Last Holiday (1950 film)

Last Holiday
Alec Guinness as George Bird and Helen Cherry as Miss Mellows
Directed by	Henry Cass
Produced by	Associated British Picture Watergate Films Stephen Mitchell A. D. Peters J.B. Priestley
Written by	J. B. Priestley
Starring	Alec Guinness Beatrice Campbell Kay Walsh Bernard Lee Wilfrid Hyde-White Helen Cherry Jean Colin Muriel George Sid James
Music by	Francis Chagrin
Cinematography	Ray Elton
Edited by	Monica Kimick
Production company	Warner Brothers Welwyn Studios
Distributed by	Warner Brothers Associated British-Pathé, Ltd.
Release dates	3 May 1950 (1950-05-03)
Running time	89 min
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Box office	£109,084 (UK)[1]

Last Holiday is a 1950 British film featuring Alec Guinness in his sixth starring role. The low-key, dark comedy was written and co-produced by J. B. Priestley and directed by Henry Cass, featuring irony and wit often associated with Priestley.

Synopsis

George Bird (Guinness), an ordinary, unassuming salesman of agricultural implements, visits a physician for a routine check-up and is told he has Lampington's Disease, a newly identified condition which allows him only a few weeks to live. He accepts the doctor’s advice to take his savings and enjoy himself in the little time left to him. A bachelor with no family or friends, Bird decides to spend his last days at an up-market residential hotel among its elite clientele.

Bird’s unassuming attitude generates a great deal of interest among the hotel's residents. He is seen as an enigma to be solved, with wild speculations offered as to his identity and possible noble lineage. The hotel's housekeeper (Walsh) guesses the truth, and Bird confides his secret to her. Bird quickly acquires friends and influence, falls in love (possibly for the first time in his life), sets wrongs to right, and is offered lucrative business opportunities. But these successes only serve to make him reflect on the irony that he will have no time to enjoy them.

During a strike by the hotel's staff, Bird comes into contact with Sir Trevor Lampington (Thesiger), the namesake of the disease which overshadows his recently found happiness. Lampington insists that Bird cannot possibly have the disease. During a trip back to his home town, Bird confirms that he indeed was given the wrong diagnosis. Overjoyed, he is ready to begin life afresh with his new sweetheart, friends and business opportunities. In a twist ending, however, he is killed in a car accident on the way back to the hotel. The hotel guests, having learned the truth about Bird's identity and misdiagnosis, quickly begin to cast aspersions on him, but are interrupted with the news that he has died.

Cast

Reception

Upon its New York City November 1950 release, Bosley Crowther called it an "amusing and poignant little picture" that is "simple and modest in structure but delightfully rich in character."^[2]

Other releases and versions

The film was released on VHS in 2000 by Homevision. It was released in DVD format by Janus Films and The Criterion Collection under license from Studio Canal in June 2009, but was dropped from their catalogs in 2011.

A loose remake of the same name was released in 2006, starring Queen Latifah as Georgia Byrd, LL Cool J, Timothy Hutton, Alicia Witt, and Gérard Depardieu.

See also

• Joe Versus the Volcano, another film about a misdiagnosed protagonist
• The Blue Castle, a novel with a similar plot

References

External links

• Last Holiday at the Internet Movie Database