Roy Ward Baker

London-born Roy Ward Baker served his cinematic apprenticeship from 1934 to 1939 in the Gainesborough Studios assistant-director pool. After World War II service, Baker directed several documentaries, moving to dramatic subjects with his first feature, the psychological melodrama The October Man (1947). While employed at Two Cities Productions, Baker held the directorial reins of I'll Never Forget You, filmed in England on behalf of Hollywood's 20th Century-Fox. This led to a handful of directorial assignments at Fox's home studios, most notably the Marilyn Monroe vehicle Don't Bother to Knock (1952) and the 3-D thriller Inferno (1953). Returning to England, Baker turned out such first-rank product as The One That Got Away (1957), A Night to Remember (1958) and Quatermass and the Pit (1967). Amidst several theatrical horror films in the 1960s, Baker entered television as one of the most prolific directors of The Saint TV series. Roy Ward Baker's later video assignments included such TV movies as The Monster Club (1980) and Sherlock Holmes and the Masks of Death (1984), as well as the unorthodox British detective series Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), syndicated to the U.S. in 1974 as My Partner the Ghost.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide