The Saint Takes Over

Simon Templar intervenes to rescue a fellow passenger from card cheats. The woman refuses to give her name and is offended when he kisses her without invitation. He later sends her a rose corsage as an apology, keeping their encounter memorable.

The Saint learns Inspector Henry Farnack has been suspended after $50,000 is found in his safe, exposing a frame-up. The plan is funded by the gang—Rocky Weldon, Leo Sloan, Sam Reese and Max Bremer—each paying a quarter of the $90,000 frame-up cost. Farnack had been investigating the gang’s race-fixing activities, tying the case together.

Rocky Weldon is cleared in a trial after Gates testifies, following the murder of the main prosecution witness, Johnny Summers. The frame-up funds remain at issue as the gang preserves its stake. Templar begins to piece together the conspiracy while staying one step ahead of the criminals.

Ben Egan orders two henchmen to pick up the woman passenger when the ship reaches port, but Templar foils the plan. The would-be abductors are driven off, and the woman escapes in a taxi. The incident sharpens the sense that the case implicates Egan and his gang.

Templar seeks out Inspector Farnack to discuss the case and share suspicions about the frame-up. Their meeting builds a wary partnership as they compare notes and map out the criminal network behind the scheme. The alliance hints at a larger danger looming over both of them.

Gates is sent to rob Egan’s safe, but Egan catches him and Gates confesses that Weldon ordered the deed. Egan tries to lure Weldon into a trap, but an unseen shooter kills Egan. The crime network tightens its grip as the bodies begin to pile up.

Templar and Farnack infiltrate Egan’s place and uncover a hidden camera. They later develop the photograph and find a rose petal as a clue linking the crime to the enigmatic passenger and the gang. The discoveries deepen the mystery and point toward a single mastermind.

Weldon assumes Gates killed Egan and now controls the $90,000. Templar blackmails Gates into helping him, promising not to reveal the photograph or Weldon’s suspicions. They go to Weldon’s location only to discover Weldon dead, with Farnack already on the scene.

Templar, aided by Gates, kidnaps Leo Sloan to squeeze information from him. They are followed, and Sloan is shot and killed through Farnack’s basement window. The body is brought back to Sloan’s place, but police burst in and the criminals are caught in a dangerous trap.

Templar waits for the killer in Reese’s apartment. Ruth Summers, Johnny Summers’s sister, arrives seeking revenge, and the discovery reorients the case toward personal scores. Templar offers to help her as they navigate the web of murder and motive together.

Gates betrays Templar to Bremer and Reese, and they trap him in Bremer’s office. Templar agrees to trade the $90,000 for his life, while the criminals’ unwitting confessions are broadcast to the police via a hidden microphone and transmitter. Bremer escapes via the fire escape as the net tightens around the gang.

In an alley, Bremer and Ruth Summers fatally shoot each other. Ruth dies after delivering a deathbed confession to the three previous murders. Her final disclosure leaves Templar to weigh the cost of justice and the price paid by those who seek revenge.