Stanley Baker Movies

Innocent Bystanders stars Stanley Baker as a Bondlike British secret service agent. In collaboration with fellow spies Geraldine Chaplin and Dana Andrews, Baker is sent behind the Iron Curtain to locate a Russian scientist who has escaped from Siberia. There's a likelihood that the scientist was permitted to escape so that he can spy on the Good Guys. Baker must decide if the escapee is to be rescued or eliminated. The level of sadism and bloodshed in Innocent Bystanders is such that at times it makes the James Bond films look like models of decorum. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Claudia Cardinale is Popsy, who double-crosses her older partner Silva (Stanley Baker). Silva has arranged to divert diamonds from a large corporate-run diamond mine in the South American jungle, and Popsy does her "pop" wrong as they are both pursued by police. This French-language underworld adventure film has a screenplay by Henri Charriere (who also acts in the film), better-known for his screenplay for Papillion. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This cult movie classic, also known as Schizoid, is a psychodrama murder mystery thriller involving LSD, psychoanalysis, lesbianism, and having at least one extremely gory dream sequence which involves eviscerated dogs. The director had to prove in court that the dogs in question were fabricated and not real. Florinda Bolkan stars as the woman with all the clues to murder. Stanley Baker is the unlucky police inspector who has to separate what is fact from fantasy. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Not to be confused with the 1966 Diabolique rip-off Games, 1970's The Games is set during the Rome Olympics. The film zeroes in on four contestants in the 26-mile marathon race: Briton Michael Crawford, American Ryan O'Neal, Czech Charles Aznavour and Australian Athol Compton. Scenes of the grueling training sessions are placed in context with the personal dramas of the four men. Crawford is being driven to the breaking point by trainer Stanley Baker, O'Neal is suffering from a dangerous heart condition, Aznavour is past forty but obliged to compete by his government, and Compton is an Aborigine fighting a lifelong battle against prejudice. Eric Segal, himself an avid runner adapted the screenplay of The Games from the novel by Hugh Atkinson. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Jack Sheppard (Tommy Steele) is the locksmith's apprentice who is forced into highway robbery when he is betrayed by Jonathan Wild (Stanley Baker). Jack runs for his life and takes to a life of crime. He is captured but breaks out of jail, quickly becoming the subject of lore, legend and song. The arrogant and popular Jack ends up heading for the gallows after taunting the King, the Lord Chancellor and a harridan aristocratic dowager. Wild tries to track down the elusive robber and collect on the reward like he has done so many times before in this dramatic adventure biography. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

The complex relationships among an Oxford professor, one of his students, and the young woman who captivates both of them is the subject of this difficult but rewarding drama. Director Joseph Losey and writer Harold Pinter had previously collaborated on 1963's The Servant, and they surrounded this recasting of a Nicholas Mosley novel with a similar atmosphere of ominous mystery. The story is presented through flashbacks and disconnected memories that trace the characters' interactions. Though the mood is occasionally brightened by satirical views of the academic world, the overall effect is rather somber, concerned with missed opportunities, unhealthy obsessions, and unavoidable regret. Dirk Bogarde superbly captures the pensive professor's torment, with able support from Jacqueline Sassard and Michael York as the younger couple. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

Code Name: Heraclitus is an expanded version of a TV drama first seen in January of 1967 on Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre. Stanley Baker stars as a British spy who investigating the past of Signe Hasso, the widow of secret agent Kurt Kasner. Hasso is suspected of selling cold war secrets to the Communists. To ascertain the truth, it is necessary to "rebuild" Kasner and send his living counterpart behind the Iron Curtain. Though originally advertised in TV Guide as a two-part Chrysler Theatre drama, it appears as though Code Name: Heraclitus was whittled down to 60 minutes for its first telecast, then later released in its uncut form to European movie houses. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Stranded in the African wilds by a plane crash, a disparate group of passengers' worst enemy isn't weather or wild animals but a fellow traveler. A delayed flight causes several South African travelers to charter a small plane from unctuous pilot Sturdevan (Nigel Davenport). Among the group: Dr. Bondrachai (Theodore Bikel), divorcee Grace Munkton (Susannah York), the crooked Brian O'Brien (Stuart Whitman), the elderly German Grimmelman (Harry Andrews), and mining engineer Mike Bain (Stanley Baker). O'Brien bribes Sturdevan to reroute the flight, so when the plane is brought down in the vast Kalahari by an encounter with a cloud of locusts, no rescue can be expected. A struggle for control begins. After Studevan attacks Grace sexually, he is exiled, and Brian takes over. He attempts to banish Bondrachai and Grimmelman, but the latter objects, and Brian kills him. Only Grace and Mike are left to deal with Brian, but when they think they've got the best of him, he manages to stay alive and stalk them to plot his revenge. Vicious local baboons have a surprise for the increasingly deranged Brian, however-they are hunting the hunter. The film re-teams star/co-producer Baker with his Zulu (1964) writer/director Cy Endfield. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Author Irwin Shaw wrote the screenplay for this adaptation of two of his short stories set in Paris. Christina James (Jean Seberg) is a footloose American girl living in the City of Lights. She becomes involved with Guy (Philippe Forquet), who tells her that he's a student at the University studying engineering, but when they plan a rendezvous at a cheap hotel, he confesses to her that he's really only 16 years old. Christina breaks it off with him and goes through a series of brief and unsatisfying affairs with a variety of men until she meets Walter Beddoes (Stanley Baker), a journalist with an unfortunate appetite for alcohol. Despite the fact his work often forces him to travel abroad on a moment's notice, Christina is deeply in love with Walter, and when her father (Addison James) tries to persuade her to come back to the United States, she refuses, preferring to stay with Walter. In time, Christina realizes that Walter is away from her more often than he's with her, and when she meets John Haislip (James Leo Herlihy), an American doctor vacationing in France, she has to decide if her passion for Walter is more important than her feelings for John, who wants her to come to his home in San Francisco, where he'll always be there for her. In the French Style offered an appropriate role for actress Jean Seberg, who was born in Iowa but found most of her best film roles after she moved to France. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This 153-minute Biblical epic about salt and sin is directed by Robert Aldrich and has enough dynamic interactions between its chief protagonists to sustain interest in-between climactic scenes. Stewart Granger is Lot, the Hebrew leader who takes his people to camp in the Valley of Jordan only to find that they are caught between the Helamites on the one hand, and the wicked Queen Bera (Anouk Aimee) on the other. She rules over the twin cesspools of Sodom and Gomorrah and is beleaguered by a crafty brother who wants the scepter she now wields. The Queen makes a pact with Lot that he can stay with the Hebrews in the valley as long as he defends it -- she wants to use him and the Hebrews as a first line of defense against the Helamites. To seal the pact, she gives Lot her best slave Ildith (Pier Angeli) to be his wife. Adventures and excitement prevails as Lot and the Hebrews brave one challenge after the other -- until Lot realizes that his people are being corrupted by the environment of Sodom and Gomorrah and eventually receives a Divine vision and knows he has to lead the Hebrews away from here. Special effects are impressive and take much of the impact away from the fate of Ildith, as she turns one last time to look back at the crumbling cities. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This effective crime caper involves an attempted robbery of no one less than the U.S. Army, a heist which has its beginnings when Turpin (Stanley Baker) is drummed out of the service for his black-market activities. Apparently chaffing at this unjust treatment and also fueled by greed, Turpin enlists two cohorts -- Swavek and Fenner (Helmut Schmid and Tom Bell) to help him carry out his revenge. After much rehearsal of his plan, the three put on uniforms and walk into an army camp just before the troops are mustered out to the Middle East during a crisis over the Suez Canal. The trio's intention is to rob the payroll ($700,000), stash the cash in a spare tire, and drive out of there. That is the plan, but the reality turns out quite different, after one of the three gets a reaction to a vaccination and another is called up for KP duty ("kitchen police"). ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi