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,
Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder (1959), a
fictionalized account of the notorious Whitechapel serial killer. The
next year they came out with an even grittier crime thriller,
Verbrecherzentrale Sidney Street (1960),
about a real-life 1911 shootout between police and a gang of Russian
criminals in east London. They next turned out
Der rote Herzog (1961), an
anemic "adventure" film, which was followed by
Das Geheimnis von Monte Christo (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
Simon Templar (1962) series. Baker
later joined Gideon's Way (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,
Hermetico - Die unsichtbare Region (1968), and
then the Moore / Tony Curtis
"crimerighting playboys" series
Die 2 (1971). Baker
later produced the series
Simon Templar - Ein Gentleman mit Heiligenschein (1978)
and
Die Rückkehr zur Schatzinsel (1986).
