The Extra Day ** (1956, Richard Basehart, Simone Simon, Sidney James, Josephine Griffin, George Baker) – Classic Movie Review 11,916

George Baker stars with Richard Basehart, Simone Simon, Sidney James and Josephine Griffin in the 1956 comedy drama The Extra Day.

Writer-director William Fairchild’s 1956 film The Extra Day is just the kind of idea a film-writer would come up with – a drama about the lives of five film extras recalled for additional scenes for a movie – and guaranteed to appeal to producers more than the public.

This shaky brainchild of director Fairchild places America’s dependable Richard Basehart, France’s pert Simone Simon and Britain’s solid George Baker in a collection of thin tales. Thin they may be, but the depiction of 1950s British movie-making does hold an interest, and so certainly does the vintage cast.

Sid James and Bryan Forbes put in almost obligatory appearances for a British film of this period, Beryl Reid plays Beryl, and singers Dennis Lotis and Shani Wallis pop in. Fairchild wrote the scripts for Morning Departure (1950) and The Gift Horse (1952), and directed a trio of movies.

It is favourite Brit character actor Frank Williams’s first film.

Also in the cast are Colin Gordon, Laurence Naismith, Charles Victor, Olga Lindo, Beryl Reid, Dennis Lotis, Joan Hickson, David Hannaford, Philip Ray, Jill Bennett, Shani Wallis, Bryan Forbes, Eddie Byrne, Patrick Cargill, Doreen Dawn, Hugh Dempster, Peter Coke, Frank Williams, Gerald Harper, and Jessie Evans.

RIP George Baker (1931–2011). His films include The Intruder (1953), The Dam Busters (1955), The Ship That Died of Shame (1955), The Woman for Joe (1955), The Feminine Touch (1956), A Hill in Korea (1956), The Extra Day (1956), These Dangerous Years (1957), No Time for Tears (1957) and The Moonraker (1958). But he is best known on TV as Tiberius in I, Claudius, and Inspector Wexford in The Ruth Rendell Mysteries.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 11,916

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