The Latin Touch (1962) User Reviews (7)

"A death for a death"

[bensonmum2 · 7/10 · 29 March 2017]

Simon Templar meets a young American woman named Sue Inverest while on vacation in Italy. During their tour of the coliseum, Templar is knocked out and Sue is kidnapped. Templar learns that Sue is the daughter of an American Governor (Indiana, I think). The head kidnapper has a brother on death row in Governor Inverest's state. He wants his brother's sentence commuted in exchange for Sue's life. Being The Saint, Templar intercedes to help secure Sue's release.

I'm going to have to disagree with the only other review (as of 3/29/17) on IMDb for The Latin Touch. I really enjoyed this episode. The tension in the episode came through for me. This is television, so you just know everything will be alright in the end, but the tension was still there. I could feel the governor's pain as he struggled with what to do – keep a killer locked-up or save his daughter. And, the trick Templar plays on the baddie was a pretty sweet scene. I suppose the fact that there was someone working for the mob from the inside was a given, it was still fun to watch events unfold. And, once again, I'm impressed with the acting. After just two episodes, Roger Moore continues to be something of a revelation to me. In the supporting cast, Alexander Knox, as usual, gives a good performance. And Warren Mitchell is an out-and-out scene stealer. His cabbie, Marco Di Cesari, is a hoot. Overall, a 7/10 from me.

Just okay

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 24 February 2019]

When the show begins, Simon Templer is in Rome and he helps out a young lady who is being way overcharged by her cab driver. After helping her, they both tour the Coliseum together...and they are attacked by thugs. Simon wakes up at the police station...and the woman has apparently been kidnapped. But the kidnappers don't want money...they have another agenda and it involves the girl's father, an American governor. Can Simon help save the girl and unravel this unusual plot?

This is just a fair episode...mostly because there are a lot of plot holes. I can't say what they are without spoiling the plot...but it's only a fair but watchable installment.

By the way, the 'American' girl sounds English...because she is. Also, I have no idea why but another reviewer called this lovely lady 'dumpy'. First off, she isn't. Secondly, why say it in the first place?

Two thoughts

[marktayloruk · 7/10 · 27 March 2022]

One - I'd have been inclined to grant the reprieve and trust to his being kept in jail.

Two - Suzan Farmer "dumpy"? I got her mixed up with Elizabeth Montgomery!

One of the Weaker Episodes

[aimless-46 · 5/10 · 17 December 2008]

One of the weakest episodes of the series. The producers of this type of show were convinced that 1960's viewers got off on faked exotic locations and dumpy blonde's; this episodes suffers from both. Unfortunately neither the story nor the guest stars are top shelf so Moore has to carry things, with a bit of comic relief help from his Italian sidekick Taxi driver (played by Warren Mitchell).

The Saint is knocked out in Rome during the kidnapping of a dumpy blonde.

It turns out that she is the daughter of a United States Governor, who is visiting Rome as part of a trade commission. The kidnapper turns out to be the older brother of a death row prisoner back in the Governor's home state. and instead of a ransom he wants a reprieve for his murderer brother. The title comes from Simon's clever use of the Latin language to pass along a clue.

The only notable thing is an appearance by character actor Robert Easton, playing an American embassy official. Unfortunately it is a straight role without his trademark drawl.

Floundering already

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 16 June 2017]

Only the second episode of Roger Moore's THE SAINT and already the show is in trouble, floundering with a frankly boring story that features some location photography in Rome and an interesting cast, and that's about it. Moore does his best to enliven the material with some of his trademark charm and humour, but it's not enough to stop this being dull. The long-winded mystery is about a kidnapping case with a Mafia plot behind it. Actors in support include Warren Mitchell as the comic relief, the reliable character actor Bill Nagy, Peter Illing as a cop, and Hammer's Suzan Farmer.

Rome? through the cigarette smoke. :-)

[elcoat · 5/10 · 30 April 2020]

Roger Moore was a masterful English actor. His James Bond For Your Eyes Only was playacting, but with a message and warmth. But in this, he attempted to put polish on a Roman brick. :-)

Ironically, my 8 year old daughter decided we would all - me, her 11 yr. old brother and her mother, my EX - go to Rome last summer, and it was quite a trip. The kidnapping scene actually looked like it was staged in the Colosseum, it was so good if it was a set.

We were not accosted by vendors or cameramen, although my first evening there, I was confronted by a rather hateful fellow who looked like one of the thugs in the program, but I wouldn't let him provoke me, and he gave up and left. (I'm not a fan of the Mafia and they know it, but the Holy City is apparently neutral territory, so .... OR he could have been just an Italian angry at Americans over the killing of a young, newly married Italian policeman by 2 American teenagers, last year.)

The program's stereotypes were alternately funny and offensive, even to Anglo-American me. There are honest law enforcement officers in Italy, and if anything they have been more effective keeping the Mafia under control - outside of Calabria, anyway - than we Americans. The Mafia's infiltration of our own political machines and many of our senators and Congressman is obvious, and now we have the Albanian, Russian, Armenian ... mafiyas to contend with as well.

The Italian cab driver was apparently so successful a character, that he returned in a couple more programs, from what I've read. He reminds me of the likeable ill-fated resident agent Luigi in For Your Eyes Only.

I think a program like this today would (have to) be vetted by the Mafia, in the U.S. at least.

Templar's trick of claiming a traitor in the mobster's inner circule was unconvincing without a scene of the mob boss being psychiatrically paranoid enough to believe it.

The blonde governor's daughter - actress Suzan Farmer - appeared to have a figure worthy of Monica Bellucci. Was it a casting requirement? She was briefly Ian McShane's wife - sadly no children, apparently.

I have a long bucket list to complete, but the hour spent watching this was maybe better spent than playing solitaire, here in coronavirus/COVID-19 self-isolation.

The Latin Touch

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 27 March 2022]

A trip to the Coliseum in Rome sees the Saint helping out a young American woman from being fleeced by a local cab driver, Marco (Warren Mitchell.)

Next thing the Saint knows. He is waking up in a police cell. He was slugged and the woman was abducted.

She is the daughter of a US state governor Hudson Inverest (Alexander Knox) who is in Italy for some trade talks.

The kidnapper is mafia gang boss Tony Unciello. He wants the governor to release his brother from death row as he is due to be executed soon.

The Saint has only a few hours to locate the daughter with the help of Marco. Unicello has men everywhere so a doublecross is hard to do.

There is a great cast list here. Warren Mitchell as comedy relief. Oscar nominee Knox. There is some actual location shooting of the Coliseum.

The story itself is lacklustre with a few plot holes.

What a coincidence that the governor of the state where your brother is imprisoned in just happens to be visiting Rome. If the brother can have the death sentence commuted. Some smart lawyers could later get him out of jail on a technicality. So he must have had some not so smart lawyers to have a jury find him guilty!