The Saint on TV

Episode 16: The Ever-Loving Spouse

"THE EVER-LOVING SPOUSE"

The Saint visits a San Francisco hotel and steps into a blackmailing
frame-up which leads to murder.

Otis Q. Fennick (Barry Jones), a delegate at a business convention in San
Francisco, has just been framed, when he meets Simon Templar, the Saint
(ROGER MOORE). A man and a girl have burst into Fennick's hotel room, the
girl, clad only in underwear, throws her arms around his neck while the man
takes the compromising picture.

The girl is Norma Upton (JACQUELINE ELLIS). The man is Vern Balton (DAVID
BAUER). But the picture has not been taken for the usual purpose of selling
the negative to the victim with the threat that it will other-wise be sent
to his wife. This time, it is the wife who has commissioned the photograph.
Liane Fennick (JEANNE MOODY), who used to work for Balton, is bored with her
husband and reckons that the compromising picture will help her to get a big
divorce settlement. She wants to marry Fennick's new sales executive, Brent
Kingman (PAUL CARPENTER), who disapproves strongly of the action she has
taken.

Also involved in the drama as it develops is Alec Misner (ALEXIS KANNER), a
waiter at the hotel who is in love with Norma Upton and, learning what she
has just done, threatens: "If Verne Balton comes near me, I'll murder him!"

Balton, unable to resist the opportunity, double-crosses Liane Fennick. He
hands over a print of the photograph but refuses to give her the negative.
Liane, realising that she is being blackmailed, warns him that someday
someone will put a bullet through whatever he has for a heart.

When Balton is found murdered, there are therefore plenty of people who have
a good reason for wanting him out of the way, or have reason to want revenge
on him, as the Saint soon discovers. The situation becomes even more fraught
with complications when Fennick learns about his wife's affaire with
Kingman.

The police book Alex Misner, who admits to having beaten up the dead man,
for the murder, but it is the Saint who blows sky-high a "water-tight" alibi
and reveals the real killer, at the same time saving the life of another
near-victim.



CAST

Starring

ROGER MOORE as SIMON TEMPLAR
WITH
BARRY JONES as OTIS Q. FENNICK
JEANNE MOODY as LIANE FENNICK
JACQUELINE ELLIS as NORMA UPTON
PAUL CARPENTER as BRENT KINGMAN
DAVID BAUER as VERN BALTON
ALEXIS KANNER as ALEC MISNER
AND
ROBERT ARDEN as DETECTIVE WILLIAMS
JANET BRANDES as MISS GRIMSHAW
MAX FAULKNER as DESK CLERK
HAL GALLILI as BARTENDER
STUART NICHOL as PETE
JOHN BLOOMFIELD as STOUT MAN
BARTLETT MULLINS as BALD MAN