Saint Jack (1979)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Easygoing expatriate Jack Flowers (Ben Gazzara) makes his living in early-1970's Singapore legally and illegally looking after the needs of American and British businessmen, such as the mild-mannered William Leigh (Denholm Elliott). With his gift for putting clients and girls at ease, Jack opens a successful brothel, but pressure from local mobsters soon puts him out of business. Ever the survivor, he starts working for the shady, Cuban-cigar-smoking Eddie Schuman (Peter Bogdanovich) as a pimp for GI's on breaks from Vietnam. But Jack's conscience starts to dog him when Schuman hires him to take compromising pictures of a visiting Senator (George Lazenby). 'Saint Jack' offers a pimp with a heart of gold, who is less an ugly colonial American abroad than an outsider trying to make the best of a bad situation. - Actors:
- Ben Gazzara, Denholm Elliott, James Villiers, Joss Ackland, Rodney Bewes, Mark Kingston, Lisa Lu, Monika Subramaniam, Judy Lim, George Lazenby, Peter Bogdanovich, Joseph Noël, Kian Bee Ong, Yan Meng Tan, Andrew Chua, Peter Pang, Ronald Ng, Teow Keng Seow, Ken Wolinski, Peter Tay
- Directors:
- Peter Bogdanovich
- Producers:
- Roger Corman
- Writers:
- Howard Sackler, Paul Theroux, Peter Bogdanovich
- Others:
- Denholm Elliott
- Genres:
- Drama
- Awards:
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Reviews (1) of Saint Jack
The Singapore Fling - Saint Jack review by griggs
Not the sleazy romp you’d expect from a film with Roger Corman’s name attached—this is softer, sadder, and far more human. Ben Gazzara’s Jack Flowers is a small-time wheeler-dealer in 1970s Singapore, running a brothel with the weary charm of a man who’s seen too much and expects little more. He’s open to everyone, at home anywhere, but somehow unknowable—there’s a big hurt buried deep, and he keeps it hidden like a photo in his wallet.
The film’s heart isn’t in the trade, but in Jack’s unexpectedly moving friendship with Denholm Elliott’s uptight British auditor. Two lonely men, wary at first, surprised by how much they see in each other. Their shared scenes are tender and understated, full of sidelong glances and emotional restraint.
It meanders, yes—but there’s richness in the haze: CIA shadows, colonial rot, sweating walls, and a city on the cusp of sanitisation. A humid character study with just enough bite to cut through the malaise.