact in every way (including accent)--all by chance!!Additionally, late in the film, the conclusion becomes WAY TOO COMPLICATED. Templer COULD have easily exposed the double and wrapped everything up well--but then he dresses like a lady and gets himself to switch places with the phony! This just made no sense at all and seemed like padding. Also, leads like the mummy, the knife blade and the ring are never really developed--like the script was still in need of a re-write.While I always like the Saint movies, I do have to admit that this is one of the worst due to the writing. No matter how hard George Sanders tries to carry the film, it sinks beneath plot holes and I could see non-fans of the genre disliking the film if they can't ignore all the problems with the plot. Fun but flawed.