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Informed that he has only a short time to live, salesman George Bird (Alec Guinness) decides to enjoy his last months to the fullest. He withdraws all his savings from the bank and heads to a posh hotel. Here he makes more contacts and opens more professional doors than he's ever done before, thanks to his willingness--at long last--to take risks. He also spends every penny that he's earned in life, before discovering that the doctor's diagnosis was in error, and that he's in no danger of imminent death whatsoever. An ironic ending caps this fast-paced black comedy.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I love old escapist Hollywood but my favourite post-war dramas are British & here's another one. Simple, well made & well played with a slice of society, some lifestyle philosophy & a painfully sad ending, held together by a catchy bittersweet score & a lovely fantasy idea about violinists. 90 very rewarding minutes.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
(Warning: plot spoiler)
When I think about films that have mattered in my life, "Last Holiday" is on the short list -- an ironic British comedy written by J.B. Priestly and released in 1950. Alec Guinness plays George Bird, a salesman as cautious as a civil servant, who has never married because what women see in his face is dread of life, not an attractive quality. A persistent headache has made him consult a doctor. After medical tests, Bird has been told to come back the next day for the diagnosis, but by the time he returns the files have been mixed up. The doctor has someone else's results in Bird's folder and so informs him that he has an untreatable illness and will be dead in six weeks. In fact, all Bird needs is an aspirin or perhaps a pint of beer.
The doctor's error transforms Bird's life. He quits his job that very day, empties his bank account (there is no longer any point in saving up for old age), and books a room in a luxury hotel, a coastal resort for the affluent. He had never imagined setting foot in such a place until he spotted the graveyard racing toward him. A day later he begins his last holiday. No longer needing to play it safe, Bird can say and do things he previously would never have dared -- there is nothing left to fear. For the first time in his life women find him attractive. Bankers, corporate executives, and government ministers are soon lining up for his advice, offering partnerships and vice-presidencies. Everyone senses in him a mysterious quality, a detachment and freedom that make him a figure to be reckoned with. The viewer alone knows just what that mysterious quality is: Bird's death sentence has been his liberation. He is no longer a prisoner of the terrifying future.
The people in the hotel are far from a happy group. In many ways their holiday hotel is a well-appointed purgatory. Bird becomes something of a Saint Francis in his efforts to help his fellow guests become less selfish people, though it takes only his being late to a meal in his honor to sour their affection for him. What they don't know is that the guest of honor has just been killed in an auto accident while off on a mission of mercy. The doctor with the wrong file was right after all, not in his diagnosis but in the basic fact that George Bird -- not to mention every one of us -- is going to die and there's nothing we can do about it. The physician's only error was that it took less than six weeks to happen.
It's a film about poverty of spirit: stepping into a life in which I am no longer in charge, in which I own nothing, in which, like George Bird, I am freed by news of my own death. Free as a bird.
When I think about films that have mattered in my life, "Last Holiday" is on the short list -- an ironic British comedy written by J.B. Priestly and released in 1950. Alec Guinness plays George Bird, a salesman as cautious as a civil servant, who has never married because what women see in his face is dread of life, not an attractive quality. A persistent headache has made him consult a doctor. After medical tests, Bird has been told to come back the next day for the diagnosis, but by the time he returns the files have been mixed up. The doctor has someone else's results in Bird's folder and so informs him that he has an untreatable illness and will be dead in six weeks. In fact, all Bird needs is an aspirin or perhaps a pint of beer.
The doctor's error transforms Bird's life. He quits his job that very day, empties his bank account (there is no longer any point in saving up for old age), and books a room in a luxury hotel, a coastal resort for the affluent. He had never imagined setting foot in such a place until he spotted the graveyard racing toward him. A day later he begins his last holiday. No longer needing to play it safe, Bird can say and do things he previously would never have dared -- there is nothing left to fear. For the first time in his life women find him attractive. Bankers, corporate executives, and government ministers are soon lining up for his advice, offering partnerships and vice-presidencies. Everyone senses in him a mysterious quality, a detachment and freedom that make him a figure to be reckoned with. The viewer alone knows just what that mysterious quality is: Bird's death sentence has been his liberation. He is no longer a prisoner of the terrifying future.
The people in the hotel are far from a happy group. In many ways their holiday hotel is a well-appointed purgatory. Bird becomes something of a Saint Francis in his efforts to help his fellow guests become less selfish people, though it takes only his being late to a meal in his honor to sour their affection for him. What they don't know is that the guest of honor has just been killed in an auto accident while off on a mission of mercy. The doctor with the wrong file was right after all, not in his diagnosis but in the basic fact that George Bird -- not to mention every one of us -- is going to die and there's nothing we can do about it. The physician's only error was that it took less than six weeks to happen.
It's a film about poverty of spirit: stepping into a life in which I am no longer in charge, in which I own nothing, in which, like George Bird, I am freed by news of my own death. Free as a bird.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
"Last Holiday," (1950), is another brisk -88 minutes - classic little black and white English comedy of the 1950's; though this one, with its dramatic elements, might perhaps best be described as a romantic dramedy; with the proviso that its comedy is sometimes very dark, indeed. It was penned by the acerbic, notably left-wing British novelist and playwright J.B. Pristley, (The Good Companions (Rediscovering Priestley)(1929),Angel Pavement (1930); the play, and later movie by the same name, starring Alistair Sim, An Inspector Calls [DVD] [1954]).
LAST HOLIDAY stars the remarkable Alec Guinness. (Guinness was, early in his career - at the time of this filming, best known as a comic actor, seeKind Hearts And Coronets [DVD] [1949]. But in the late 1950s he won an Oscar for The Bridge On The River Kwai [DVD] [1957], and afterward played dramatic roles as well. He became internationally famous, of course, in STAR WARS.) Guinness here plays the socially awkward agricultural machinery salesman George Bird whose doctor tells him he has only a few months to live. So Bird cashes in his life savings for one last hurrah at a snobby seaside resort, where he learns as much about himself as he does about the resort's staff and guests. He finds that here, people actually like him, including people who would, at the time and place, and perhaps even still, be considered his economic or social betters. This film co-stars Beatrice Campbell (The Master of Ballentrae [DVD]) as Bird's love interest, Sheila Rockingham, housekeeper of the resort. Guinness's frequent co-star Kay Walsh (The Horses Mouth [DVD] [1958]) is also present as Mrs. Poole. Also on hand are Bernard Lee ("M" in the earlier James Bond, 007 films) as Inspector Wilton; Wilfred Hyde-White (Two Way Stretch [DVD] [1960]) as Chalfont; and Sid James(Carry On - The Ultimate Collection [DVD]) as Joe Clarence.
The film's underpinnings and backstory are really quite serious, for a comedy. At one point, Bird asks someone: "How do you keep smiling with a stiff upper lip?" A question that has surely troubled a substantial part of the British population. Almost despite itself, seems to me, the movie gives a fairly accurate picture of the stunted lives of the English lower classes of the time. It, too, was not made by Ealing Studios, but was filmed in Luton, Bedfordshire, U.K. It inspired the sentimental 2006 Queen Latifah comedy by the same name,The Last Holiday [DVD] [2006], penned by writers who were supposedly big fans of Ealing Studios. But Guinness's LAST HOLIDAY is a film without many belly laughs; some viewers might find it an odd kind of comedy. But it just might stay with you a while.
LAST HOLIDAY stars the remarkable Alec Guinness. (Guinness was, early in his career - at the time of this filming, best known as a comic actor, seeKind Hearts And Coronets [DVD] [1949]. But in the late 1950s he won an Oscar for The Bridge On The River Kwai [DVD] [1957], and afterward played dramatic roles as well. He became internationally famous, of course, in STAR WARS.) Guinness here plays the socially awkward agricultural machinery salesman George Bird whose doctor tells him he has only a few months to live. So Bird cashes in his life savings for one last hurrah at a snobby seaside resort, where he learns as much about himself as he does about the resort's staff and guests. He finds that here, people actually like him, including people who would, at the time and place, and perhaps even still, be considered his economic or social betters. This film co-stars Beatrice Campbell (The Master of Ballentrae [DVD]) as Bird's love interest, Sheila Rockingham, housekeeper of the resort. Guinness's frequent co-star Kay Walsh (The Horses Mouth [DVD] [1958]) is also present as Mrs. Poole. Also on hand are Bernard Lee ("M" in the earlier James Bond, 007 films) as Inspector Wilton; Wilfred Hyde-White (Two Way Stretch [DVD] [1960]) as Chalfont; and Sid James(Carry On - The Ultimate Collection [DVD]) as Joe Clarence.
The film's underpinnings and backstory are really quite serious, for a comedy. At one point, Bird asks someone: "How do you keep smiling with a stiff upper lip?" A question that has surely troubled a substantial part of the British population. Almost despite itself, seems to me, the movie gives a fairly accurate picture of the stunted lives of the English lower classes of the time. It, too, was not made by Ealing Studios, but was filmed in Luton, Bedfordshire, U.K. It inspired the sentimental 2006 Queen Latifah comedy by the same name,The Last Holiday [DVD] [2006], penned by writers who were supposedly big fans of Ealing Studios. But Guinness's LAST HOLIDAY is a film without many belly laughs; some viewers might find it an odd kind of comedy. But it just might stay with you a while.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A tragic comedy
Comedy is hardly the best word to describe this excellent film, although it was not supposed to be mere drama. However, it works extremely well. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Filmbuff
Last Holiday
Rather dated movie that is none the less worthwhile as it is an early Alec Guinness in a fairly straight role. Read more
Published on 19 Aug 2009 by A. L. Orchover
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