Robert S. Baker

London-born Robert S. Baker served as an artilleryman in the British army during World War II, posted to North Africa (where he met future partner Monty Berman), and later joined the army's film and photography unit, becoming a combat cameraman in Europe. At war's end he and Berman formed Tempean Films to make movies, their first being a Terry-Thomas / Norman Wisdom comedy, Date with a Dream (1948). The company churned out a string of lower-budget "B" pictures, including comedies, mysteries and thrillers, many of them directed by Baker. In 1959 they made a somewhat edgier film than their usual fare, Jack the Ripper (1959), a fictionalized account of the notorious Whitechapel serial killer. The next year they came out with an even grittier crime thriller, The Siege of Sidney Street (1960), about a real-life 1911 shootout between police and a gang of Russian criminals in east London. They next turned out The Hellfire Club (1961), an anemic "adventure" film, which was followed by The Secret of Monte Cristo (1961), one of the lesser entries in the string of pictures based on the classic Alexandre Dumas novel. Berman and Baker concentrated on television in the 1960s, their main project being as producers of The Saint (1962) series. Baker later joined Gideon C.I.D. (1964) as a producer. When that series ended Baker and "The Saint" star Roger Moore formed Bamore Productions, which produced a feature spin-off of that series, The Fiction-Makers (1968), and then the Moore / Tony Curtis "crimerighting playboys" series The Persuaders! (1971). Baker later produced the series Return of the Saint (1978) and Return to Treasure Island (1986).