3 Movies / January 14
Film historian David Thomson wrote that Sir Stanley Baker, “until the early 1960s, was the only male lead in the British cinema who managed to suggest contemptuousness, aggression, and the working class.”
Thomson further described the Welsh-born Baker as “the first hint of proletarian male vigor against the grain” of such gentlemanly British actors as Leslie Howard, James Mason, Dirk Bogarde and others.
Baker became one of Britain’s most important actors as he progressed from playing brutes and villains to rough-hewn heroes. TCM offers this salute with three of his early starring roles in British films of the late 1950s.
He was born William Stanley Baker into a coal-mining family in Glamorgan, Wales, on February 28, 1928. After serving in the Royal Army Service Corps, Baker began acting while still in Wales and later appeared on the London stage.
He made his film debut in 1943 and soon attracted attention with his compelling villains in such films as Hell Below Zero (1954) and Campbell’s Kingdom (1957).
Below are the movies in our tribute, which marked Baker’s emergence as a leading man. The first two were produced by the Rank Organisation; the third was a co-production of Hammer Films and Columbia Pictures in the U.S.
Hell Drivers (1957) is a film noir crime drama with Baker as an ex-convict who goes to work for a trucking company where drivers are viciously competitive. In his first leading role in a film, Baker plays a character who comes from a location in Wales near his actual birthplace. He is top-billed in a cast that also includes Sean Connery, David McCallum and Jill Ireland. The director is Cy Endfield, who would become an important collaborator for Baker.
Violent Playground (1958), a study of juvenile delinquency in Liverpool, has Baker in the leading role of an officer on the trail of a gang of young hoodlums who are committing arson and terrorizing local schoolchildren. McCallum again costars, along with Peter Cushing and Anne Heywood. Basil Dearden directed.
Yesterday’s Enemy (1959), set during the Burma campaign, stars Baker as a ruthless British Army captain leading fellow soldiers through the jungle toward British lines. Val Guest directed. Reviewing the film’s 2009 DVD release, Julian Upton described Baker’s character as a “proto-Peckinpah anti-hero” and wrote that the movie “is worth seeing for Baker’s performance alone.” His portrayal earned him a nomination for a BAFTA award as Best British Actor.
Even after graduating to leads, Baker continued to play arch-villains in such films as The Concrete Jungle (1960) and Sodom and Gomorrah (1962), along with less unsavory but still rough-edged characters in The Guns of Navarone (1961), starring Gregory Peck; and Eva (1962), directed by Joseph Losey.
In the early 1960s Baker established his own production company, Diamond Films, with director Cy Enfield. Their first production was Zulu (1964), an epic film about the battle between British forces and the Zulus in 1879. The film helped Michael Caine become a star and presented Baker in one of his best-remembered roles as willful officer Lt. John Chard.
Baker’s other career milestones included Sands of the Kalahari (1965), Accident (1967), Robbery (1967), Where’s Jack? (1969) and television work including the series How Green Was My Valley, for which he was nominated for an Emmy as Best Lead Actor.
Baker was married to Ellen Martin from 1950 to his death in 1976. The couple had four children. A heavy smoker, he was only 48 when he died of lung cancer and pneumonia in 1976. His knighthood was awarded posthumously.
Regarding his frequent choice of sinister roles, he once said, “I made up my mind years ago that the best parts in films always went to the villain. I was determined to corner the bad man’s market.”
