The Saint on TV

Episode 57: The Golden Frog

"THE GOLDEN FROG"

No-one could be more gallant toward the fair sex than the Saint - but when a
girl, however attractive she might be, needs a sharp lesson, no-one could
deal out a sharper one than he can, as he demonstrates in "The Golden Frog."
The girl is Jacqueline Ellis, playing the part of the crooked daughter of a
man who has swindled one of the Saint's old friends.

Set in Latin-America, with a revolution brewing, "The Golden Frog" provides
Roger Moore with one of the most light-hearted of his "Saint" adventures.

The cast includes Hugh McDermott, Alan Tilvern, Walter Brown, Alvara
Fontana, Alan Curtis and Inia Te Wiata.

Fergus Maclish (ALEX McGRINDLE) is responsible for Simon Templar, the Saint
(ROGER MOORE) visiting a Latin-American capital. Fergus is a rugged old Scot
who has spent much of his life running a very British-like inn there, saving
money in the hope of returning to retirement in his native country - a hope
suddenly dashed to the ground because he has been swindled out of his
savings by a gentleman named Humphrey Nestor (HUGH McDERMOTT), who calls
himself a Professor.

Fergus warns Simon to be careful of Nestor's daughter, Alice (JACQUELINE
ELLIS), and the Saint soon discovers why. She is not only alluringly
attractive. She's is a scheming miss who is, in fact, very much in league
with her father.

Simon also discovers that squaring matters with the Nestors is only one of
his problems. His arrival causes a considerable amount of suspicion on the
part of one General Cuevas (WALTER BROWN) who, in true Central American
style, is plotting a revolution, and puts his amiable henchman Julio (ALVARO
FONTANA) on to the job of keeping an eye on the Saint.

So far as Alice is concerned, Simon finds his task agreeable enough. Posing
as a rich "sucker", he lures her into his trap. And it's agreeable enough
for her to find herself flirting outrageously with such an attractively
handsome man.

Simon is an easy prey when the Nestors try to pull a confidence trick on him
by showing him a gold carving in the shape of a frog which, they assure him,
the Professor has found up-river. It is, they say, the sacred Golden Frog of
the Astecs (sic). And there are more of them if only the money can be raised
for another expedition....

Simon eventually agrees to put up the money. His plans are complicated by
Julio's interest in him and also by the fact that Capt. Quintana (ALAN
TILVERN), of the National Security Police, is equally interested in his
presence in the country. But the plans go ahead.

The new "partners" have a busy time. The Nestors are rigging up an attack by
phoney Indians, led by one Loro (INIA TE WIATA). The Saint, on his part, is
planting phoney gold at a strategic point up river, well aware that when he
"discovers" it, the Nestors will take an active interest in it.

A chartered boat take (sic) them up river. One thing Simon doesn't know is
that Nestor has been forcibly persuaded to take a cargo of arms up river for
the revolutionaries.

A long walk with the Saint along the river bank proves to be anything but
romantic for the unfortunate Alice. Simon has his own method of teaching her
a sharp lesson. And, in the end, it is the presence of the smuggled guns
that proves to be the turning point in making Fergus Maclish's retirement a
very secure one indeed.



PRODUCED BY ROBERT S. BAKER and MONTY BERMAN
DIRECTED BY JOHN MOXEY
SCRIPT SUPERVISION HARRY W. JUNKIN
ROGER MOORE SIMON TEMPLAR
JACQUELINE ELLIS ALICE NESTOR
HUGH MCDERMOTT NESTOR
ALAN TILVERN CAPT. QUINTANA
WALTER BROWN GENERAL CUEVAS
ALEX McCRINDLE FERGUS MACLISH
INIA TE WIATA LORO
ALVARO FONTANA JULIO
BARRY SHAWZIN PACO
ALAN CURTIS VARGOS