A great journeyman director passed away on Tuesday. Roy Ward Baker was responsible for helming “A Night To Remember” the 1958 film about the sinking of the Titanic. A wonderfully shot, realistic portrayal of that infamous incident, and a breath of fresh air when compared to Cameron’s “soap opera” version. More importantly for the purposes of this blog though are his horror and sci fi films plus the TV work he did in the 60′s and 70′s. Some of his films are included in this year’s Halloween Movie Countdown.
For Hammer:
Legend of the seven Golden Vampires
Quatermass and the Pit
The Vampire Lovers
For Amicus:
Asylum
Vault of Horror
For TV:
Several episodes of The Avengers
and many episodes of The Saint.
The thing about him was no matter what the material he gave it his all. No matter how much the studio interfered, or changed his stuff around in post production he always tried to keep things meticulous in detail and it shows. All those films listed above are considered B movies (except for Night to Remember), but all these years later they hold up pretty well. In the hands of a lesser director they may have been a total mess. It’s not an easy task to make a reasonably successful film out of those scripts and those conditions. He even worked with better Davis in the Anniversary and anyone who could do that gets a handshake from me!
Fortunately for us we have his commentary on the DVD’s in several of those films. He doesn’t always have a lot to add (I am sure his memory was probably a little fuzzy and it was probably his style to be economical in the way he spoke as well as his directing style), but now his presence is on those discs forever. I will remember him as a great journey man type director. A guy who started his career in the 1930′s assisting Hitchcock and bringing quality to low budget, small studio films. That British style that seems to elevate these films. Thanks for making the effort Roy.
Robert
Roy ward baker rip at 93.. Not so bad