A melancholy comedy of rebirth and regret, Last Holiday was an original screenplay by the popular and prolific British author and playwright J.B. Priestley, who also produced the film, and is arguably the most successful film based on his work. The story follows the odyssey of George Bird (Alec Guinness), a meek farm implement salesman whose life is upended when, after a routine medical check-up, he is rather abruptly informed that he suffers from a rare incurable disease and has only weeks to live. Recommended to live up his final days, George quits his job, cashes in his savings, buys a second hand wardrobe of high-end suits and heads to a luxury hotel, where he becomes the buzz of the clientele: who is this mystery man? Only the housekeeper knows. Nervous and out of place, George confides the truth of his situation (or most of it anyway, short of his fatal diagnosis) to the resentful Mrs. Poole (Kay Walsh) and, pulled out of feeling sorry for herself by his honesty, she counsels him to hold himself with confidence and speak his mind. "It'll do them good," she chirps, and she's right. The guest list includes a brash but self-conscious businessman with working class manners (Sid James, later famous as a member of the Carry On stock company), a pompous government minister, a cheery inventor (Wilfrid Hyde-White) and the pretty young wife (Beatrice Campbell) of a charming criminal (Brian Worth) whose schemes are catching up with him. Through the course of the film, George's honesty, forthrightness and generosity brings out the best in everyone around him.
"Essentially I'm a small part actor who's been lucky enough to play leading roles for most of his life," Guinness once explained of his success, and he approaches this role the same way. George blossoms from a shy, mousy little salesman who ducks any engagement with life to a comfortable, confident man of the world who speaks his mind simply, clearly and without judgment. Guinness is low key, quietly but firmly asserting George's presence with an uncalculated modesty that makes it all the more affecting and endearing. He even quits his soul-crushing job without a show of fireworks or righteous anger, the simple directness and confidence providing more satisfaction than any flamboyant gesture could. His newfound, self-empowered attitude brings a sudden respect and attention from people who would never before have given him a second glance, and his refreshing honesty cuts through the class divisions and creates a community out of these isolated individuals. The only person left unsatisfied is George himself who, for the first time in his life is offered a future of great possibility...that he won't live to enjoy. The irony and low key humor work hand in hand throughout.
Henry Cass, a successful theater director with a busy but unremarkable screen career, provides the unfussy direction of Last Holiday and guides an excellent ensemble. Kay Walsh, the hotel housekeeper and George's potential love interest, had co-starred with Guinness in Oliver Twist (playing Nancy to his Fagin) and later reunited with Guinness in Tunes of Glory (1960). The lovely Beatrice Campbell followed Guinness to Hollywood to co-star in his next film, The Mudlark (1950). Gregoire Aslan, cast as the efficient hotel manager, matched wits with Guinness in the 1959 Our Man in Havana. Bernard Lee, the original "M" in the James Bond movies, has a small role as a second mystery man who arrives at the hotel investigating one of the guests. And Ernest Thesiger, who appears late in the film as the cantankerous Sir Trevor Lampington, had previously starred in another successful Priestley adaptation: he was the eccentric Horace Femm in the 1932 The Old Dark House, adapted from Priestley's novel Benighted.
While the characters and wry comedy of manners are decidedly British, the film turned out to be a greater success in the United States than in Britain. New York Times critic Bosley Crowther praised the film as "Simple and modest in structure but delightfully rich in character" and Newsweek wrote that Guinness "steals the show." Apparently put out by the reception in his home country, Priestley opined that the film had "various depths of irony that London critics seemed to miss as they shrugged it away." But its American success established Guinness as a leading man, a respected screen actor and an international star.
Producer: Stephen Mitchell, A.D. Peters, J.B. Priestley
Director: Henry Cass
Screenplay: J.B. Priestley
Cinematography: Ray Elton
Art Direction: Duncan Sutherland
Music: Francis Chagrin
Film Editing: Monica Kimick
Cast: Alec Guinness (George Bird), Beatrice Campbell (Sheila Rockingham), Kay Walsh (Mrs. Poole), Coco Aslan (Gambini), Jean Colin (Daisy Clarence), Muriel George (Lady Oswington), Brian Worth (Derek Rockingham), Esma Cannon (Miss Fox), Bernard Lee (Inspector Wilton), Sid James (Joe Clarence), Campbell Cotts (Bellinghurst), Moultrie Kelsall (Sir Robert Kyle), Madam Kirkwood-Hackett (Miss Hatfield), Wilfrid Hyde-White (Chalfont), Eric Maturin (Wrexham), Helen Cherry (Miss Mellows), Harry Hutchinson (Michael the Waiter), Hal Osmond (Trade Union Man), Brian Oulton (Prescott), Ernest Thesiger (Sir Trevor Lampington), Heather Wilde (Maggie the Maid), Ronald Simpson (Dr. Pevensey).
BW-88m.
by Sean Axmaker
