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GOLDEN_JOURNEY
August 15, 2019
NAME_OF_THE_SAINT
"The Golden Journey" is a 1934 Saint short story
written (most likely) by Leslie Charteris.
September 1934,
In this tale, the Saint has taken on the task of Harper's Bazaar;
taming a shrew, a pampered young woman named Belinda revised from
who can't imagine why anyone would endure a hike in Nash's Magazine.
the wilderness. So our hero manipulates her into
it, stealing her money and identification-- and [link]
spreading some lies about her-- so she'll have no
choice but to go along with him on his journey.
Somewhat implausibly (an understatement--
really nothing is plausible in a Saint story), In the television adaption
Templar has taken on this task at the urging of of this story from 1962
the woman's financee, Jack. He's just met the (with Roger Moore), there's
two of them on a train journey. a simple, sensible tweak
to the back story:
As I often remark: "They don't Jack is one of the Saint's
make 'em like this any more." "oldest friends".
In the 1962 version, the Saint Though this plausibility
tells us that "Jack knows what fix is undercut by adding
Belinda needs, but poor Jack, he an aunt who has to be a
loves her too much to hit her." willing conspirator.
So they trod off through the back-country
of Tirol and the woman whines and snarls
for a few days and then suddenly becomes
enthusiastic about the joys of nature-- It's far more likely she would
be focused entirely on the
And when the Saint tries to problems of hiking fifty miles
return her to her civilized life, in bad shoes (leather sandals).
you will be shocked (like,
SPOILERS man) to hear she balks, We will pass over the
and swears she can't go back. likelihood that her
physical condition
She does not pronounce her deep, new would be at all
found love for Templar, though you can adequate. Maybe she
guess that's part of it if you like. plays tennis a lot.
In this Charteris story, Belinda doesn't really
show very much spirit: you would expect her to
balk early, try to flag down a car...
In the 1962 television version-- which moves
the action to the coast of Spain (from Costa The Saint makes no attempt
Brava to Tourmez) they have Belinda bumming a to follow her and watch
ride-- the Saint remarks that "Nice girls don't her back.
do that in Spain." We then see her angrily
abandoning her ride, complaining about the And all of this stuff could
driver's behavior. She then makes a clumsy go *far* more wrong-- a
attempt at stealing a motorscooter, is moment's thought would show
arrested, and the Saint has to bail her out. she could end up raped
and/or murdered, and perhaps
shot by police and/or dead
in a scooter accident while
trying to evade them.
The virtue of this story
WANDERVOGEL is that it's so small bore:
GOLDEN_ROAD the Saint takes on a peculiar
GOLDEN_FOOD task on a whim. The trouble
with the story though is
that nothing justifies the
risks, and the idea that
anyone besides the Saint
would sign-off on the idea
is not at all believable.
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