Bradford Kessler

Legendary director Peter Bogdanovich is effective in immersing us into the sleezy expat world of 1970’s Singapore. The film is based on a book by Paul Theroux with whom Bogdanovich shares screenwriting credit so I assume the lack of plot in the movie is an attempt to capture the atmosphere of the book rather than the full story of Jack Flowers; an American pimp who befriends a very moral English auditor in town on business from Hong Kong. Jack Flowers is actor Ben Gazzara’s second role as a charming womanizer after John Cassavetes' crime comedy noir ‘The Killing of Chinese Bookie’ from only a few years prior so one can’t help but think of think of Cassavetes’ masterpiece while watching Saint Jack. Both films share a casual pace of realism but where Cassavetes’ film skillfully builds the threat of doom over the playboy protagonist to a climactic violence, Bogdanovich fumbles the action and the timing of lines are delivered too awkwardly by the gangsters for what I assume are local non-actors. It feels as if we are watching a Hong Kong Kung Fu film from the era. These stylistic elements have their charm and perhaps are even appropriate historically for a Roger Corman production with Hugh Hefner in the Executive Producer credits. The amount of cigar smoking in the film reminds you that this was made in a year when Hefner was the ideal man. A young, good looking Bogdanovich (whom many will recognize as the therapist of Tony Soprano’s therapist 25 years later) has a role as a CIA operative with whom shares companionship with Jack Flower’s Sri Lankan prostitute girlfriend.