The Saint's Girl Friday is the title of an Anglo-American crime thriller distributed by RKO in 1953, filmed by Hammer Film Productions

Hammer Film Productions

Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies and in later...

 and Royal Productions in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, and produced by Anthony Hinds

Anthony Hinds

Anthony Hinds , aka Tony Hinds, aka John Elder, is a British screenwriter and producer. He is the son of the founder of Hammer Film Productions, William Hinds.-Early life:Tony Hinds was educated at St Paul's School...

 and Julian Lesser. American release of the film occurred in 1954. It was the last in a series of popular films, dating back 1938, featuring the character of Simon Templar

Simon Templar

Simon Templar is a British fictional character known as The Saint featured in a long-running series of books by Leslie Charteris published between 1928 and 1963. After that date, other authors collaborated with Charteris on books until 1983; two additional works produced without Charteris’s...

, hero of a series of novels by Leslie Charteris

Leslie Charteris

Leslie Charteris , born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin, was a half-Chinese, half English author of primarily mystery fiction, as well as a screenwriter. He was best known for his many books chronicling the adventures of Simon Templar, alias "The Saint."-Early life:Charteris was born to a Chinese father...

. It was also released under the title The Saint's Return.

Louis Hayward

Louis Hayward

Louis Charles Hayward was a British actor born in South Africa.-Biography:Born in Johannesburg, Hayward began his screen work in British films, notably as Simon Templar in Leslie Charteris' The Saint in New York.] In 1939 he played a dual role in The Man in the Iron Mask.During World War II,...

, who had been the first actor to play Templar in the series 15 years earlier (The Saint in New York

The Saint in New York (film)

The Saint in New York is a 1938 crime film, based on Leslie Charteris's novel of the same name. Released by RKO Pictures, The Saint in New York marks the first screen appearance of Simon Templar - "the Saint"...

), returned to the role one last time for The Saint's Girl Friday.

Although based upon Charteris' character, the film was an original work and not based directly upon any of his stories.

Charteris had a percentage in the film, the first Saint film to be produced in 10 years, in hopes that it would revive the movie series, but this did not occur. In 1960, Royal Productions produced a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 film entitled Le Saint mène la danse starring Felix Marten in the lead. Charteris reportedly was so disgusted that he refused to allow Royal Productions any further usage of the character. It wasn't until 1962 and the advent of the TV version of The Saint

The Saint (TV series)

The Saint was an ITC mystery spy thriller television series that aired in the UK on ITV between 1962 and 1969. It centred on the Leslie Charteris literary character, Simon Templar, a Robin Hood-like adventurer with a penchant for disguise. The character may be nicknamed The Saint because the...

starring Roger Moore

Roger Moore

Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...

 that the character achieved lasting success beyond the literary world. The next English-language theatrical film featuring the character wouldn't be released until 1997.

Cast

• Louis Hayward
  Louis Hayward
  Louis Charles Hayward was a British actor born in South Africa.-Biography:Born in Johannesburg, Hayward began his screen work in British films, notably as Simon Templar in Leslie Charteris' The Saint in New York.] In 1939 he played a dual role in The Man in the Iron Mask.During World War II,...
  
   - Simon Templar
• Naomi Chance - Carol Denby
• Sydney Tafler - Max Lennar
• Charles Victor - Chief Insp. Claud Teal
• Jane Carr - Kate Finch
• Harold Lang - Jarvis
• William Russell - Keith Merton (as Russell Enoch)
• Diana Dors
  Diana Dors
  Diana Dors was an English actress, born Diana Mary Fluck in Swindon, Wiltshire. Considered the English equivalent of the blonde bombshells of Hollywood, Dors described herself as: "The only sex symbol Britain has produced since Lady Godiva."-Early life:Diana Mary Fluck was born in ­Swindon,...
  
  - The Blonde in Lennar's Apartment
• Fred Johnson - Irish Cassidy
• Thomas Gallagher - Hoppy, his valet
• Russell Napier - Col. Stafford
• Sam Kydd - Barkley (Joe Podd)