I saw Mr. Sanders "In London" before these two. Lewis
Hayward did New York. A nice double feature with "Strikes Back" starring George Sanders on the same tape. Robert Osborne even does an intro. for TCM. Mr. Hayward is pretty good & I admit he puts me in mind of James Bond more than Mr. Sanders. He's cruel & charming, kills with cool dispatch, yet he is still one of the good guys. The Law is ambivalent about The Saint/Simon Templar. He is somewhat of a Robin Hood in that he steals from criminals, helps law enforcement but takes a cut for himself. In dispair New York City hires him (in secret) to rid itself of criminal gangs that control the city & are corrupting the courts. He has a list of gang bosses & goes to work. Some die easy some not so. He falls in love with the moll(Kay Sutton) who saves his life (twice).
Mr Sanders takes over in the second movie "...Strikes Back". A bit confused but the Saint gets involved when he assists Val's (Wendy Barry) escape from a New Year's Party where a murder has been committed. She is the daughter of a disgraced San Francisco cop. She seems to have a lot of axes to grind. But of course there is much more involved. See/buy the movie. You won't be disappointed. The best scenes are the berthing scenes on an overnight flight with the Saint & New York Inspector Fernack. The Saint again falls in love this time with Val: "I love you but don't let's get sticky about it."
Two for one. What a deal!

George Sanders Replaces Louis Hayward
THE SAINT IN NEW YORK was the first Saint movie produced by RKO Radio Pictures and it starred Louis Hayward as Simon Templar ( "The Saint"). In this episode Templar was hired to eliminate some criminals. The supporting cast included Kay Sutton and Jack Carson.

The next entry in the series was THE SAINT STRIKES BACK which appeared in 1939. It was based on the novel ANGEL OF DOOM by Leslie Charteris who had sold the rights to several of his books featuring the Saint to RKO Radio Pictures. George Sanders was given the role of Templar. The supporting cast included Wendy Barrie and Barry Fitzgerald.