Book review – “Stanley Baker: A Life in Film” by Robert Shail

Baker was one of the most imposing actors in British cinema. Dark, brooding, intense, he was a natural for villainous parts. Indeed, this meant his rise to regular, well-paid work was quite rapid: he came out of the army in 1948, struggled for a year or so but then got a good part in a Chris Fry play which took him to Broadway, began to work steadily, made a terrific impression in The Cruel Sea, and then was being nasty to various stars in a series of Hollywood-financed films shot in Britain. Like Bogart, his bad guy performances were often the most striking thing about the movies he was in; also like Bogart, he was ambitious and intelligent and wanted to play better roles. Bogie had John Huston and High Sierra/Maltese Falcon, Baker had Cy Endfield (and later Joe Losey) and Hell Drivers.

By the late 50s he was established as a second-tier star as the tough guy hero of a series of thrillers and detective films which never seemed to be large hits and are little remembered today. (Hell Drivers seems to be the exception). By the very early 60s he was the third most popular British star after Sean Connery and Cliff Richard. He was able to use this popularity to produce and star in Zulu, which remains the film for which he is best remembered.

I’m surprised Baker never really recaptured the success of Zulu after he made it. Tough guy actors never really go out of fashion, he worked well with top directors like Losey and Robert Aldrich. But he followed up Zulu with the unpopular Sands of the Kalahari; he semi-bounced back with Robbery, and Accident for Losey, as well as producingThe Italian Job as well as being part of a consortium that set up Harlech Television. But he then went on to produce and co-star in a big flop, Where’s Jack?, and his career went into decline – he starred in a series of dud films that no one seems to care much about (even Shail has little good to say for them apart from Perfect Friday), and to make matters worse he lost a huge whack of his fortune in an ill-advised attempt to take over British Lion. (I know it’s all very well to be wise in hindsight but come on, Stanley, British Lion always lost money)

Maybe the problem was at the bottom of it Baker the film star hero never really graduated to the A league – he was an A-league villain, but he tended to be associated with B-picture heroics. Maybe B-picture isn’t the right word – but his leading man stardom was based on second-tier crime films, and those sort of pictures pretty much died out in Britain during the 60s (they were replaced by television). (I don’t understand why he didn’t do more action pictures in the wake of Zulu and Guns of Navarone – maybe they weren’t offered). Baker’s reluctance to work in America also may have hurt him – plus the fact that down deep I don’t think he really wanted to be a big star. He was obviously a smart cookie, but there was a limit to his ability as businessman, as exemplified by the British Lion experience. (Just because you are a good producer doesn’t mean you’re a good executive – just ask Bryan Forbes).

Baker continued to do good work on television and had he lived I think he would still be a major name today, probably as a television star who keeps featuring in the occasional juicy support role in a blockbuster and stealing the notices. Who knows, he could have even become a Welsh MP. But Baker was blessed with family genes that lacked longevity (his father died young) and the heavy drinking and chain smoking wouldn’t have helped – he died in his 40s.

Shail is an academic and at times you can tell. He has been careful to ensure his work is devoid of jargon, but it's heavily reliant on secondary sources and he doesn’t seem to have done many interviews (just Ellen Baker and a few locals; oddest anecdote: Lady Baker told Shail that after Baker would perform sexy love scenes with Ursula Andress in Perfect Friday he’d come home an act the town bull with his missus.) We get glimpses of the man - the fact he wore a toupee, his fondness of gambling and boozing, his early years as a lady killer - but not a thorough picture.

Shail is however excellent when analysing Baker’s acting and image and how it fit into British society and cinema at the time, and also in terms of Welsh nationality. He’s not as crash hot on the nuts and bolts of filmmaking, mostly drawing on the established histories like Alexander Walker’s and Sheldon Hall’s account of Zulu. Still, if you're interested in Baker definitely worth a read.